| Qualifier: INTENSITY or PROXIMITY | Qualifier: DESCRIPTOR | Wx Phenomena: PRECIPITATION | Wx Phenomena: OBSCURATION | Wx Phenomena: OTHER | |||||
| - | LIGHT | MI | Shallow | DZ | Drizzle | BR | Mist | PO | Well-Developed Dust/Sand Whirls |
| BC | Patches | RA | Rain | FG | Fog | SQ | Squalls | ||
| Moderate (NoQualifier) | DR | Low Drifting | SN | Snow | FU | Smoke | FC, +FC | Funnel Cloud, Well-Developed Funnel Cloud, Tornado or Waterspout | |
| BL | Blowing | SG | Snow Grains | DU | Dust | SS | Sandstorm | ||
| + | Heavy or Well-developed | SH | Showers | IC | Ice Crystals | SA | Sand | DS | Duststorm |
| TS | Thunderstorm | PE | Ice Pellets | HZ | Haze | ||||
| VC | In the Vicinity | FZ | Freezing | GR | Hail | PY | Spray | ||
| PR | Partial | GS | Small Hail or Snow Pellets (< 1/4) | VA | Volcanic Ash | ||||
| UP | * Unknown Precipitation |
The weather groups shall be constructed by considering columns from left to right in this table, in sequence; i.e., intensity, followed by descriptor, followed by weather phenomena; i.e., heavy rain showers(s) is coded as +SHRA. * Automated stations only.
(1) The coding of intensity for the weather phenomena has not changed, but it moves to the front of the associated weather rather than the end and is used only once. The only exception to intensity codes is "+" used with "FC" which means "well-developed funnel cloud" instead of "heavy funnel cloud."