General

In Germany we offer the DWD GAFOR (General Aviation FORecast), it is an area forecast of the German national weather service (DWD) and shows the expected visual flight conditions, i.e. ground visibility and cloud ceiling. It is issued several times for the current day and is valid for the following six hours. The forecast is divided into three blocks of two hours each. The forecasts of the DWD may differ from our forecasts, e.g. the maps of significant weather, as we use our own model chain. This gives you an independant second opinion.

In Austria you see the GAFOR of Austro Control (Austrian national weather service). Unlike the DWD GAFOR, this is a route forecast for flights along bad weather routes according to visual flight rules. You can find a detailed description here (in German): GAFOR AT Beschreibung (Quelle: Austro Control)
The two-digit number indicates the route number. If it is red, it has recently been updated due to recent weather changes. The four-digit number is the reference height of the route in ft AMSL and corresponds to the highest terrain altitude or of the highest known obstacle along the route within a lateral route corridor of 1200m width.

DWD GAFOR steps

DWD areas

DWD issued at and duration of validity (times in UTC)

DWD occurence of significant weather

DWD weather symbols

Austro Control color steps