Advisory Circulars

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) publishes Advisory Circular (AC) 00-45, Aviation Weather Services. This publication supplements its companion manual, the current edition of AC 00-6, Aviation Weather, which documents weather theory and its application to aviation. Revision H of AC 00-45 (AC 00-45H) provides an improved organization of aviation weather information. The document is organized using the FAA’s three distinct types of weather information: observations, analyses, and forecasts. Within this construct, AC 00-45H explains U.S. aviation weather products and services. It provides details when necessary for interpretation and to aid usage. In the past decade, access to aviation weather products has greatly improved with the increase of flight planning services and weather Web sites. The experience of listening to a weather briefing over a phone while trying to write down pertinent weather information becomes less tolerable when the reports are easily obtainable on ahome computer, tablet computer, or even a smart phone. To see weather along your route using a graphic of plotted weather reports combined with radar and satellite is preferable to trying to mentally visualize a picture from verbalized reports. Although most of the traditional weather products, which rolled off the teletype and facsimile machines decades ago, are still available, some are being phased out by the National Weather Service (NWS) in favor of new, Web-based weather information. It is the objective of AC 00-45H to bring the pilot and operator up to date on new and evolving weather information and capabilities to help plan a safe and efficient flight, while also describing the traditional weather products that remain. Online aviation weather information is easy to access, and so are references explaining the information. That is why AC 00-45H contains fewer illustrations and less detail for products available online. This AC will give an overview and direct the pilot where to find more weather information and explanatory details. Product examples and explanations are taken primarily from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) NWS Aviation Weather Center’s (AWC) Web site (http://www.aviationweather.gov) and other pertinent NWS Web sites. Due to the fluid nature of Web addresses, this AC minimizes the inclusion of Web site links. Instead, it provides the name of the Web site which can be easily found using Internet search tools.