Does a METAR report variable wind direction in a clockwise direction?
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)