Why METAR is the gold standard for surface weather observations, and how nearby airport stations help spot fronts and dryline passages.
The dashboard shows METAR observations from the nearest 2–3 ASOS / AWOS automated stations at airports near your county. METAR is the international standard for surface weather observations, issued every hour (and more frequently as SPECIs when conditions change rapidly).
ASOS/AWOS are the gold standard. Properly sited, calibrated, and QC'd around the clock. They're more reliable than citizen weather stations (CWOP) but less dense, so the dashboard shows both.
Comparing stations lets you watch a boundary cross. If the dewpoint drops at the western station 20 minutes before the eastern one, you just watched a dryline pass — invisible from a single METAR.
The raw METAR text codes look cryptic but are universal — every pilot and meteorologist parses them the same way.
Part of the BloomWX learn library — beginner-friendly explainers covering every surface of the BloomWX weather dashboard. Open BloomWX to see live data for any U.S. county.