3 Cloud Layers - Nothing But Cirrus

[Guest jase439]

KBCE 270511Z AUTO 29008KT 10SM SCT008 BKN016 BKN022 M11/M13 A2986 RMK AO2-=-=-=-I'm seeing very unexpected behavior with clouds in AS2K4. The above METAR was given for Bryce Canyon - and all I got was high cirrus as far as the eye could see.Likewise, when flying over Flagstaff, AZ - which was reporting a broken/overcast mix with snow, all I found over Flagstaff was bright blue sky.Most odd.J

[Guest jase439]

bumpPS. In this scenario, I loaded AS2004 while on the ground at my departure airport and loaded a flight plan w/ route-based smoothing enabled. I have the flight plan if needed. I was using the 270350Z weather at the time. Also running over WideFS.

[Damian Clark 1,332]

Hi,Can you try this without a flight plan and let me know if the problem persists? Thanks!Damian ClarkHiFi Simulation SoftwareDeveloper of ActiveSkyhttp://www.hifisim.comhttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004betateam.jpg

[Guest jase439]

Damian,Is it possible to download METAR data for a specific hour in the archive? It seems I can't get at 270350Z (which is where the METAR of interest is). I am only able to retrieve either 270050Z or 261850Z.

[Guest jase439]

Well, anyway, the point is somewhat moot. I passed near KPGA which was reporting this METAR:KPGA 270056Z AUTO 26009G17KT 10SM FEW085 03/M08 A2991 RMK AO2 SLP120 ...ActiveSky gave me a cloudlessnessOver KBCE, I had this METARKBCE 270053Z AUTO 29009KT 4SM -SN SCT024 BKN033 OVC042 M07/M10 A2983 RMK AO2 SLP108 P0000 T10721100...ActiveSky gave me a bright sun shiny dayIn both cases it looked like there was weather far to the west that would fit this criteria.In this test, no flight plan was imported, online updates were disabled (loading archived data set 270050Z), and TAF prediction was disabled. Global writes were off. Fog layer generation was enabled. Overcast enhancement was disabled. Cloud layers limited to 4. FSUIPC defaults + the extended battery life enabled.JPS. Update: oddly the weather at the surrounding reporting stations looks half-way in line with what I would expect. In fact KBCE, from a distance, looked like it had some serious weather going on, but by the time it became the active reporting station (i.e. inside 40 or 50nm or so), every single cloud had melted away.

[Guest jase439]

For comparison's sake, I fired up FSMeteo in the same location and loaded up the same METAR data (270056Z). Observe:The first image is FSMeteo. The second is ActiveSky. A picture paints a 1000 words here :)

[Damian Clark 1,332]

Hi,Thanks for the pics. Enable global writes and please post a similar comparison pic. Global writes must be enabled of course to fill in weather outside the 2nm FS9 zones. The global write issue (which will be fixed any day now) should not effect cloud coverages, but please post a pic so we can confirm. Thanks!-Damian

[Guest jase439]

Will give this a try. Jim recommended that this feature be turned off, however.

[JSkorna 138]

At times I have! Just trying to help!!JimActiveSky Support

[Guest jase439]

No problem. We don't even know if this is the cause just yet. Trying it out now. We'll see what happens.

[Guest jase439]

It worked! Kinda. Enabling Global Writes requires that you restart ActiveSky. The options screen should really tell the user this. I kept toggling the switch and refreshing the data expecting to see a change - and did not. It was purely on a whim that I decided to restart AS after reenabling Global Writes. After doing this, I had 3 cloud layers just as I expected (see picture)So what is the dreaded Global Writes bug that I was presumably avoiding when I disabled it? :)

[JSkorna 138]

Thanks for YOUR help!JimActiveSky Support