NWS Codes Registry

NWS Codes Registry (Initial Operating Capability)

These pages support the exchange of US products encoded in XML and other encoding schemes.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) maintains a WMO Codes Registry where many other useful codes are documented.

The NWS code list pages will only document local use information that is not available in the WMO registry.

One purpose of this Service is to support the new data exchange standard developed by WMO in support of Amendment 76 to ICAO Annex 3 "Meteorological Services for International Air Navigation". This new data exchange standard (WMO AvXML) enables exchange of operational aeronautical meteorological (OPMET) products in XML format. It depends on the availability of authoritative terms from WMO technical regulations, Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology (OFCM) Handbooks and Manuals, and National Weather Service Instructions as web-accessible resources that can be referenced from WMO AvXML-compliant data products.

The NWS Codes Registry is the mechanism through which the authoritative terms are declared and defined to support US extensions to ICAO OPMET products.