The art of weather watching

I’ve got my feet up on my desk and I’m watching the weather. 

It’s not the day to go flying in Texas, that’s for sure. Things are iffy up in New England, as well. Nevada, however, looks to be having a good day. 

Back in the early days of aviation pilots with their feet up on their desks wondering about the weather looked out the window. For the last few decades, they’ve turned to their computers and then tablets.

But now we have the option of the window again. Well, just to the right of the window, in my case. That’s where I’ve hung a unique work of art on my wall. 

A work of art that’s feeding me information on the weather. It’s called a METARmap, and it turns weather watching —literally — into an art form.

What is a METARmap?

A METARmap is a representation of a conventional sectional chart, framed like fine art, that uses dozens of embedded light-emitting diodes (LEDs), wireless tech, and a clever little computer to show airport METAR flight conditions across the map in near real time. 

It’s functional art. Or the synthesis of art and technology. Or perhaps artistic technology. Or tech-imbedded art. Whatever you want to call it, it’s totally frickin’ cool.

You could compare it to the METAR overlay in ForeFlight or at Aviation Weather Center, but to do so would be doing the METARmap an injustice, because there’s no comparison between colored dots on a computer screen and the glow of hundreds of LEDs behind framed glass. And the LEDs change as the weather changes, morphing the face of a work of art that’s never the same hour-to-hour, day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month.

The Man Behind the Maps

METARmaps are the brain child of Richard Freilich, a Texas pilot and retired IT specialist for the manufacturing industry. Although he’s quick to point out that he didn’t “invent” the underlying concept, he certainly has perfected it. 

Starting with a “real crude” prototype named Stormy that Freilich says was basically a sectional chart of the Houston area that he punched holes in with a pencil for the lights, his three-year-old company now offers more than 60 weather maps in a range of sizes and boasts hundreds of installations nationwide.

Freilich started METARmaps as a retirement project, but it’s been all consuming from the start. Freilich says he’s now so busy hand-building the custom maps in his studio that he barely has time to fly his beloved V-tail Bonanza.

But, he adds, “I love what I do simply because this artwork becomes an appreciated and integral part of my customers’ daily lives.”

That, he says, is the “ultimate compliment an artist can have.”

The Tech Behind the Man

METARmaps “talk” to the Aviation Weather Center’s underlaying database via your home, office, or airport wireless network, then the map’s built-in computer uses the data to change the color of hundreds of LEDs that are embedded in the map at airport locations.

Freilich says that he generally installs lights at all the Bravo airports on each map, along with most Charlies. Deltas are then selected for visual and geographic balance.  

Some of the maps have well over 200 LEDs. Freilich says that installing the lights is the “most difficult and time-consuming process” in building the maps, along with wiring the bulbs.

“In order to fit the map in a 1-inch frame, the wiring must be very neat and compact,” he says. “There is as much artwork hidden in the back of the map as there is on the front.”

Most METARmaps are two feet by three feet, a size chosen by Freilich with regard to artistic proportions, available shipping boxes, and package size restrictions of shipping companies. But he also makes two-foot by two-foot maps, and recently introduced “snack sized” METARmaps that are a foot square.

The maps tend to be states or regions, but he also offers two maps of the continental US, one of which I choose for my wall — partly because my primary employer has more than 60 flight schools spread out across the country so my students come (via Zoom) from all over — and partly because I suspected that viewing the big picture of weather as it moves from coast to coast would be fascinating. 

And it is, and then some. But more on that in a bit.

Cost

Of course, I’m sure the main question in your head right now is: How much do these things cost?

Well, a METARmap can set you back as much as a decent cross-country trip, with prices ranging from $199 for a desktop map of a Terminal Control Area, up to $2,449 for the ultimate 3-panel 60-inch conference room-sized map of the entire United States.

Most METARmaps fall into the $425 to $640 ask-your-spouse-first price range, depending on the style of frame and glazing you choose.

A hidden power supply option can add to the cost, and custom logos kick the price up another $149. A LED showing your home airport’s METAR is free, assuming it reports, but adding extra lights beyond your home base runs $25 a pop.

But weather or not that’s expensive (pardon the intentional mis-spelling) depends on your perspective and what you are comparing a METARmap to. Is it fine art? Well… yes. Is it a computer? Well… yes. Is it a pilot gadget? Well… yes. What would you expect to pay for a work of fine art, a computer, or a pilot gadget? What would you pay for all three wrapped up into one package?

That said, I confess that I delayed getting one for about a year after I first saw one at an FBO in Texas. But it kept calling to me, so I eventually ponied up, and any proactive buyer’s remorse I suffered during the month or so it took for the map to be built dissipated as soon as the map powered up the first time.

Weather Watching

My office mate, who was a bit skeptical of my purchase prior to the map going live, tells me that she says, “Wow!” every time she walks by it.

“I’ve said that a lot since the map went up,” she adds. “Every time I walk past it, before I realize it, I say ‘Wow!’”

It truly is glorious.

But it’s more than something beautiful, although it is that. I find myself more in touch with the weather than I’ve ever been. I look forward to literally seeing what the country’s weather is up to when I arrive at my office in the morning. I’m fascinated by the changes that sweep across the landscape as the day ages. Sometimes it seems blue skies rule the nation. Other times, the weather sucks from sea to shining sea. I’ve also learned to correlate highs, lows, and frontal systems to the changing lights on my map. 

The Next Gen for METARmaps

In early 2021, Freilich rolled out the latest incarnation of his vision. Gone is Raspberry Pi, the computer that powered the first two generations of his masterpiece, replaced with dedicated micro controllers and proprietary software that’s allowed him to add a whole new level of excitement to the maps. METARmaps now show not only METAR flight conditions, but wind, wind gusts, and even lightning, as well. 

Once steady-burning lights that changed color as flight conditions changed, in the newest version of Freilich’s maps, the underlying color of the METAR fluxes, blinks, or flickers to indicate wind speed and gusts. Meanwhile, lightning, as you might expect, is shown with miniature spark-like flashes. 

Sounds wild. But so is weather.

“These animations have completely changed the personality of the maps,” says Freilich, and then, after a pause, adds, “I’m in love with the whole concept all over again.”

METAR 411

Meteorological Aerodrome Reports, a.k.a. Meteorological Aviation Routine Weather Reports, known simply as METARs to their friends, are current surface observations made at airports, typically by automated systems.

In the aviation universe, METARs are reported in a crazy teletype-era short hand that drives new student pilots crazy. The entire report includes the airport name, the time of the observation, wind direction and speed, wind gusts, visibility, weather phenomenon, sky conditions, temperature and dew point, barometric pressure, and more.

Most aviation weather apps and websites offer overlays of the ceiling and visibility data from METARs translating them into visual depictions of flight rules using colored dots: Commonly green for Visual Flight Rules (VFR), blue for Marginal VFR, red for Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), and magenta for Low IFR.