Please vote for historic weather

[Ray Proudfoot 8,970]

57 minutes ago, Noel said:

I haven't followed this long thread but just out of curiosity why do you need historical weather?  This is something in 30y I've never had any interest in so maintaining access to historical weather worldwide just seems like a big service very few will ever use.

You do surprise me Noel. Do you ever fly out of airports many time zones away from yours?

If the answer is yes and you have adjusted sim time so it’s daylight the weather is not correct. MSFS has one set of weather. As soon as your UT time in the sim differs from actual UT time the weather is incorrect.

If you only ever fly in your own time zone you’re fine.

[Noel 4,504]

27 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

You do surprise me Noel. Do you ever fly out of airports many time zones away from yours?

If the answer is yes and you have adjusted sim time so it’s daylight the weather is not correct. MSFS has one set of weather. As soon as your UT time in the sim differs from actual UT time the weather is incorrect.

If you only ever fly in your own time zone you’re fine.

Yes Ray, I fly out of airports all over the world.  I don't ever adjust sim time I go with whatever the actual time is.  As far as weather being "incorrect" for starters the actual weather is only ever going to be in the ballpark of what it really actually was or is now.  Where I live in Colorado the edict is:  "if you don't like the weather in Colorado just wait 15 minutes".  So no, I could care less if the weather is offset from what it actually was 24h ago, or an hour ago, it has zero bearing on how I use the sim. 

[SN737 140]

32 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

You do surprise me Noel. Do you ever fly out of airports many time zones away from yours?

If the answer is yes and you have adjusted sim time so it’s daylight the weather is not correct. MSFS has one set of weather. As soon as your UT time in the sim differs from actual UT time the weather is incorrect.

If you only ever fly in your own time zone you’re fine.

Yeah it surprises me how could anyone not want this option for msfs too.

[Bobsk8 12,750]

I  had had historic weather in P3D with AS16. I probably used it about 3-5 times in as many  years. I always like to fly in weather that is actually occurring where I am flying. 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,970]

4 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I  had had historic weather in P3D with AS16. I probably used it about 3-5 times in as many  years. I always like to fly in weather that is actually occurring where I am flying. 

So if you had AS weather set for Live you would get weather that was different to the actual.

19 minutes ago, Noel said:

Yes Ray, I fly out of airports all over the world.  I don't ever adjust sim time I go with whatever the actual time is.  As far as weather being "incorrect" for starters the actual weather is only ever going to be in the ballpark of what it really actually was or is now.  Where I live in Colorado the edict is:  "if you don't like the weather in Colorado just wait 15 minutes".  So no, I could care less if the weather is offset from what it actually was 24h ago, or an hour ago, it has zero bearing on how I use the sim. 

So if you live in Colorado and fired up the sim at 10:00 Colorado time and then located to Dubai that is 11-12 hours time difference. You’d get nighttime weather for a daytime flight. Unless you departed Dubai at 1700-1800 local in which case the weather would be correct.

If you don’t care what the weather is it suggests to me it’s not important to you.  But isn’t the weather the most important thing when flying?

[guenseli 1,592]

The first and simpliest reason is, that I have to work during the day, and when I get home (especially in winter season now) I never can do a VFR flight during the week or in other parts of the world at certain times.

Ok, now, "then make the daylight on" you will say. No, evening/night weather is substantial different as daytime weather.

And I will never get the chance (during the week) to catch the nice misty morning with faboulous LIFR to make my IFR flights a bit more interesting. When I get home, fog and low visibility is gone.

 

You never had the idea to recreate flights with a certain weather like thunderstorm, fog, windy approaches again and again, maybe with different aircraft? you will use canned presets instead of real world weather?

 

You never been at holidays, have had an interesting flight, maybe with strong winds and wanted to recreate that after you are back home?

 

You never heard of a storm approaching somewhere in the world and wanted to fly there? Even a day later?

 

hmmm ... simming could be very interesting, believe me 😉

[Ray Proudfoot 8,970]

27 minutes ago, SN737 said:

Yeah it surprises me how could anyone not want this option for msfs too.

Asobo wouldn’t deliver it just as LM never delivered it for P3D. They would release the SDK that covers the weather engine. That would then allow third parties to write the code to inject it. Asobo / Microsoft would need to provide a weather option for an external source.

[JBDB-MD80 1,473]

Historic weather = Fantasy and non realistic rwp flying?

[guenseli 1,592]

Just now, Ray Proudfoot said:

Asobo wouldn’t deliver it

What makes you that sure?

Meanwhile it is "under investigation", whatever that means

 

P3D never had live weather at all. Asobo/Microsoft has the data from Meteoblue, the data is already available 

[guenseli 1,592]

Just now, jbdbow1970 said:

Historic weather = Fantasy and non realistic rwp flying?

What is rwp?

And do you think it is sign of fantasy to be not able to imagine why someone else does need historic weather?

It could be that simple: there's a request of a feature you will never use. simply ignore it 🙄

[darshonaut 237]

Personally I fly in my own time zone where in 6 months of the year it's pitch black dark when I come home from work.

I can turn back the time but then the weather is completely wrong, lacking the influence of the sun on the weather. 

Why they have not included an option for 24 hours "historical weather" right from the release of the sim is beyond me.

Maybe they did not know that night weather is different from the day weather ? I have no clue.

For me, I only have real weather in the summertime when I fly and I guess it's the same for many other people.

So all the alk about the great weather engine of MSFS is just blah blah for me. It's either wrong weather or I do not see it because I fly at night.

 

sorry for venting....

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by darshonaut

[Bdub22 1,612]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

If the answer is yes and you have adjusted sim time so it’s daylight the weather is not correct

No, the weather is still correct. It's the time of day that isn't. 

[guenseli 1,592]

Just now, Bdub22 said:

No, the weather is still correct. It's the time of day that isn't.

Now starts a nitpicking war? 😉

Read again, he IS correct.

when you switch to a location where it is actually dark and then change time there, you will NOT have the correct weather for this location at that time of the day. You will simply have the live weather.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,970]

17 minutes ago, guenseli said:

What makes you that sure?

Meanwhile it is "under investigation", whatever that means

 

P3D never had live weather at all. Asobo/Microsoft has the data from Meteoblue, the data is already available 

Well they could I suppose but given the reasons for wanting it had to be explained to the Asobo rep I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Yes, P3D didn’t have live weather. I thought I said that. But they changed the program so others could inject it.

3 minutes ago, Bdub22 said:

No, the weather is still correct. It's the time of day that isn't. 

Have a think what you just said. It makes no sense.

[RALF9636 1,971]

Voted.

For those who wonder what historical weather might be useful for, some time ago I wrote this:

 

On 5/27/2021 at 3:34 PM, RALF9636 said:

After ignoring this feature for a long time, in their last Q&A they asked for some feedback regarding the use of historic weather.

It has been requested several times before. So to repeat and sum up, why is historic weather important:

 

- It has been a familiar feature in other sims (provided for example by Active Sky) for ages. I used it all the time and considered it a matter of course in a flightsim. It's a shame that the current state of the art flight simulator lacks this feature.

 

- Historic weather offers an abundance of different weather to choose from, just by selecting a date and time. Much more than weather presets ever can. And furthermore - different to weather presets - historic weather is realistic, diverse and dynamic.

 

- Only historic weather allows to realistically experience any season in the sim - independent from the real world season. With live weather you set the date in the sim to July and still encounter a blizzard over New England when it's December in the real world.

 

- The same goes for the time of day. Historic weather is needed to experience a realistic scenario in any time of the day - independent from the real world time. Weather typically is different at different times of day: At night the temperatures are lower and the air is smoother than in daytime. There is morning fog that dissipates by noon, there is building cumulus in the afternoon. If we ever get gliders we will need the thermals of the daytime. Right now with live weather if you set the time in the sim to noon but it's night in the real world you will get weather which is just not adequate.

 

- Historic weather allows to relive experiences you've had in the real world:

You are a passenger in an airliner on a turbulent and stormy approach in the real world and look forward to recreate that approach in the sim when you get home. Impossible with live weather because the weather will have changed by the time.

You enjoyed a scenic ride in a Cessna last summer around some spectactular weather themes and want to recreate that experience a few months later in the sim. Impossible with live weather.

 

- Historic weather allows to practice the same flight again and again. Impossible with live weather because the weather will be different every session - and weather presets just don't offer the dynamic and variety of real historic weather.

 

- There have been several threads in the forums where people enthusiastically tried to chase hurricanes. Bad luck for those who didn't have time for simming at that very time. With historic weather it can be done any time.

 

- If you want to do a VFR flight and find that the real world weather is too bad to allow a VFR flight your only choice now is to use a weather preset. How much more enjoyable it would be to just change the date and get realistic, varied and dynamic historic weather allowing for a VFR flight.

 

- You don't have time for a longer flight today but already look forward to the flight you will be doing next weekend. So you already plan that flight, create a simbrief flightplan etc. Just to find that wind, runways, time and fuel calculations will all be wrong when you actually do the flight a few days later with live weather. Only historic weather allows for that.

 

- You set up a multileg rotation with an airliner. You are behind schedule on your first flight because of the headwind. But you already plan to catch up that time on the return flight thanks to the tailwind. Unfortunately you don't have the time for that flight today and can only do it a few days later. With live weather your tailwind will be gone.

 

- You plan a multileg / multiday VFR cross country trip. Because of your real world obligations a few days in the sim will take you a few weeks in real time. With historic weather you will be able to make these flights in a consistent and immersive weather scenario in the sim. Imagine you land at an intermediate stop with a front approaching on the horizon. You are aware that you need to hurry on the ground to make it out of this valley VFR for your next leg before the front arrives. But when you do that next leg the other day that front will be long gone of course with live weather.

 

- Only historic weather allows to pause the flight for more than just a few minutes.

You have set up everything for the approach shortly before your TOD in an airliner, when real world obligations force you to pause the sim. When you continue the flight a few hours later all your approach settings are completely wrong because the live weather has changed.

Even worse, you have to pause your VFR flight midair while flying clear of clouds and find yourself in a thick soup some time later when you return to the sim - unable to continue your VFR flight unless you switch to a weather preset.

 

- Historic weather opens up many new opportunities for screenshots and videomakers.

 

- Last but not least historic weather simplifies the bugfixing. I remember when we had thunder and lightning out of the blue and Asobo had a hard time to recreate this issue because of the ever changing weather conditions. It would have been easy to recreate with historic weather.