There is more than one way to get the weather while you are flying, and not all of them involve asking a controller. VOLMET and its relatives broadcast the weather continuously or on a schedule, so a crew can simply tune in and listen. Knowing what each service carries, and how it differs from the ATIS, saves time and radio calls when you need the picture quickly.
This is general educational information, not operational, legal, or regulatory advice. Rules differ by authority and change over time. Always verify against current official sources and follow your operator's approved procedures.
What VOLMET is
VOLMET, from the French for flight weather, is a routine broadcast of meteorological information for aircraft in flight. Rather than have every crew request the weather individually, the service transmits it continuously or on a fixed schedule, and you tune in and copy what you need. It carries spoken METARs, often TAFs, and sometimes SIGMETs, for a list of aerodromes in a region. The standards sit in ICAO Annex 3, which defines the meteorological broadcasts, and in the air traffic services framework of Annex 11.
The content is the same coded weather you would read on the ground, just spoken: the METAR groups read out, the TAF read out. So the skill of reading a METAR and reading a TAF is exactly the skill of copying a VOLMET, only by ear instead of by eye.
HF and VHF VOLMET
VOLMET comes in two flavours, matched to range:
- VHF VOLMET is line-of-sight and typically continuous, looping the weather for a region's aerodromes so you can tune in any time and wait for the field you want.
- HF VOLMET carries over long ranges, including oceanic and remote areas far beyond VHF coverage, and is usually scheduled, broadcasting in defined time slots within the hour for particular groups of aerodromes.
The choice follows the flight. A short regional hop uses VHF VOLMET if it is available; a long-haul or oceanic crossing relies on HF VOLMET, copying the relevant aerodromes in their scheduled slot. Either way, the broadcast frees the frequency and the controller for other work.
The wider family of recorded and automated weather
VOLMET is one member of a family of services that deliver weather without a live controller reading it to you each time:
- the ATIS (automatic terminal information service), a single-aerodrome recorded broadcast of that field's weather and operational information, identified by a letter;
- AWOS and ASOS, automated surface observing systems, mostly in the United States, that measure and broadcast a single aerodrome's weather automatically, by radio and sometimes telephone;
- D-ATIS, the datalink version of ATIS, delivering the same information as text to the cockpit.
What they share is automation: the weather is recorded or generated and broadcast on a loop or a schedule, so it is there when you need it without a request.
VOLMET versus ATIS: the key difference
The one distinction worth nailing down is VOLMET versus ATIS, because they sound similar and are used very differently. An ATIS covers one aerodrome in depth: its current weather plus the operational information you need to arrive or depart, the runway in use, the approach to expect, and any notes, all updated each hour or on a significant change and tagged with a letter so you can confirm you have the latest. A VOLMET covers many aerodromes in summary: just the weather for a list of fields, for crews en route, with no runway-in-use or approach detail for any one of them. So you use the ATIS to set up for the field you are arriving at, and VOLMET to keep an eye on the weather at several fields, your destination, your alternates, fields along the route, while you are still well out.
Why it exists and how to use it
The point of all these broadcasts is efficiency and reach: weather to many aircraft at once, without loading the controllers, and over distances a single station could never cover by individual call. In use, the habit is to tune in early, copy the aerodromes you care about, and update your picture of the destination and alternates as you go, so that by the time you need the ATIS for your arrival field you already know the broader weather around it. It is a planning-in-flight tool, complementing rather than replacing the full preflight briefing you carried with you.
Copying a broadcast well
Listening to a VOLMET is a small skill in itself, because the broadcast does not wait for you. With HF VOLMET, the aerodromes you want are read in a scheduled slot within the hour, so you tune in ahead of the slot and have your pen ready for the fields you care about, knowing they will come round in order. With VHF VOLMET, the loop is continuous, so you join it and wait for your aerodrome to come up. In both, the habit is to write down the groups as you hear them, the wind, visibility, weather, cloud, temperature and pressure, and decode them afterwards rather than try to interpret on the fly, exactly as you would with a written METAR. A station list, printed or remembered, helps you anticipate the order.
It is still a snapshot
For all its convenience, a VOLMET shares the limitation of any weather report: it is a snapshot, only as fresh as the observation it is reading. A METAR broadcast on a loop is the last routine observation, not a live feed, and a TAF is a forecast that may have been amended. So a VOLMET keeps your picture current to within the broadcast cycle, but it does not replace the judgement of trends, the TAF and its amendments, the SIGMETs and your own observation out of the window. It is a way to stay updated efficiently in flight, not a substitute for the fuller weather picture you carry from the ground and build as you go.
A worked example
You are mid-route on a longer flight and want to update the weather at your destination and your two alternates. Rather than call a controller, you tune the VHF VOLMET for the region and listen as it loops through its list of aerodromes. You copy the spoken METAR for your destination, decoding it by ear the same way you would read it on paper, and then the TAF, and you catch your two alternates as the loop reaches them. A SIGMET for the area is read out too, flagging a hazard you note.
Later, established for the arrival, you switch to the destination's ATIS, which now gives you the runway in use and the approach to expect along with the current weather and an identifying letter, the operational detail VOLMET never carried. You used VOLMET to watch several fields from afar, and the ATIS to set up for the one you are landing at, each for the job it is built for.
Common pitfalls
- Expecting runway or approach detail from VOLMET. It carries weather only, for several fields; the ATIS gives the operational detail for one.
- Tuning in too late. VOLMET is most useful copied early, so your destination and alternate picture is built well before arrival.
- Forgetting HF VOLMET is scheduled. It broadcasts particular aerodromes in time slots, so you wait for the right slot rather than expecting a continuous loop.
- Treating an automated observation as a full ATIS. AWOS and ASOS give the weather automatically but not the operational information a controller-prepared ATIS carries.
- Copying by ear without the decode skill. A VOLMET is a spoken METAR or TAF, so the same decoding still applies.
In Pilot EFB
Pilot EFB is a study and planning companion that helps you decode the METARs and TAFs a VOLMET broadcasts, and keeps the rest of your briefing in one offline-first place, so a briefing you have already pulled stays readable away from a signal. It does not receive radio broadcasts, tune VOLMET, or replace the live service, and pulling fresh weather needs a connection. Pilot EFB is not a certified Electronic Flight Bag, so treat it as a study and planning aid and brief from your official source of record.