A METAR looks like line noise until you realise it isn't a code at all — it's a sentence with rigid grammar. Every group sits in a fixed position and answers one question about the atmosphere. Learn the grammar once and you can read any station on Earth.
Reading the sentence
Take the report above from Victoria Falls. FVFA is the station. 220950Z: day 22 of the month, 0950 UTC — always UTC, always. 24010KT: wind from 240° true at 10 knots. Gusts would append as G25; a wind swinging more than 60° gets a variability group like 210V270.
9999 means visibility 10 km or more — the code simply has no room for bigger numbers. TSRA is present weather built from standard particles: TS thunderstorm, RA rain, so thunderstorm with rain. Add a minus for light (−TSRA), nothing for moderate, plus for heavy. The prefix logic is systematic: SH showers, FZ freezing, BC patches, so FZFG is freezing fog and SHSN snow showers, no memorising of whole words required.
FEW030CB: cloud amount in eighths — FEW 1–2 oktas, SCT 3–4, BKN 5–7, OVC 8 — base 3,000 ft above aerodrome, and the type suffix CB because cumulonimbus is important enough to name. 28/22: temperature 28°C, dewpoint 22°C. That narrow 6° spread with CB about is the real message of this METAR: plenty of moisture and energy available, expect the afternoon to build.
Where students lose marks: BECMG vs TEMPO
TAFs use the same vocabulary plus change groups, and the examiners know exactly which distinction is slippery. BECMG 1012/1014 means a permanent change arriving at some point inside that two-hour window — after 1400Z the new conditions simply are the forecast. TEMPO 1012/1018 means temporary fluctuations inside the period, each lasting less than an hour, covering less than half the period in total, and always reverting. If the deterioration is below your minima, the operational question is whether it's a passing shower (TEMPO) or the new reality (BECMG). Answer that and you've answered most TAF questions ever set.
PROB, and reading like a pilot
PROB30 or PROB40 hedges a hazard the forecaster can't commit to — usually thunderstorms or fog. There is no PROB50 and above: at that confidence it becomes a plain forecast group. Legally, for fuel and alternate planning, a PROB30 TEMPO TSRA at your destination deserves the same respect as a firm forecast, because the fuel policy question isn't "is it likely?" but "am I covered if it happens?"
The deeper skill is reading reports in sequence. One METAR is a snapshot; three hours of METARs are a trend. Dewpoint creeping toward temperature at dusk is tomorrow's fog. Pressure falling three hectopascals in an hour is a system arriving faster than forecast. The format is fixed precisely so that the changes stand out — decode the grammar automatically, and you start reading the weather itself.