For the second evening in the row, I'm checking things out in the NY area. Tonight I'm in the Diamond, at rwy 9 at KSWF I'm showing that I'm at -1600 ft on the ground, pressing my hot key for setting altimeter and it's constant 27.99. I get up to 6,000 and ATC says it's 3028, pressing my hot key, no reaction. Is this acting up for anyone else?

Fine over Europe earlier, it seems strange that a lot of the weather issues seem to be reported from folk in th US. For me personally it's been great for months, and pretty accurate to the real thing.

Oh the weather is always perfect ya know!

LA in the sim live weather:

lasim by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

LA in real life (Low IFR):

lareal by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

Edited November 5, 20214 yr by ryanbatcund

I was landing in KRNT in IMC down to 1800' with proper rain washing my completely iced windshield clean an hour ago (USA West server, although, that probably doesn't make a difference for live weather)?

Edited November 5, 20214 yr by Captain Nuts

Weather accuracy seems to be best in the region where the weather provider is located.  That based on now almost 14 months of observations, arguments, and experiences.  A very high level of those reporting great results appear to be east of the Atlantic.  Those of us with lesser experiences seem to be west of the Atlantic.  That said, my most recent experiences across the USA are showing some improvement, but it is not consistent improvement.

One key piece of advice.  Pay no attention to MSFS ATIS/Awos.  It is much more of an embarrassment than the lack of accuracy of the weather itself.  Use the "B" key to set your altimeter. At least that should match you to the conditions you are encountering.

 

Edited November 5, 20214 yr by fppilot

Ah OK, I misread your post, I've heard ATIS reporting a quite different weather than the current at the airport before, particularly if you're tuning in pretty far from the airport it seems to report the WX at your current position instead of the WX at the airport or something so I expect "235/10" and then wonder about the wind blowing from 130° with 17 knots when I'm there.  This wouldn't be a problem of the WX server tho (I think) and more a problem with the wonky ATIS in the game.

 

2 minutes ago, fppilot said:

A very high level of those reporting great results appear to be east of the Atlantic.  Those of us with lesser experiences seem to be west of the Atlantic.

 

I'm east of the Atlantic and I can tell you that the WX at my local airstrip matches the FS WX in 1 of 10 cases (basically only when a big front is covering the whole country and the WX is the same anywhere).  The simple explanation is this: The next METAR reporting station is 50km NE in the hinterland, the airstrip is at the coast where the weather is almost always a different one than only 20km to the east.  The more distance between the METAR stations and the airports, the less accurate the weather may be even without that obvious coast/mainland difference and locations generally spread out a bit more generously in the US, hence the perceived difference US/EU?

4 minutes ago, Captain Nuts said:

Ah OK, I misread your post, I've heard ATIS reporting a quite different weather than the current at the airport before, particularly if you're tuning in pretty far from the airport it seems to report the WX at your current position instead of the WX at the airport or something so I expect "235/10" and then wonder about the wind blowing from 130° with 17 knots when I'm there.  This wouldn't be a problem of the WX server tho (I think) and more a problem with the wonky ATIS in the game.

 

 

I'm east of the Atlantic and I can tell you that the WX at my local airstrip matches the FS WX in 1 of 10 cases (basically only when a big front is covering the whole country and the WX is the same anywhere).  The simple explanation is this: The next METAR reporting station is 50km NE in the hinterland, the airstrip is at the coast where the weather is almost always a different one than only 20km to the east.  The more distance between the METAR stations and the airports, the less accurate the weather may be even without that obvious coast/mainland difference and locations generally spread out a bit more generously in the US, hence the perceived difference US/EU?

My condolences to you as well then.  I feel your pain.  As as a former aviation weatherman I struggle with this.  Even FSX default weather was better in its day.  And how long ago was that?

The problem is that accurate weather is not what is selling this simulation, if that is an appropriate term. Please avid adopters, do not attack that comment!  I understand what you love and embrace it for you.  So please do not cast stones at those of us who have been accustomed to what was previously available!  We each fly for different reasons and with different expectations.

 

Edited November 5, 20214 yr by fppilot

4 minutes ago, fppilot said:

 

The problem is that accurate weather is not what is selling this simulation, if that is an appropriate term. Please avid adopters, do not attack that comment!  I understand what you love and embrace it for you.  So please do not cast stones at those of us who have been accustomed to what was previously available!  We each fly for different reasons and with different expectations.

 

Jeeeeeese Frank, what a whiner!  I mean clearly weather and aviation don't go together, alright?!

(sarcasm alert lol)

I really MISS Active Sky 😞

SU7 is supposedly meant to improve airport weather. Better mixing of METAR and Meteoblue’s forecasted weather.

Edited November 5, 20214 yr by Tuskin38

3 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

SU7 is supposedly meant to improve airport weather. Better mixing of METAR and Meteoblue’s forecasted weather.

Maybe that's what causing my altimeter issues? KSWF is at 491ft, but is shows from the start of the flight I'm at -1,600ft? heh

10 hours ago, Captain Nuts said:

I'm east of the Atlantic and I can tell you that the WX at my local airstrip matches the FS WX in 1 of 10 cases (basically only when a big front is covering the whole country and the WX is the same anywhere).  The simple explanation is this: The next METAR reporting station is 50km NE in the hinterland, the airstrip is at the coast where the weather is almost always a different one than only 20km to the east.  The more distance between the METAR stations and the airports, the less accurate the weather may be even without that obvious coast/mainland difference and locations generally spread out a bit more generously in the US, hence the perceived difference US/EU?

The only components of r/w METAR currently being injected into Live Weather are airport surface wind, temperature and pressure. Any clouds, precipitation or visibility reports in METAR are not used. At the moment, those still come exclusively from from the MeteoBlue predictive weather model. 

This will be one of the big changes in Live Weather coming with SU7, where METAR clouds, precip and visibility will be used for the first time in MSFS.

Edited November 5, 20214 yr by JRBarrett

12 minutes ago, JRBarrett said:

This will be one of the big changes in Live Weather coming with SU7, where METAR clouds, precip and visibility will be used for the first time in MSFS.

Will that be accompanied by a fix to ATIS/AWOS?

11 hours ago, ryanbatcund said:

Oh the weather is always perfect ya know!

LA in the sim live weather:

lasim by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

LA in real life (Low IFR):

lareal by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

The coastal marine layer can be notoriously difficult to forecast accurately in Southern California - especially using a weather model with a relatively coarse grid spacing (30 km) which is the case with the NEMS Global model provided by MeteoBlue. That said, I have seen the coastal stratus deck along the shore well-depicted in SoCal on occasion - other times it is not present when it should be - and other times, (when present) it does not penetrate far enough inland - or too far.

This can be a problem even for the NWS forecasters who produce the official aviation terminal forecasts (TAFS) for airports in the LA basin. I was reading the forecaster’s technical discussion a few weeks ago for the TAFS for the upcoming nighttime period for the LA basin. These are forecasters who are literally “on the scene of the crime” (at the NWS forecast office at LAX), and who have the benefit of much higher resolution forecast models (the HRRR) optimized for the specific area.

They were confident that the coastal marine layer would produce low clouds and low vis at LAX itself by a certain time that evening. The big question was weather the marine layer would penetrate inland as far as Van Nuys (KVNY) and Burbank (KBUR). Based on the model, they simply could not tell if the latter two airports would be affected by low clouds during the overnight or not, and if so, what time the clouds would move in. The best they could come up with is “it might” cloud over, and it could happen as early as 20:00 local - or as late as 02:00 local - or it might not happen at all.

This is one area where using the current METAR to generate clouds in MSFS will be of benefit.

Edited November 5, 20214 yr by JRBarrett

17 minutes ago, fppilot said:

Will that be accompanied by a fix to ATIS/AWOS?

During the last dev Q&A I think they said something about improving the ATIS for airports in SU7 to give the actual METAR weather data. I’d have to re-watch the Q&A to be sure.