Good Day All, and in particular Mr. Skorna, I've been using ASE for quite a while now (and ASA before that), and find I'm a tad confused about a few things, so I'm wondering if I could please get a little help in interpreting some data. I'm fully familiar with METAR's and whatnot, this is more to do with what actual weather I really am getting at my location. So, I have a few screen shots to help with my question here. First up, I'm flying in an area that doesn't have a reporting station (mostly in the bush - when are you ASE folks going to institute the most common "weather" phenomena there is in the Canadian bush - "warm and muggy with severe mosquitoes ? ), so a lot of what I fly with is interpolated data. This below is one such example of what I get on a flight then, and this is in reference to the disparities between each reporting "feature". This is the ASE METAR report for my area: You can see what the weather is reporting here. Now, when I call up FSX's Weather window (while ASE is still active, same location, same time), this is what I see: Alrighty, now here is the all-important interpolation data: OK, now here's my dilemma: It's extremely rare that the weather I actually am getting in FSX matches what the ASE METAR is showing. In this case, yes I was getting rain, and the visibility and clouds were more or less correct. The temperatures however were wildly different, with ASE showing 05/04 and FSX showing about 05/-08. My biggest issue, as it affects landings and takeoffs however, are with the winds. It seems when I have interpolated weather, almost always it shows winds at 0 knots. In this case it's showing as 346 at 4 kts. FSX's weather window though is showing 320 at 6 knots. In fact, the other oddity (besides mostly getting 0 kt winds with ASE's interpolated weather), is that FSX almost always displays winds at 6 kts when ASE is showing 0 kts (and even when not in many cases) for the same place. One thing I considered (but haven't ascertained yet) is that ASE reports in degrees magnetic while FSX is reporting in degrees true. Where I'm flying there is a 20 degree East variation, so that could make it pretty close. In this case, there isn't a great disparity, but some days I've had the ASE winds showing as 170 at 0 and FSX showing winds at 350 at 10, or a significant wind in both, but again from opposite directions. To further complicate things, today with winds in both showing within a couple of knots of each other, and light, I seemed to be getting quite significant wind gusts at times (i.e. the IAS would spike showing up to a 10 kt variance in wind speeds briefly while in cruise). This was not showing up in either report. By the by, I often use CTRL+Z to monitor the winds that FSX is reporting to compare with what ASE is reporting. My questions then, summed up, are: 1) I rarely get what is actually showing in the ASE METAR window - is this report not a compilation of interpolated data?2) Which report do I believe - ASE's report or FSX's, especially for winds where takeoff and landing directions can be critical in stronger winds?3) Is there a way to determine from the Interpolated Data window exactly what I am getting, assuming the answer to Question 1 is "no"?4) Is there a way to determine what my winds actually are as opposed to what is being reported in either window? Thanks very much for any assistance with this. I'm rather confused at the moment.

A quick P.S. here - I'm not suggesting here that's there's anything wrong with ASE, or that it's not working. I'm just trying to better understand what's happening so I can make really good decisions (like not trying to land on a lake that's already too short with a 20 kt tailwind because I think there's no wind at all - it scares the crap out of the moose on the far shore when you do that <LOL>).

Hello, A quick reminder to please sign your posts with your full name.... Now, there are a couple things here to hopefully help:First, we have recently improved the interpolation of surface winds in low density areas such as this. There is a beta build available (see pinned topic in this forum) with the fix, and it is scheduled for official release in the next week. This may "solve" many of the problems with winds you are experiencing. Second, I'm not sure if you're using DWC or not, but if so, keep in mind that ambient parameters including temperature, dewpoint, wind dir, wind speed and baro pressure are constantly updated "globally" for every altitude and area based on your current position, with in many cases can differ from your "closest" weather station. If not using DWC mode, FSX internal interpolation will also influence things to try (often unsuccessfully) to depict a good average between the data stations. The general rule of thumb is: don't expect the conditions to match all parameters for a closest station report unless you are within 2nm of that station, and if in DWC, you must be on the ground. This is the way things work by design and we understand that it can bring some confusion and we always strive to make things easy to understand while keeping the highest fidelity possible (a very delicate balancing act!). I'd suggest trying the beta B649 update concerning the surface wind interpolation, and experiment with "locating yourself" at the exact stations (within 2nm) and then again between stations, to see how interpolation affects things depending on your depiction mode. Ambient actual wind conditions are accurate regardless of depiction mode via the Shift-Z display (this shows magnetic directions), and "more accurate" via the ASE Voice ATIS/Flightwatch feature.especially in DWC mode (it tells you actual conditions at stations vs. your global ambient conditions as FS ATIS will). Temperature can be observed directly in many aircraft panels (SAT should be monitored, not TAT, which will increase significantly with airspeed). After all that please let me know if you have more questions and I'll do my best to help!

Ahh very good Damian. Thanks for this. This helps a lot. I do use DWC typically. I'll take the actions you suggest and see what happens. I do understand your dilemma when trying to balance things out, and as I say, this thread wasn't so much a complaint (not at all, actually) as an attempt to better understand what is happening. Thanks again and I'll look forward to the update (appreciate the ongoing support especially!). Have a good one! Glenn Davy (a.k.a. Beaver Driver)