EZTip No. 10 - Center Weather Advisories for LIFR

The latest Center Weather Advisories (CWAs) are available to be displayed on the EZMap via the layer selector icon as shown below. You can select All active CWAs or filter and show only specific CWA types (e.g., Airframe Icing, Turbulence, etc.).

While G-AIRMETs for IFR conditions issued by meteorologists at the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) are helpful, they only warn pilots about ceilings that are below 1,000 feet and/or visibility below 3 statute miles and are issued primarily for pilots flying VFR. CWAs for IFR conditions, on the other hand, are issued by the Center Weather Service Units (CWSUs) on an as-needed basis and are especially useful to IFR pilots. Specifically, these are issued when there is a widespread area of Low Instrument Flight Rules (LIFR) conditions and tend to augment the G-AIRMETs for IFR conditions very nicely.

CWAs are displayed as cyan-colored polygons on the EZMap like the one shown below. This one was issued by the Jacksonville CWSU for occasional LIFR ceilings below 500 feet and/or visibility below 1 statute mile. In EZWxBrief it's useful to display both the IFR G-AIRMET and overlay the CWA as is shown below. Also useful is to overlay the flight category markers. Those stations that are reporting LIFR conditions will show up as magenta-colored circles.

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Most pilots are weatherwise, but some are otherwise™

Dr. Scott Dennstaedt

Weather Systems Engineer

Founder, EZWxBrief™

CFI & former NWS meteorologist