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Does the convention for reporting variable wind direction always use a clockwise (nautical) sense?

For example, if the wind varies between 340 degrees and 10 degrees, assuming a clockwise sense the METAR item would be 340V010, but is 010V340 also correct?

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    $\begingroup$ I think it is always reported clockwise. A way to check is to remember that the mean wind direction should always be contained in the variance range. $\endgroup$
    – 60levelchange
    Mar 15, 2020 at 15:33
  • $\begingroup$ Very related: aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/38528/… Note especially that there are different ways of reporting less than 180 degrees of variation and more than 180 degrees of variation. So in any case, when you have xxxVyyy, it will always be the "shortest" way between those two values $\endgroup$
    – 60levelchange
    Mar 15, 2020 at 15:36
  • $\begingroup$ I was just wondering this very thing earlier this afternoon. What a coincidence. $\endgroup$
    – Ryan Mortensen
    Mar 17, 2020 at 1:23

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According to meteocentre.com variable wind directions are encoded in clockwise order:

This group reports variations in wind direction. It is only included if during the 10 minute period preceding the observation the direction varies by 60 degrees or more, and the mean speed exceeds 3 knots. The two extreme directions are encoded in clockwise order.

(http://meteocentre.com/doc/metar.html)

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    $\begingroup$ I added a quote from that page. Link only answers are discouraged since the link could become invalid. $\endgroup$
    – Bianfable
    Mar 18, 2020 at 19:05

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