One of the things that the Weather SDK allows is for the creation of a weather theme with provides quite specific weather conditions at individual sites or areas. We know that we can go into the weather settings and create weather conditions at those weather stations shown -- but quite often there are large gaps between the stations.As it is possible , using the Weather SDK, to create small areas 10 miles wide square adjacent to one another -- and using a chart to take into account the distances between individual specific airports, it is easy to create a weather theme that creates a specific set of conditions over a specific area involving specific airports.I notice that most people who have created weather themes have basically created themes which can be used anywhere - and have not utilised this aspect.So - I am wondering if you think that this is useful or not. What specific weather themes relating to your local area would you be interested in. I think that it would be good to 'educate" people to understand that they are able to use the weather SDK easily to create these individual conditions.Barry

I made a post a while ago about weather themes. It seems like there is a lot of unused potential. I suggested that it would be possible to create localized themes that take into account typical weather patterns and geography. As you suggest, you could also potentially associate the weather with particular airports for some interesting IFR challenges.Weather Themes might become more popular if we get a nice graphical GUI for creating themes. I'm not sure if there is enough enthusiasm for the idea for a developer to spend time on it, though, since I think people are primarily interested in live, real-world weather.Personally, after my computer upgrade, I am starting enjoy using ActiveSky now that clouds don't bring my machine to a halt. One of the advantages for themes for me was that the built-in themes weren't as much of a drain as real-world weather. Flying with archived ActiveSky weather works pretty well for me now.

Hi JimmyI am a bit confused about what you mean by a "nice graphical GUI" for creating weather themes -- because this is exactly what the Weather Themes SDK provides. I am no computer genius :) - but I found the SDK very easy to use. A fairly simple and intuitive "Windows" type programme. Actually, what is the most difficult thing about creating realistic weather themes is to have a good understanding of meteorology -- the creation of a theme itself is very easy using the SDK.But as you say, it probably isn't worth anybodys time to actually create themes for other people -- but as I said in my post, I believe that it would be good for people to realise how easy it is to make their own themes for specific conditions at specific airports.Must try to find your previous post -- it doesn't look like many are interested however by the lack of responce to this one. :)Regards barry

I do not use the program, but I supposed that Weather Maker and soon to be Weather Maker Pro payware were for that purpose.I think I recall reading that you basicly place some Lows, temps, etc., to create moving fronts that result in symptomatic weather environments. The conditions develop with time and with the evolving of local weather areas in FS9 that should present interesting dynamic weather.As for knowing meteorology, that is an area covered from PPL groundschool upward in a very basic format. While an FSS weather briefing is useful, that basic training helps in a pilot estimating what weather might develop into, assess some risks, and plan alternate escape routes. It also helps in understanding how aircraft behave in different weather environments whether it is engine performance, icing, or aircraft flight dynamics.I use downloaded archived or current weather with AS2004. I also (via WeatherUnderground.com - just use ICAO for query) save regional radar images in the same titled folders I keep specific types of weather in and tag the image with the regional radar code, Z time and date used for both the weather data save file name and the radar image so the file titles are related. This only works with current weather, BTW.I have not used the weather theme area in FS9 so I can not comment if it is similar to the Weather Maker series, the latter having only read its description.