Is anyone flying West coast storm seeing correct weather?

[Flyfaster_MTN002 412]

Just flew the US West coast mountains with METAR showing 400ft overcast with snow 1/4mi visibility. Saw lots of cloud cover over the Sierras and then CAVU blue skies over the airports?!  offensive initials not allowed?

Is anyone getting proper weather? Where is all the overcast and snow?

[duckbilled 310]

A bit farther west than where you are, but I got was seemed to be realistic weather while taking off from SFO abut 90 mins ago.

[Flyfaster_MTN002 412]

8 minutes ago, duckbilled said:

A bit farther west than where you are, but I got was seemed to be realistic weather while taking off from SFO abut 90 mins ago.

Thanks that has been same experience. Foggy/rainy always on west coast. Mountains always sunny?  What is going on....

[Simjockey 29]

If you are using the native weather, remember it is a forcast based on a predictive model - Meteoblue I believe.  As a prediction it is sometimes (maybe often) not absolutely accurate.  Currently the sim doesn't read Metars so local airfield conditions will not really be met too often.  Ideally we need a combination of both - world-wide predictive forecast plus local metar readers with a seamless merge of both.

Regards.

[JRBarrett 3,076]

2 hours ago, Simjockey said:

If you are using the native weather, remember it is a forcast based on a predictive model - Meteoblue I believe.  As a prediction it is sometimes (maybe often) not absolutely accurate.  Currently the sim doesn't read Metars so local airfield conditions will not really be met too often.  Ideally we need a combination of both - world-wide predictive forecast plus local metar readers with a seamless merge of both.

Regards.

Actually since patch 6, the sim is using current METAR data for airport wind, temperature and pressure - at least for US airports. I think clouds and precipitation still come from the MeteoBlue forecast model.

There is still a bug at high elevation airports where the air temperature will be too high due to an incorrect elevation-based temperature correction that the sim is applying to the MeteoBlue data. With the new METAR system, the temperature will be correct on the airport surface at a place like Telluride (KTEX), which is at an elevation oh 9,000 feet. But, temperature rises significantly once an aircraft takes off and gets more than 3 miles from the airport.

Edited December 14, 2020 by JRBarrett

[Flyfaster_MTN002 412]

6 minutes ago, JRBarrett said:

Actually since patch 6, the sim is using current METAR data for airport wind, temperature and pressure - at least for US airports. I think clouds and precipitation still come from the MeteoBlue forecast model.

There is still a bug at high elevation airports where the air temperature will be too high due to an incorrect elevation-based temperature correction that the sim is applying to the MeteoBlue data. With the new METAR system, the temperature will be correct on the ground at the airport itself at a place like Telluride (KTEX), which is at an elevation oh 9,000 feet, but temperature rises significantly once an aircraft takes off and gets more than 3 miles from the airport.

The METAR was most definitely not working today 😞

[vgbaron 3,627]

I have found it to be a total hit and miss situation. Mostly miss. IMHO, live or "real" weather is totally  nonexistent in MSFS.

It's a shame.

[regis9 4,014]

1 hour ago, vgbaron said:

I have found it to be a total hit and miss situation. Mostly miss. IMHO, live or "real" weather is totally  nonexistent in MSFS.

It's a shame.

The mostly miss nature of live weather is arguably the biggest issue in MSFS right now. 

[Simjockey 29]

Hi Jim, I didn't know the sim was supposed to be reading Metars, thanks for the update.

Regards.

[JRBarrett 3,076]

1 hour ago, Flyfaster_MTN002 said:

The METAR was most definitely not working today 😞

Again, the only parameters from r/w METAR that are being used currently are wind, temperature and pressure, and those will only be accurate when you are on the ground actually at an airport, or within about 3 miles and 3000 feet above the surface.  Clouds, visibility and precipitation are not coming from METAR, but from the forecast model as before, which may or may not be close to actual conditions.

[JRBarrett 3,076]

3 minutes ago, Simjockey said:

 

Hi Jim, I didn't know the sim was supposed to be reading Metars, thanks for the update.

 

They started doing METAR winds in Patch 6, and pressure and temperature after Patch 7. Every airport I have checked in multiple locations (on the ground) has corresponded to current METAR for those three parameters. Clouds, precipitation and visibility might still be way off though...

[Simjockey 29]

So they need to work on the transition from airport locality to on-route conditions.  Maybe that's where HIFI slot in with active sky?