I am working with Damian on this but so far no luck.I can't get clouds to form below about 1000 feet MSL. If the layer is above about 1000 feet everything is fine. Below about 1000 feet they never appear. I have confirmed latest ADVDISP, latest FSUIPC with appropriate settings, all the obvious things. I am running wxRE 1.15. Any help would be most appreciated. I like to fly IFR approaches to minimums and this problem is making that impossible if ActiveSky is running.

Yup, me too, at least a variant on that. I started playing around with various METAR's to see if I could get a pattern here, and I found one. Here is the first METAR I tried:ENAL 011950Z 19006KT 9999 BKN003 FEW015 BKN060 03/M01 Q0992I got the cloud layers at 1500 and 6000, but none at 300. So, I modified the METAR to:ENAL 011950Z 19006KT 9999 BKN003 03/M01 Q0992I found I then had the clouds at 300 feet, and they were broken. So, thinking it might be a layering thing, I tried the following next:ENAL 011950Z 19006KT 9999 BKN003 BKN080 03/M01 Q0992This time, I got no clouds at all (totally clear). I only know the weather loaded because I got the winds come up (although they weren't totally correct either, but they were close).Lastly I tried:ENAL 011950Z 19006KT 9999 BKN008 OVC080 03/M01 Q0992Note the top layer is now overcast. I got the vis reduction that goes with an overcast layer in wxRE, but still no clouds at all.I know that if it is an overcast at under 1000 feet, that will show up fine as I landed in 800 and 1 the other day. It would seem (at least from my tests) that the problem lies where you have other layers higher than the <1,000 foot layer. If you do, your <1,000 foot layer doesn't appear, and sometimes it causes the higher layers to disappear as well.If you want to try and reproduce my tests, I was at Aalesund (Vigra) airport (ENAL) in Norway. The airport elevation is 71' ASL. When loading FS2002, I used the "Clear Weather" button, THEN loaded AS 1.15.My OS is Win XP Pro, Video is MSI GeForce Ti 4400 and sound is SB!Live Value.Hope that helps. Please keep me posted on this, as I would like to see this fixed as well :-). Thanks,Glenn

Hi Glenn,This is different..ASwxRE will only process the top most 2 METAR layers. The 3rd layer below is ignored. No clouds at all with 2 layers??? Hmmm, this is a first... THe problem dykesc had is totally different than what you are experiencing... I'd like to get to the bottom of this. Please contact me via email [email protected]... when you get no clouds I'd like to see a screenshot of the main and status screens if you could. Remember to wait for the transitions to occur. Thanks!-Damian[table border=0" cellspacing="30" cellpadding="0][tr][td align = "left"]Damian ClarkHiFi Simulation SoftwareDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky[/td][td]http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg][/td][/tr][/table://http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/ima...][/tr][/table

Glenn,Thanks very much for the reply. Your post gave me the first breaktrough on this problem since I first encountered it. I had even deleted and reinstalled FS2002 with no luck resolving my low clouds problem. Now, thanks to you, I have something to go on.Since you got a single OVC003 layer to form at ENAL, I decided to go there and give it a try. Well it worked for me too! This is the first layer under 1000 feet MSL I have seen since I started working on this issue! Well, while I was in the same FS2002 session, I transported myself back to KTVR in the United States and guess what, I got an OVC005 layer to form here! For two days I have not been able to do this and suddenly, after first going to ENAL it works!OK, so I decided at this point to shutdown FS2002 and start a new session at KTVR. Well, just as I figured, no layer would form under 1000 feet MSL. So I transported myself to ENAL and then straight back to KTVR. The low layers then would form again! I don't know what getting out of the USA has to do with it, but if I do and then return, my low cloud layers form like they should.By the way I tried an OVC003 along with a BKN080 at ENAL and both layers formed perfectly. I wonder if the top of the lower layer is higher than the bottom of the upper layer, if a conflict keeps either layer from forming. Just a thought.Anyway, thanks again for giving me a break on a problem that has really had me perplexed.I'll pass all this on to Damien in case he doesn't see it here.Dykes CupstidPort Gibson, Mississippi USA

Hi Dykes,Good, glad things are coming around here. Damian helped out quite a bit here with this. I tried reproducing the issue tonight, both in Canada and in Norway, but couldn't do it. I wrote Damian on this suggesting that it must have been a bug in either the METAR's I downloaded, or in FS itself (yeah, like THAT's never happened before!!! :-lol ). I think this one was a false alarm, now that we know only the 2 TOP layers of clouds are processed.Now, on that, I included in my email to Damian a request that this issue of which layers are processed be adjusted, if possible. It is far more important what the bottom layers of clouds are than the top, as most folks realize. This is especially true for jet jock's of course, as we really don't give a darn what is happening at 3000 feet, but it sure makes things more interesting at 300 feet. So, if you have a broken layer at 300 feet, another at 5000 and an overcast layer at 10,000 feet, your flight planning is very, very different if only the top two layers are processed than if the bottom 2 are. I'm looking long and hard for a good alternate if the latter is true, but am planning a visual approach for the former.Anyway, I think at least the mystery of why no clouds below 1000 feet is solved, and I'm sure my thing must have been a bug in my system at the time. Now, what you CAN do (and this is ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK should ANYONE choose to do this), is go into the cycle metar file you are using and edit your destination wx to delete the top layer of clouds, if you have more than 2 and the bottom one makes it an IFR approach. HOWEVER, IF YOU DELETE SOMETHING YOU SHOULDN'T, THE FILE MAY BECOME UNUSABLE and then you will have to re-download that file again if you want to use it. It would really help to know the METAR format and be fluent in writing METAR's if you are going to do this. If you do decide ("you" meaning anyone reading this) to try this, and somehow you corrupt your installation, DO NOT EMAIL DAMIAN OR FLAME ME over it!! This is at your own discretion, and is offered as an option only. There, how's that for a disclaimer :-)?Happy trails Dykes! Let me know if the problem gets totally resolved for you :-).Glenn

Glenn,In my case it is not a problem with multiple layers. I coud not get even a single low layer to form until I tried it at ENAL. For some reason low layers form there for me. I don't understand what the problem is at the fields here in the USA I normally fly out of but it is a real problem. I'm sure Damian is going to find this a little hard to believe but for some reason it appears leaving the USA and then coming back is required for me to get any layer below 1000 feet MSL to form.Thanks again for your help. If I gain any further insights to your or my problem I will let you know.Dykes Cupstid

Ohhh, ok. I misunderstood. I'll have another look at that this evening and post back here again. That does sound strange. Back in a bit... .Glenn

Glenn,Actually I am working on unlimited cloud layers...The issue of the topmost 2 layers only reported is not as critical as you might think... Remember that METAR measuring equipment cannot see past ceilings (only occasionally, broken, if it can see a hole). When you see 3 layers in the METAR, 99% of the time the lowest layer is of few or sct, and if it is not, then its thickness is most likely very thin, a few hundred feet at the most, and as actually part of the above layer not a separate layer. METAR measuring equipment is very limited in its representation of cloud layers.There was a debate lasting over 2 weeks with our BETA team on how to handle this... the argument being that a real IFR pilot or trainee would always want the bottom most layers. Problem was that the bottom most layers are usually of little consequence. I.e. you want a 100ft thick few layer vs a 2000ft broken layer just above it? In reality when you look at the METARS you would want the topmost 2 layers 99% of the time. Anyways, this is a limitation with the dynamic processing, FS2002, FSUIPC and METAR reporting information - and while it is (IMO) better than any other available option, there is room for improvement. That's where the unlimited cloud layers come in.. Thanks!-Damian (CMEL, Inst.)[table border=0" cellspacing="30" cellpadding="0][tr][td align = "left"]Damian ClarkHiFi Simulation SoftwareDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky[/td][td]http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg][/td][/tr][/table://http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/ima...][/tr][/table