Why?
Even if you check the weather at the Aviation Weather Center you never know when a new TFR might pop up. If you fly into the airspace covered by a TFR you might not be flying again, at least not anytime soon. So protect yourself and your ability to fly by getting a weather briefing before you fly. There are three types of weather briefings; Standard, Abbreviated, and Outlook (See PHAK (2008) page 12-5 to12-6).
To get a weather briefing simply call Flight Service @ 1-800-WXBRIEF. That's 1-800-992-7433.
Be prepared to inform them of your 1. aircraft type, 2. call sign, 3. when (ETD) and where you intend to depart, 4. your intended route of flight, 5. weather you plan to be under VFR or IFR, 6. your altitude for the flight, 7. the duration of your flight (ETE), 8. destnation, and 9. what type of briefing you want (Standard, Abbreviated, or Outlook). If you are filing a flight plan you will also need some other information, but that will be discussed at another time.
An example can be seen below.
Good morning, I'll be in N326FR a Cessna 172 departing B21 at 9:00 local time. It will be a local flight to the north at 3,000' for about two hours and then back to B21. Just a standard briefing.
N326FR is spoken as "november four two six foxtrot romeo" and B21 is spoken as "bravo twenty-one" B21 is the airport identifier for sugarloaf regional airport in Carrabassett, Maine. 9:00 should be spoken as nine-o'clock, not just nine. The time should be in either local time, or Zulu time and which it is should be made clear, by the words "local time," or "Zulu." (Zulu is how "Z" is spoken, "Z" stands for UTC, which is the abbreviation for Universal Coordinated Time.
Another interesting fact...
GMT (Greenwhich Mean Time) is in the same time zone as UTC, but GMT time is not always the same as UTC because of daylight savings.
See the UTC Conversion table by clicking the link below. Don't forget to factor in daylight savings time.
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