Aviation glossary

What is Flight category (VFR, MVFR, IFR, LIFR)?

Flight category is a colour-coded summary of conditions (VFR, MVFR, IFR or LIFR) derived from the cloud ceiling and visibility.

Flight category is a quick way to summarise how good or bad the weather is for visual flight, based on the lowest cloud ceiling and the prevailing visibility. The four categories are VFR (green), Marginal VFR or MVFR (blue), IFR (red) and Low IFR or LIFR (magenta).

VFR means a ceiling above 3,000 ft and visibility better than 5 miles; the categories step down from there. Weather maps shade stations by category so pilots can see at a glance where conditions are good for flying.

See flight categories on the live map →

Related terms

VFRVFR (Visual Flight Rules) is flying by visual reference to the ground and horizon, in weather at or above the visual minima.IFRIFR (Instrument Flight Rules) is flying by reference to the aircraft's instruments, used in poor weather or by choice, under a defined set of rules.METARA METAR is a routine observation of the actual weather currently reported at an aerodrome.VMCVMC (Visual Meteorological Conditions) is weather good enough to fly visually, meeting the minimum visibility and distance-from-cloud requirements for VFR.

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