F214 (UK Spot Wind Forecast Chart)

So, what are they?

A 'F214' is basic map of the UK with Data Boxes superimposed on top. These Data Boxes give information about wind speed, wind direction and air temperature at a given altitude. The Boxes also contain their Lat/ Long position and are conveniently place over a section of the country that they are concerned with.

Warning - These pages are intended to be used as a guide to understanding 214s and how to use the Met Office's site. They are not a source of information on which you can make a prediction of the day's weather. This information can be accessed from the Met Office web site. The Met also provides a detailed explanation of how to decode their charts on their own web site.

All charts displayed on these pages are to be treated as examples. The main focus here, is on the Nympsfield (BGGC) area, though there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to use this guide for anywhere in the UK, providing that the correct info is taken from the Met Office's web site.

You can access the Met Office's 214 pages here F214. You will need to create an account if you don't have one already. Once done, you'll be able to log in and get the info you need.

If you follow the F214 link above, this will take you to the Briefing Charts page where you can choose F215, a low level forecast which gives information on Visibility, Cloud Cover, Cloud Type and general wind info (more on this soon). F214, the UK Spot Wind Forecast and 415/ 414 which are the European equivalents.

This is what you'll see.

*All UK Spot Wind Charts (F214) have an Issue Time, a Valid For Time and a Validity Time. The Validity time is the time at which the position of the fronts and areas of weather are valid. The Valid For Time is a time period with a start and finish time. All times are in UTC (denoted by 'Z' or 'Zulu' on the new briefing charts).

By selecting the appropriate time period in the 'Flights Between' section of the F214 Briefing Chart page, you will be taken to that forecast. An example is given below.

From this chart, you will see the Time and Date of the Forecast and a Validation Period, 09:00 - 15:00 on the 28th November in this example.

Once you are happy that this is the right forecast for your flying actives, you then need to locate the appropriate Data Box for you flying area. Each box contains a LAT/ LONG for the area concerned and is also placed over that particular geographical location.

As the area for Nympsfield is 5230N 0230W, we'll take a closer look at this Data Box.