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Flying Weather

How do meteorologists forecast the expected cloud cover?

Clouds - air mass
Interesting cloud formation. The odd thing here is that this is the side of an airmass. This line of clouds was moving towards me, not to the left like you might think.

I’ve long known that the temperature and dew point spread at various altitudes can used to forecast expected cloud cover. What I didn’t know until recently was the rules of thumb used to make the forecast. Thanks to the USAF weather squadron in Germany, I was able to track down that info:

Temp/Dew Point Spread *C at altitude — Forecast Cloud Coverage — Description
0-2*C — 8/8 — Overcast (OVC)
2-3*C — 5/8-7/8 — Broken (BKN)
3-4*C — 3/8-4/8 — Scattered (SCT)
5+*C — 1/8-2/8 — Few (FEW)

By Terry Pitts

Terry is a retired school teacher, retired Army Reservist, and retired civilian Department of the Army Civilian working about half the time as a pilot and flight instructor. He has been flying since age 19, adding gliders in 2011. He's been an FAA certificated flight instructor since 2013.