International Station Identifiers

Weather observations from around the world use a 4-character alphanumerica code to identify the location where the observation was taken. These 4-letter codes are from the ICAO (Internataional Civil Aviation Organization) codes for airports. The first letter or first two letters of the code indicate the country of origin of the observation. The remaining two or three letters indicate the airport. These codes are the same codes that appear on baggage tags when you fly.

For example, observations from the contiguous United States start with K. Those from Canada start with C. Australian observations start with the letter Y while Chinese observations begin with Z. If you see a code of KMCI, you know it is from the contiguous United States for the airport MCI (Kansas City,Missouri). Four letter codes for the Bahamas, the Caribbean and countries around the Gulf of Mexico are listed at the bottom of this page. Note that in these examples, the country is indicated by two letters and the airport by two letters.

The following are links to additional sources of information on international codes:

UCAR/RAP weather station list: list of what is available through the UCAR/RAP site; not in alphabetical order

Wikipedia Article on ICAO Codes: overview and list of country codes

National Weather Service Code List: searchable code list does not appear to be functional

Bahamas (MY)

Belize (MZ)

Bermuda (TX)

Caribbean Windward Islands (TA,TB,TF,TG,TK,TL,TR,TT,TU,TV)

Cayman Islands (MW)

Columbia (SK)

Costa Rica (MR)

Cuba (MU)

Dominican Republic (MD)

El Salvador/San Salvador (MS)

French Guiana (SO)

Guatemala (MG)

Guyana (SY)

Haiti (MT)

Honduras (MH)

Jamaica (MK)

Mexico (MM) east coast only

Netherlands Antilles (TN)

Nicaragua (MN)

Panama (MP)

Puerto Rico (TJ)

Suriname (SM)

Turks and Caicos Islands (MB)

Venezuela (SV)

Virgin Islands (TI)