Are cloud bases in new METAR system in AGL or MSL?

[CaptainRude91]

Also relevant for this topic, have a look at this:

@anon50268670

Real world METAR:

EETN 211020Z 34005KT 310V010 9999 OVC020 03/M02 Q0996 NOSIG

• The wind is exactly as in the METAR, good you would think, problem is that there is 10 degrees magnetic variation here and the METAR wind direction is TRUE, not MAGnetic.
• Visibility nothing to comment on, no haze, mist, fog this time.
• Not overcast, not a 2000 ft (above ground) either, rather at 1000 ft MSL.
• Temperature at ground level is correct.
• QNH (converted from hPa to inHg) is correct.

Moments later, updated METAR:

EETN 211050Z 35007KT 330V030 8000 -SHRASN SCT017CB BKN026 02/M01 Q0997 NOSIG

• The wind again exactly matches the METAR, magnetic variation not taken into account.
• As can be seen in the screenshot the visibility as far less than the reported 8000 m.
• -SHRASN is present in the sim.
• The first cloud base is around 1600 ft which is 1500 ft above ground, there is not second BKN layer at 2600 ft above ground.
• Temperature and QNH are correct.

At 2600 ft above ground, right where the broken layer is supposed to start there is nothing. Instead its where the clouds tops are. I saw some “CBs” with tops a little higher but not more than a few thousand feet. I think everybody can agree, this is not what SCT017CB and BKN026 looks like:

The ATIS meanwhile:

Wind 341 / 12, visibility 5, broken at 1300 ft, temperature 2, dewpoint 10, QNH 29.44.

• Wind direction is correct and takes into account magnetic variation of 9E! Unfortunately the actual wind in the sim does not. Although it should be rounded to the nearest 10 degrees.
• Wind speed is wrong, no idea where 12 kts comes from.
• Visibility 5, 5 what? I assume statute miles which would correspond to 8 km.
• Broken altitude 1300 ft does not match the METAR, nor the weather in the sim.
• Temperature and QNH correct.
• Dewpoint cannot be higher than the temperature.

I really don’t understand the ATIS issue, it could literally just read the real world METAR to you when in live weather with one little change being magnetic variation applied to wind direction. Otherwise the METAR and ATIS are usually refreshed at the exact same time and contain the same info. I wouldn’t even matter that the ATIS doesn’t exactly match the weather in the sim 100%, neither do the real world METAR and ATIS match actual weather conditions in the real world.

Next I just selected a random airport up North somewhere (Resolute Bay - CYRB) which should have a magnetic variation of 25W, yet the wind exactly mimics the METAR. So I’m afraid Asobo is directly copying the wind from the METAR without taking magnetic variation into account.

Manual weather menu uses km/h instead of kts, why? First of all I have hybrid system selected, and when using metric system m/s would be used, not km/h… When using manual weather the ATIS is broken? It keeps reporting the live weather…

Maybe we can do a couple more comparisons like this to find out where it is going wrong.