I downloaded real world weather in Dallas today because I wanted to do an IFR flight and saw that was where the clouds were. After it downloaded and I opened the flight it was a clear blue sky. I checked the ATIS and is said it was overcast. See attached image with ATIS text on the screen. Am I doing something wrong? I noticed this yesterday where it was overcast but there I had scattered clouds.

As you climb you'll see the clouds. It's why you want Active Sky for your weather generating engine. It fixes this.Allcott

You need to download real world weather before starting the flight, or after downloading weather go to the map view and change your aircraft heading by one degree.Otherwise you have the weather from your default flight or last flight.You have to force a full load, not use the cached weather which speeds up loading.Also, real world weather is not up to the minute weather.METARs are reported every half hour to every hour depending upon where in the world the weather station is located and their practice. It is possible for a fast moving storm front to blow through between weather observations.Real world weather is an average of at least three weather stations in the same cell as the user aircraft - not one particular weather station.I read in a blog somewhere this is because almost 1/3 of METAR reports are apparently hand typed and contain typos which the computer cannot decode.At KDAL yesterday, the skies were mostly clear until about 1430 local yesterday, then they clouded up quickly and the storms hit.By 1800, the sun was peaking back through the clouds, but we were still at the SWA gate waiting for word on our aircraft.Finally left and went home at 2200. Understand from flight tracking that the plane did not finally leave until 0415 this morning.You've got other issues - at 0201Z it was dark at KDAL - 2101 local time. And the weather was pretty clear.Also - FS normally will not draw clouds 11,000 feet overhead. It's a huge drain on system resources to put that much power into rendering something that far away.

Thanks for the input. I loaded real weather before flights and I think it is what was said that it may be an average of weather stations in the area. I went to the executive field next door and the ATIS said it was overcast at 600 feet and also showed clear skys. Went west and it was overcast there. This morning did real world weather at Dallas Love and this time it said few clouds at 600 and broken at 2,900 and out the windshield it was overcast. (see attached) I'll have to try Active Sky.

The cloud deck is a lot lower this morning.Real World weather has definite limitations.The payware products are much better at smoothing between stations and with a better overall general weather.The FS weather suffers from 'holes' when stations are off line and not reporting weather for several hours. Hurricanes really show this. Though the real world doesn't care that aviation weather isn't being reported during such situations. Real pilots don't fly Barons in 100+ kts winds.Some of the flight tracks for yesterday were really interesting.A SWA flight from KDAL to KAMA - routed over KSAT.A SWA flight from KMAF to KDAL over KSAT, north to Waco, turned back south to Austin and returned to Midland.Yesterday is a day when I'm really glad I don't work with airline passengers. Love was zoo at 1900 last night.Back on topic - Active Sky is billed as a weather program but really isn't. The program is a major environment enhancement and texture upgrade. The weather part works danged well also.

Hi All,Hold off on a purchase of Active Sky until we release ActiveSky X for FS X only. No need to purchase twice in the near future. At that time you may want to look at X Graphics for your environmental textures as well.Thanks,Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/

My wife's credit card is waiting - not that she knows of course.

Ive never used Active Sky but I'm certain it's an outstanding product based on what I've seen and read. But if you want to tone down that deep blue sky in FSX, a blue that I've never seen in the real world, get Real Sky 3.

>But if you want to tone down that deep blue sky in FSX, a blue>that I've never seen in the real world, get Real Sky 3. It's that California smog! :-lol Get to those higher elevations in the mountain west, and see that deep blue sky!I honestly believe that we get some of that blue look around here. The wife thought so too! But not all the time of course.L.Adamson