Bellingcat - Challenge 10

Morse code… or is it?

There is a lookup table provided… but aint nobody got time for that, so ima rely on trusty Cyberchef for general decoding purposes:

• CyberChef Morse decoder

It decodes into this… hurmph??? Question mentioned that it is Russian weather report.

RCV DE UCTA5 13181 99345 10346 41698 32405 10280 40120 54000 70200 83500 22252 00280 13012 BT AR UCTA5 N

Found a unassuming Facebook post about morse code in Russian : O Which yields something entirely different. The below are sub resources that eventually led me to my final ans.

РЦЖ ДЕ УЦТА5 13181 99345 10346 41698 32405 10280 40120 54000 70200 83500 22252 00280 13012 БТ АР УЦТА5 Н

• could potentially be FM13-X ship codes: FM13-X SHIP code reference
• FM-13 meteorological observation codes

Eventually, found a full report detailing the proper format: NOAA observing handbook

• The field of interest is this: 10280 , 6 entries before 22252
• The starting 1 matches the 1SnTTT format. There ar a lot of other TTT with various subscripts (including dew points and wtv) but I intuition tells me it is the most straight forward answer.

Filling in the blanks, TTT = 280 = 28.0 Celcius

My intuition helped me here, I mean, TTT is likely 1 dp cause temps can’t go beyond 2 digits (else you will be roast or an ice lolipop.) However, here is the diagram to help you:

Source: Bellingcat Challenge 10