Topic: For visibility or metar a.s.o.: when to use nautical mile?

[wvdkuil]

nautical mile = 1852 meter
statute mile = 1609 meters which is used as the only mile in the scripts as far as I know.

I just recently found out that the buoy data by http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/ uses nautical miles for visibillity, not the common used mile.
Metar seems always to uses statute mile according to the documentation.

As I am strictly from the metric world I have to ask this on the forum as a lot of you are used to stones, inches and miles:

When is the "nautical mile" used for weather related data?
Or is the buoy -> visibility the only one?

Thanks, Wim

[floodcaster]

Probably not the answer you are looking for but some info here.

The METAR code uses statute for vsby.

[CW2274]

METAR is primarily used for aviation which has always used the statue mile for visibility reporting. The nautical mile or knot for short, is used for all the various measurements of airspeed. The knot is also used to report wind speed, but for public consumption here in the States, converted to statue MPH.