MSFS Weather Engine

[aktorsyl 93]

I mean, I fly on VATSIM too and even I would be happy with slightly incorrect METAR data, as long as the world weather data is at least somewhat accurate and represents what's actually going on outside of the airport zones.

An example: Last night I had 2 trees go down in my front garden. Winds of around 70-80kts. I live about 40nm north of the FACT METAR, which (being on the other side of the mountain range) had winds at about 13kts. I get in the sim to see what's happening at my local airfield (which, incidentally, was closed due things blowing over onto the runway and parking areas) and... 7 kts. So, yeah.

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by aktorsyl

[Cpt_Piett 4,618]

Hopefully no one is offended by this very silly joke:

Normal person: immediately runs outdoor to check if anything got damaged.

Simmer: boots up the sim to check if sim weather corresponds with outside weather

EDIT: Seb mentioned in the QA that “METAR weather” should only be in effect below 1000ft and within 2km of the airport. I doubt that’s the case.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Cpt_Piett

[aktorsyl 93]

4 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

Hopefully no one is offended by this very silly joke:

Normal person: Immediately runs outdoor to check if anything got damaged.

Simmer: boots up the sim to check is sim weather corresponds with outside weather

EDIT: Seb mentioned in the QA that “METAR weather” should only be in effect below 1000ft and within 2km of the airport. I doubt that’s the case.

Hahah very, very true.

 

[jcomm 5,917]

24 minutes ago, aktorsyl said:

I mean, I fly on VATSIM too and even I would be happy with slightly incorrect METAR data, as long as the world weather data is at least somewhat accurate and represents what's actually going on outside of the airport zones.

An example: Last night I had 2 trees go down in my front garden. Winds of around 70-80kts. I live about 40nm north of the FACT METAR, which (being on the other side of the mountain range) had winds at about 13kts. I get in the sim to see what's happening at my local airfield (which, incidentally, was closed due things blowing over onto the runway and parking areas) and... 7 kts. So, yeah.

 

Your local airfield probably does not have METAR, so, they had to go with the models...

Now as you pointed out and due to your location, that's a local phenomena with very few chances of getting properly reproduced, I believe...

Were there any other airfields in the vicinity, and side of the mountains, that issue METARs ?  Could you find out what their reports looked like, or is FACT the closest with METAR / TAF ?

[aktorsyl 93]

21 minutes ago, jcomm said:

Your local airfield probably does not have METAR, so, they had to go with the models...

Now as you pointed out and due to your location, that's a local phenomena with very few chances of getting properly reproduced, I believe...

Were there any other airfields in the vicinity, and side of the mountains, that issue METARs ?  Could you find out what their reports looked like, or is FACT the closest with METAR / TAF ?

No, but that's my point 🙂 The weather models do reflect the wind (on Meteoblue as well as Windy, etc) but those models aren't reflected correctly in the sim.

EDIT: To clarify, pic below. 1 is the FACT airport with its associated METAR which is correct, low winds. 2 and 3 are way outside the METAR zone but have wind accurately reflected on Meteoblue (which is where the pic is from). Sim depiction for 2 and 3 are however the same as for 1, which is the METAR zone.

(The closest other METAR area is about 300nm north of this)

 

On a different test, see areas 3 and 4 - further out from the METAR, but still with winds of approx 7kts instead of 25kts (at the time this was tested the wind died down a bit):

So it's kinda anecdotal, I suppose.

I think it's more a question of how the models are interpreted and at what distance the weather depiction no longer uses the METAR, but rather the world weather models.

Edited August 31, 2022 by aktorsyl

[jcomm 5,917]

@aktorsyl, those additional notes are good and do in fact reveal some problem.

Thx !

[pstrub 998]

Have you seen this on the official forums? It seems that live weather is better (like pre-SU7) before 7:00 Zulu / UTC (real world time, not in-sim time). As a European, I usually don't have time for simming in the morning, so I haven't really checked it myself. Anyway, seems like it's worth to follow up on this, the photos in the thread look pretty convincing.

The more people contribute to the bug report, the higher the chances will be to get a solution at some point. 

For now it remains unclear to me at what time the "good" live weather begins.

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/weather-like-pre-su7-before-8-am-uk-time-photos-and-videos-provided

Edited August 31, 2022 by pstrub

[Cpt_Piett 4,618]

2 hours ago, aktorsyl said:

Sim depiction for 2 and 3 are however the same as for 1, which is the METAR zone.

So what Seb said in the most recent QA makes even less sense after you posted this. Thanks for taking the time though, as it might shed some light for us lowly end-users as to what is actually going on. It might be different in SU10 vs SU9 though, as in the first beta release notes they claim this: 

Added interpolation out of METAR data when getting away from the METAR data (distance, altitude or time)

@aktorsyl are you in the SU10 beta?

Edited August 31, 2022 by Cpt_Piett

[MrBitstFlyer 3,873]

4 hours ago, asanosho said:

Let's put it in very clear words:

Why do VATSIM/IVAO users think they have the right to demand a true-to-life METAR representation if this results in the global weather representation, which was very decent until METAR incorporation was implemented, becoming worse for all users as a result?

I actually agree with you.  I much preferred the weather in MSFS before metar was integrated.  It will be interesting to see how Laminer Research have implemented this as they are also using models/metars.

[Weatherman 193]

2 hours ago, pstrub said:

Have you seen this on the official forums? It seems that live weather is better (like pre-SU7) before 7:00 Zulu / UTC (real world time, not in-sim time). As a European, I usually don't have time for simming in the morning, so I haven't really checked it myself. Anyway, seems like it's worth to follow up on this, the photos in the thread look pretty convincing.

The more people contribute to the bug report, the higher the chances will be to get a solution at some point. 

For now it remains unclear to me at what time the "good" live weather begins.

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/weather-like-pre-su7-before-8-am-uk-time-photos-and-videos-provided

Wow, THAT is an interesting thread!

[aktorsyl 93]

2 hours ago, Cpt_Piett said:

 

@aktorsyl are you in the SU10 beta?

Yessir, these tests were from the latest beta build. I think they do have some kind of interpolation, but maybe waaaay too gradual?

I haven't had more time to test further up north, but there's a double front hitting us this weekend - so will be a good opportunity for some testing then.

Edited August 31, 2022 by aktorsyl

[aktorsyl 93]

2 hours ago, pstrub said:

Have you seen this on the official forums? It seems that live weather is better (like pre-SU7) before 7:00 Zulu / UTC (real world time, not in-sim time). As a European, I usually don't have time for simming in the morning, so I haven't really checked it myself. Anyway, seems like it's worth to follow up on this, the photos in the thread look pretty convincing.

The more people contribute to the bug report, the higher the chances will be to get a solution at some point. 

For now it remains unclear to me at what time the "good" live weather begins.

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/weather-like-pre-su7-before-8-am-uk-time-photos-and-videos-provided

Very interesting. Almost as if the models refresh around that time and then just use AI to "guess" what they need to do until the next daily refresh the next morning. (Totally just a guess here, though)

[Noel 4,493]

How often are METARS updated in the RW, and in MSFS?

Side note: looks like Asobo is playing around w/ more complex cloud structures which I'm seeing more of very recently:

Edited August 31, 2022 by Noel

[JRBarrett 3,070]

Just now, Noel said:

How often are METARS updated in the RW, and in MSFS?

METARS are normally updated r/w once per hour, but will be taken more often if conditions are rapidly changing. The standard observations are normally transmitted at about 53 minutes past the hour, and are available within a few minutes on the WMO data feed.

MSFS appears to get r/w METARS shortly after they become available. A couple of times I have seen them delayed by an hour, but they are usually timely.

[UAL4life 237]

Why can Active Sky do it with less resources than MS/Asobo? Please. The weather in this sim gets worse and worse. And it’s the number one thing that ruins it for me 😞