1.1   Hungarian Meteorological Service

Aviation and Severe Weather Forecasting Division

1.2   Hungarocontrol

Aerodrome Meteorological Unit

Airport Meteorological Office of Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (LHBP)

The service is provided in accordance with the provisions contained in the following ICAO documents:

• Annex 3 - Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation
• Doc 7030/5, EUR Part 3 - Regional Supplementary Procedures (MET procedures for EUR Region)

Differences to these provisions are detailed in subsection GEN 1.7

4.1   At Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport

Briefing and flight documentation is provided by Hungarocontrol Aerodrome Meteorological Unit. On request personal briefing is given to the pilot-in-command by a meteorological officer.

For every flight the following charts are available:

4.2   Information for VFR flights

1. Regional weather situation and forecast issued at 0400 and 1200 UTC
2. METARs issued every 30/60 minutes,TAFs for domestic aerodromes issued every 3/6 hours
3. Low level significant weather chart times of issue:
4. • 0200 UTC validity time: 0600 UTC
   • 0800 UTC validity time: 1200 UTC
5. Wind and temperature forecast chart at FL050 for Europe times of issue:
6. • 0200 UTC validity period: 0300-0900 UTC
   • 0800 UTC validity period: 0900-1500 UTC
   • 1415 UTC validity period: 1500-2100 UTC
   • 2015 UTC validity period: 2100-0300 UTC
7. Forecast for:
8. • thermal gliders: Issued on request daily at 0700 UTC between April 1st and 30th September.
   • mountain wave gliders: Issued on request daily at 0500 UTC between October 1st and 31st March
9. Forecast for balloons: Issued on request daily at: 0500 UTC

8.1   General

For the safety of air traffic, the National Meteorological Service maintains an area meteorological watch and warning service. The service consist partly of a continuous weather watch within Budapest FIR and the issuance of appropriate SIGMET and AIRMET information by Meteorological Watch Office and partly of the issuing of warnings for the respective aerodrome and subject to agreement, for other aerodromes by all aeronautical MET offices.

8.2   Area meteorological watch service

The area meteorological watch service is performed by the Hungarian Meteorological Service Aviation and Severe Weather Forecasting Division (RVO). The RVO issues information in the form of SIGMET messages about the occurrence or expected occurrence of one or several of the following signification meteorological phenomena:

• thunderstorms1;
• severe turbulence;
• severe icing;
• heavy sand storm/dust storm;
• volcanic ash cloud *

* There is no known active volcano in Budapest FIR.

The SIGMETs are issued in abbreviations and plain language using ICAO abbreviations and are numbered consecutively for each day commencing at 01. Their period of validity is limited to less than 4 hours and less than 6 hours in case of volcanic ash cloud SIGMET.

SIGMET information for Budapest FIR will be broadcast by Budapest VOLMET.

AIRMET messages relevant to Budapest TMA will be included in the ATIS broadcast for Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport.

Transmission of SIGMET and AIRMET information will only be made by the ATC units of Budapest ATS centre in the case of equipment failure or when requested by the pilot.

Flight information sectors of Budapest ATS centre will communicate SIGMETand AIRMET for Budapest FIR without pilot request to aircraft operating on flight plan and maintaining radio communication.

SPECI and TAF AMD for foreign aerodromes are provided by the ATS units on pilot request only.

Flight information sectors of Budapest ATS centre will communicate SPECI and TAF AMD for domestic aerodromes individually to aircraft without pilot request.

8.3   Warning service by aerodrome meteorological service

Warnings for the protection of parked and moored aircraft or of other equipment at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport are issued by aerodrome meteorological office if one or several of the following phenomena are expected to occur at the airport:

• squall2;
• thunderstorm;
• frost3;
• hail;
• heavy rime deposit;
• heavy snow;
• freezing precipitation;
• wind shear.

Differences from these criteria may be agreed upon locally.

The warnings are generally issued in English and Hungarian and are distributed in accordance with the distribution list.

1. Area of widespread cumulonimbus clouds or cumulonimbus along a line (squall line) with little or no space between individual clouds or cumulonimbus embedded in cloud layers or obscured by haze.
2. The warning is designated as "storm warning" and will be issued when the mean speed of the surface wind is expected to exceed 34 KT (Beaufort Scale 8) or when gusts in excess of 41 KT (Beaufort Scale 9) are expected to occur.
3. A "frost warning" will be issued when the air temperature is expected to fall below 0 °C on those dates when protective measures have generally not yet been taken and also when a substantial deposit of hoarfrost, e.g. on wing surfaces, is expected.