fsx-ms Lost my faith in Real Weather!

[thefrog 18]

I live half-way between EGHR and EGHI and it's been raining pretty much all day here with solid overcast. But the best ASN can do is few or broken clouds with no precipitation. I also tried Opus Live Weather and it's the same as ASN. That leads me to question how accurately these add-ons actually represent real weather. Any thoughts?

[Damian Clark 1,260]

What are the reported weather conditions?  If there are stations reporting the "wrong" weather then that is nothing any weather add-on can "fix".

 

If there are no weather stations then it's up to other data points/interpolation which are less accurate than METAR surface condition reports.  Again, nothing an add-on can fix.  In the case of ASN, we've worked really hard to try and make sure things are as accurate and timely as possible but there are limitations.

[Rivet 16]

I find that Rex's Weather Architect helps out wonderfully in situations such as that.

[skelsey 765]

There's no weather station at Goodwood, so there's no way of getting weather from there.

 

Looking at the METARs for Southampton since lunchtime:

 

EGHI 181920Z 34004KT 300V020 9000 5000E SHRA FEW020 FEW032CB SCT033 BKN046 10/08 Q1004
EGHI 181850Z VRB03KT 9999 VCSH SCT025 FEW032CB SCT036 11/08 Q1004
EGHI 181820Z VRB03KT 9999 VCSH SCT025 SCT038 FEW032CB 10/08 Q1004
EGHI 181750Z 29005KT 250V320 9999 VCSH VCTS FEW018 SCT030 SCT032CB 10/08 Q1003
EGHI 181720Z VRB03KT 9999 5000S VCSH VCTS FEW015 SCT024CB BKN036 11/09 Q1003
EGHI 181650Z VRB01KT 9000 4500E SHRA FEW015 SCT024CB BKN036 12/09 Q1003
EGHI 181620Z 24005KT 200V270 9999 VCSH FEW024 SCT036 12/10 Q1003
EGHI 181550Z 22006KT 190V260 9999 VCSH FEW024 SCT036 11/09 Q1003
EGHI 181520Z 24005KT 200V260 9999 VCSH SCT040 BKN048 11/09 Q1003
EGHI 181450Z 24006KT 9999 VCSH FEW030 FEW032CB BKN047 11/09 Q1003
EGHI 181420Z 26006KT 220V300 9000 -RA FEW025 FEW032CB SCT043 11/09 Q1003
EGHI 181350Z 26009KT 230V290 8000 -SHRA FEW015 FEW026CB BKN039 11/08 Q1003
EGHI 181320Z 25007KT 210V300 9999 VCSH FEW017 FEW026CB BKN039 12/08 Q1003

 

So there are a few reports indicating showers, but most are just "in the vicinity" -- I'm not sure how ASN (et al) handles these sorts of reports. Likewise, there's no indication of a single overcast layer -- and actually, my experience living just a couple of miles from MAN is that what looks to me like solid overcast is often reported as multiple BKN/SCT layers that give the appearance of overcast to the casual ground observer. Perhaps something that could be improved upon in the way in which weather engines depict those sort of conditions, but I can understand why it might not look as solid as it appears.

[BillW 210]

I have noticed that my home base is just too lazy to report the weather. We have many corporate jets coming and going from our airport. This problem seems to be fairly common in smaller stations.

 

Bill W

[jcomm 5,938]

Don't forget an important factor, specially in Europe - METARs report just the most significant cloud layers up to the Sector Altitude.

 

In Lisbon and most of Portugal, this ends at 5000', meaning that a solid OVC or BKN above that will simply be ignored!

 

Given that ASN actually goes a lot further than simply interpreting METAR data, I always found it to give a depiction which is very close to reality, even when cloud layers are above those reported in the METAR / TAF. The same regarding precipitation, where my experience with ASN has always been very positive.

 

Are you sure you had ASN in the correct (Active Weather) mode ?