Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Are Alaska and Hawaii airports available?
Q: Why do you pronounce the whole airport name, city, and state when giving options?
Q: Why do you pronounce my town's name wrong?
Q: What order are the airports presented in (when there is a choice of several)?
Q: Why isn't my favorite airport included?
Q: Why is the airport ID/airport name/awos number wrong?
Q: Why doesn't the AWOS answer / why do I get a busy signal after I've already heard the ad?
Q: Why is the sound quality so poor once I get connected?
Q: Why is there a long pause after the "connecting" message before I hear AWOS information?
Q: Doesn't every airport that has an AWOS also report real-time METAR data?
Q: I am a subscriber but I forgot my cell phone, am calling from a different phone, have no cell service, am out of batteries. Can I still access the service?
A: Yes! If you are calling from a phone that is not the one listed in your user profile, just call the same number as always. You will then be prompted for the phone number of your subscribed phone, and your PIN number. After inputting these, you can access all the features of your subscription.
Q: Are Alaska and Hawaii airports available?
A: Yes! We now offer service to both Alaska and Hawaii. The airport identifier situation is a little more complicated. We use FAA identifiers, rather than ICAO ids to identify airports. In the lower 48 states, this is easy, since you can just drop the leading K of the ICAO id and you'll have the FAA id. Alaskan and Hawaiian ICAO ids both start with P, but you can't just drop the leading P and get the FAA id (sometimes this works, sometimes not). If you don't know the FAA id for an airport, check our airport lookup page.
Q: Why do you pronounce the whole airport name, city, and state when giving options?
A: We have found that just saying the airport identifiers can potentially be confusing. For example, "ILM" and "ILN" have the same keystrokes on the telephone (456), but sound terribly similar. Worse, one of them is Wilmington, Ohio and the other is Wilmington, North Carolina. Most AWOS systems do not identify the state they are in (and some, like LAX, don't identify themselves at all). We would hate to have you think you are getting weather in Ohio, when you are really hearing how balmy it is in North Carolina! So, you'll have to put up with a bit of slowness going through the choices to avoid ambiguity. Remember, you can enter your choice any time, without having to listen to all the choices first.
Q: Why do you pronounce my town's name wrong?
A: We made every effort to find out the local pronunciation of cities and airports, but it is certainly possible that we got some wrong. Send us an email and let us know.
Q: What order are the airports presented in (when there is a choice of several)?
A: Airports are listed in order of distance to your home airport. That way airports you are more likely to be flying to will be listed before those across the country, saving you time (remember you can enter your choice at any time).
Q: Why isn't my favorite airport included?
A: We list only those airports (and some non-airports) which have AWOS systems with publicly accessible telephone numbers. If we are missing one of these, please email us.
Q: Why is the airport ID/airport name/awos number wrong?
A: We built our database from information we obtained from the FAA, as well as other sources. Airport IDs change from time to time, as do AWOS numbers. We make every effort to keep up with the changes from official sources. If you'd like to notify us of an error or change, email us.
Q: Why doesn't the AWOS answer / why do I get a busy signal?
A: Remember, we are a lookup service that connects you to AWOS systems that are controlled by their individual airports. If an AWOS system is down, and we have not yet noticed, you may get symptoms like the phone not answering or a perpetual busy signal. Sometimes a busy signal just means that the remote AWOS system is busy, and you'll have to try again. If you are a premium user, and the remote AWOS is busy, you have the option to wait while we continue to try the busy AWOS, or to input another airport without hanging up and calling back
Q: Why is the sound quality so poor once I get connected?
A: There are some AWOS systems that have fluctuating volume, or very low volume. We have no control over how the AWOS sounds at the remote sites, since they are administered locally.
Q: Why is there a long pause after the "connecting" message before I hear AWOS information?
A: There are two contributors to the delay. First, it takes a short time to dial the AWOS number and connect. Second, and usually the greater delay, many AWOS systems pause after a complete report before starting the next report. The pause can be a few seconds during which there is nothing but silence.
Q: Doesn't every airport that has an AWOS also report real-time METAR data?
A: No. Many smaller airports have an AWOS, but can not afford to send the data into the national network. Furthermore, for those airports that do send the METAR data, it may be sent only 1-3 times per hour. So METAR data you're looking at on a web site might be 20 minutes or up to an hour old.
