ACR CAPT SUBMITTED RPT COMMENTING ON THE NEW METAR AND TAF AVIATION WX FORMATS.

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THIS IS A GENERAL COMMENT ON THE NEW 'METAR' WX RPTING FORMAT WHICH WAS ADOPTED IN THE UNITED STATES JUL/XX/96. I AM FINDING TWO SERIOUS PROBS WITH METAR. THE FIRST IS THE USE OF NON ENGLISH RELATED CODES TO DESCRIBE WX PHENOMENON. THE EXAMPLE I SEE MOST OFTEN (THIS WEEK) IS F FOR FUMAR MEANING SMOKE. FUMAR IS SPANISH. IF ENGLISH IS THE INTERNATIONALLY ACCEPTED LANGUAGE OF AVIATION; WHY ARE WE USING SPANISH? THE SECOND AND MORE SERIOUS PROB IS THE ADDITION OF NON AVIATION RELATED REMARKS AT THE END OF SEQUENCE RPTS. BY INCLUDING REMARKS WHICH CANNOT BE DECIPHERED BY THE PLT AND WOULD MEAN NOTHING TO HIM IF DECIPHERED; WE FIRST ADD TO THE PLT'S FRUSTRATION LEVEL AND THEN TEACH HIM TO IGNORE THE 'GOBBLEDEGOOK' AT THE END OF THE SEQUENCE AS UNIMPORTANT. OBVIOUSLY THIS LATTER CONSEQUENCE; ALTHOUGH UNINTENDED; CAN TURN INTO A SERIOUS SAFETY PROB IF THE REMARKS HAPPEN TO INCLUDE SOMETHING ABOUT TORNADOES SIGHTED E OF THE FIELD. WX RPTS ARE A PRODUCT DESIGNED TO AID CUSTOMERS; IN THIS CASE PLTS. THE CURRENT PRODUCT (METAR) IS NOT USER FRIENDLY. IT NEEDS TO BE CLEANED UP SO IT TELLS THE CUSTOMER WHAT; AND ONLY WHAT HE NEEDS TO KNOW CLRLY AND CONCISELY. CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: ACR DC9 CAPT DID NOT SAVE A COPY OF THE RPT REFED; BUT STATES THAT THE CONFUSION IN THE REMARKS SECTION IS A COMMON PROB. HE REPEATED HIS CONCERN THAT PEOPLE WILL STOP TRYING TO DECIPHER THIS PART OF THE RPT IF THEY KEEP COMING ACROSS NON AVIATION RELATED INFO. IT HAS THE POTENTIAL FOR SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT GETTING OVERLOOKED AT A CRITICAL TIME. THE WX PACKAGE THAT THE RPTR CURRENTLY RECEIVES FROM DISPATCH INCLUDES THE TERMINAL FORECAST; THE LAST 2 HRS; THE LATEST WX RPTED; AND ANYWHERE FROM 1 TO 1000 NOTAMS; DEPENDING UPON THE STATION. SORTING THROUGH ALL OF THIS AND GATHERING THE MEANING OUT OF IT TAKES TIME; AND THE NEW FORMAT CREATES AN EVEN HEAVIER FLC WORKLOAD. RPTR IS NOT INTERESTED IN JOINING 'THE 50 MILLION FLIES WAY OF LIFE;' BUT STATES THAT IF WE FIND THAT NECESSARY; THEN WE NEED TO WORK TOGETHER TOWARD SHAPING A USER FRIENDLY SYS. ANALYST GAVE RPTR NAME AND PHONE NUMBER OF A PLT'S UNION COMMITTEE THAT IS CURRENTLY INVESTIGATING THE ISSUES INVOLVING THE USE OF METAR AND TAF.