METAR Weather Codes … Decoded

I’ve been spending the past hour working on my Computer Systems assignment (its a METAR, TAF, and FD decoder). I’m at the point now where I have to convert the weather codes into human readable format. Ie, make it so that “SN” is displayed as “Snow”.

Most of the codes are straight forward:

SN = Snow

RA = Rain

VA = Volcanic Ash

DZ = Drizzle

There are some that, at first, didn’t make any sense:

GR = Hail

BR = Mist

FU = Smoke

PO = Dust

I thought to my self.. Hail, in French is: grêle. So I looked up the French equivalent of “mist” and “smoke”, and low and behold:

GR = Hail = Grêle

BR = Mist = Brume

FU = Smoke = Fumée

PO = Dust = poussière

Now, the only ones I cant figure out are:

MI = Shallow

BC = Patches

GS = Snow Pellets

If anyone knows what “real” word those codes are abbreviations of, please let me know. Knowing the “real” word actually helps me remember what the codes mean!