Understanding how to Interpret Weather Station Models ... - Free Printable

Let’s figure out what the weather station model is telling us, step by step.

First, look at the big number in the middle: 998.
This is the barometric pressure — but it’s written in a special way. The rule says: if the number is greater than 500, put a “9” in front and add a decimal between the last two digits. So 998 becomes 999.8 mb. (If it were less than 500, we’d use “10” instead.)

Next, there’s a small “-03” near the bottom right. That means the pressure has dropped by 3 millibars over the past 3 hours. The minus sign tells us it’s falling.

Now let’s check the wind. There’s a symbol with lines and flags pointing to the left. Each full flag = 50 knots, each long line = 10 knots, each short line = 5 knots. In this case, we see one flag (50) + one long line (10) + one short line (5). Add them up: 50 + 10 + 5 = 65 knots. And since the lines are pointing to the left, the wind is coming from the east (because wind direction shows where the wind is coming *from*).

The temperature is shown as 77°F, and the dew point is 71°F — those are the numbers on the top left and bottom left of the circle.

There’s also a little triangle under the circle — that means thunderstorms happened in the past 3 hours.

For cloud cover, the circle is half-filled. Looking at the key, half-filled means 4/8 or scattered clouds.

And finally, the present weather symbol is a dot with a slash through it — that stands for drizzle.

So putting it all together:

- Pressure: 999.8 mb, falling 3 mb in 3 hours
- Wind: 65 knots from the east
- Temperature: 77°F
- Dew Point: 71°F
- Clouds: Scattered (half sky covered)
- Weather now: Drizzle
- Past weather: Thunderstorms

Final Answer:
Barometric pressure is 999.8 mb and falling; wind is 65 knots from the east; temperature is 77°F with dew point 71°F; skies are scattered with drizzle currently and thunderstorms occurred in the past 3 hours.