Hi,
I am getting crazy… Why does the real time metar report CAVOK and I have continuously very thick mist or fog around LIRF airport in Rome?
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To me on your screenshot the “fog” doesn’t look very thick as you still can see the cities lights from above. Maybe irl it’s really just a thin cloud layer which is bigger on your end as it cannot be measured that exact.
Keep in mind METAR is only the rough weather situation at the airport which is reported every 30 to 60 minutes - in between the reported weather may change.
On MSFS you have both METAR and live weather in place which may disagree due to data quality from time to time. Some users also got METAR bubbles visible because of this (a hole in clouds within the METARs airport radius).
Thanks for your reply, but if the METAR reports CAVOK, I guess I should see like the Clear sky preset. If I set the Clear sky preset, visibility improves a lot and is really unlimited…
That’s not a correct assumption - you likely won’t ever see a pure clear sky like that only by looking at a local METAR report. CAVOK also means “Ceiling and Visibility OK” and not “clear skies” 
In more detail it means:
- Visibility of 10 km or more, and the lowest visibility is not reported ← so a visibility of 11km would already be CAVOK, on the “clear sky” preset is like 200km
- No cloud operational significance ← so no overcast of 2000ft in height but some cumulus clouds might be totally fine
- No weather of significance to aviation ← no hailstorms. no intense showers, but some light rain may still be acceptable
(CAVOK - Glossary of Meteorology)
Still this definition is pretty rough, just like METAR in general is.
Also if the report is half an hour (or even a full hour) old weather might has changed, just as said before
Edit: meteoblue (the second source of relevant data) shows that there are few clouds in the area of Rome:
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Moved to Community Support-World for community assistance.
I tested again now, looks like there is all the time a foggish layer around. I also tested on another installation of FS on another computer and it’s EXACTLY the same. Do you think the screenshots below show a CAVOK?
Even if METAR has priority over Meteoblue values, maybe you can check MB forecast Weather Maps | Live Satellite & Weather Radar - meteoblue to determine if visibility is coming from that source or not.
Also check what is saying the ATIS at your destination airport, from what I understand, ATIS information is coming from MB and not METAR ATIS not Matching METAR
Unfortunately I have this situation all the time during the day around LIRF. At the airport itself the visibility is good and the metar seems to be respected, but as soon as I move some miles away, I meet the dreaded fog layer. Also at Rome Urbe LIRU, where the metar says CAVOK, the visibility is not good, as you can see in the second screenshot. Another issue: at times the metar changes from present one to one related to 15 (don’t know which month) at around 8 am. This happens in both computers I tested. There is no connection between them at all. I am really scratching my head…
ok, so maybe visibility is coming from Meteoblue, can you check there ?, METAR is creating a bubble, outside of it, source for clouds, visibility, wind are coming from MB.
The MB map you are showing is the one with values coming from METAR that why it says >10k. If you want to check the visibility forecast map, you need to go there:
But anyway, forecasted visibility is also >10k.
Thanks for the info. Yes, it is confirmed by the fact that I live there and I see with my eyes 
The conclusion is that this is a bug, I hope some developers can have a check…
yes they do
As explained in detail above ceiling and visibility are okay. It is fine for visual procedures and hence it’s CAVOK. It doesn’t mean it’s the prettiest day for VFR sightseeing.
Excuse me, but did you look at the first of the 2 screenshots above? I arrive at around 800-500 ft on the approach and can’t see the runway, yet. This is NOT CAVOK… I am a flight test engineer and have a quite considerable experience in cockpit flights and visibility conditions, pilots would laugh at me if I told them that that is a cavok condition…
Further, now ALL the time I have that condition. I have been testing for 2 days and always the same. I can’t believe that’s normal…
I looked at the screenshots on my mobile phone where it seemed fine but on the PC I agree that the top picture looks like it is rather going towards a Cat3 approach with a thick ground layer. The second is totally fine though. Hazy but okay.
Would be interesting to see the actual (real) ATIS at Rome at that first pic.
At a second thought this first picture looks exactly like if you were flying above an inversion, just 8000 feet lower… I have seen that IR before but the visibility in both cases, above and below the inversion was pretty good. Certainly above the CAVOK requirements.
There is definitely a problem with Rome LIRF.
I have the same exact issue:
METARs all around LIRF and LIRF itself report CAVOK
With satellite images and webcams, we can confirm there is no fog in real life
However, there is this patch of fog in the sim:
Kind of annoying when you plan for a visual approach and have to make an instrument approach at the last moment
Do all the METARs around LIRF are reporting CAVOK ?, at least one of them should report depricted visibility if you are seeing that fog bubble.
Did a test and getting the same result as you
There is a fog bubble at the north of the LIRF (that is at the bottom of the screenshot):
LIRF METAR and other ones around the airport are reporting CAVOK. Just the ATIS is reporting a visibility of 3:
It looks like that fog bubble is coming from another METAR station, but can’t find any available at north of this airport.
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