As most of us are used to using a weather engines which come with reports for the various airports we are departing or arriving at, I was thrown a curve ball by FS which when using Live weather has no such option (at the moment). I've no doubt whatsoever that this will be remedied over time, but, until that time arrives I highly recommend using Windy:- https://www.windy.com/?51.575,0.188,5

It shows an incredible amount of very useful weather info including "all" airports Worldwide, and gives you exactly the information you will require for a successful preflight, flight and approach.

 

I assume "FS" is MSFS or FS2020 or whatever the current official name is.

Please note that MSFS uses Meteoblue weather and not METAR information.

I've been using windy.com for years and loving it.

Hook

Yup, another long-time user; its forecasts are invariably not that far off the mark.

My favorite story about windy.com was from the Breitling DC-3 around the world flight. 

There was no METAR information flying from Japan to the Aleutians, so the pilots used windy.com to get the barometer setting.  When they were in radio range of their Aleutian destination, the barometer setting they had gotten from windy.com was very close to what the destination reported.

Hook

54 minutes ago, SierraHotel said:

FS which when using Live weather has no such option

So then what are we hearing when tuned into the metar reporting stations in the sim?

Is it just prediction based upon meteoblue info?, and why on earth after all these years would they not use valid metar/taff info in a flight simulator?

 

1 minute ago, hangar said:

Is it just prediction based upon meteoblue info?, and why on earth after all these years would they not use valid metar/taff info in a flight simulator?

Now you know why Active Sky will be among my first purchases. 😄 

Meteoblue works, mostly.  All I really want is varied and interesting weather.

Hook

3 minutes ago, hangar said:

 and why on earth after all these years would they not use valid metar/taff info in a flight simulator?

Why would they spend development resources on stuff that less than 10% of their customers will even be interested in? How many people using MSFS next week do you think will even know what a METAR is?

MeteoBlue, does have METAR information.
Check the weather map here: MeteoBlue Weather Map
Zoom in on the map, and click on an airport to view METAR information for the given airport.

I don't see why they shouldn't utilize this information for the various aerodromes in the sim?!

Edited August 11, 20205 yr by travelabroad

Nice! That's what I was looking for when searching for some interesting place to fly in with live meteo.

51 minutes ago, travelabroad said:

MeteoBlue, does have METAR information.
Check the weather map here: MeteoBlue Weather Map
Zoom in on the map, and click on an airport to view METAR information for the given airport.

I don't see why they shouldn't utilize this information for the various aerodromes in the sim?!

Thank you, was not clear that you could see this sort of info when I first visited their home page.

So then since this seems to use accurate metar data and you can get this info using comms in the sim, I guess I'm confused as to what the OP is referring to when he says that you can't get the airport reports in the sim?

Edited August 11, 20205 yr by hangar

1 hour ago, Der Zeitgeist said:

How many people using MSFS next week do you think will even know what a METAR is?

Exactly. I suspect most people firing it up next week will think a METAR is about 39 inches.

2 hours ago, LHookins said:

I assume "FS" is MSFS or FS2020 or whatever the current official name is.

Please note that MSFS uses Meteoblue weather and not METAR information.

I've been using windy.com for years and loving it.

Hook

MeteoBlue is one of (several) data providers that the Windy app uses, and when Windy was first created in 2014, the developer worked closely with MeteoBlue in designing the animated streamline wind depiction. MeteoBlue’s own iOS and Android apps have a similar animated wind graphic.

2 hours ago, hangar said:

and why on earth after all these years would they not use valid metar/taff info in a flight simulator?

Because Metars are just observation reports not actually weather data. Real weather data is far more complex than METAR's and gets updated basically in real time.

@Farlis My question regarding why they weren't using metar data was only referring to the reporting system within the sim (where metar reports are supposed to be the global aviation standard), and not the weather rendering engine itself.

Edited August 11, 20205 yr by hangar

1 hour ago, hangar said:

@Farlis My question regarding why they weren't using metar data was only referring to the reporting system within the sim (where metar reports are supposed to be the global aviation standard), and not the weather rendering engine itself.

Ah.. Got you.