it never left, it's just very very very rare now for whatever reason.

I was in Atlanta today in the sim during that storm.  Lightning and thunder were abundant and i experienced the same effect as you recorded in your video.

I actually sat here in the sim and watched the storm for awhile as it was really nice.

Eric

Edited June 4, 20233 yr by N6154Q

12 hours ago, F737MAX said:

Apart from a few scattered cumulonimbus  clouds at 6000' to the East while on approach, there wasn't anything else. When I arrived at LFBD, there was no light rain, visibility was far greater than either 2,000m or 3,000m and there was absolutely no thunder, lightning, or CB overhead, nor nearby. Could easily see the coastline, which is some 25 miles (40km / 40,000m) from the airfield.

Really disappointing.

I'm with you that Thunderstorm depiction needs serious attention, however I doubt that with conditions as described in the METAR reports you quoted we can have a 100% match with real life conditions. While frontal Thunderstorms can be fairly well predicted even by forecast models, "VCTS" hints at an unstable airmass producing the occasional thunderstorm "somewhere in the vicinity". The CAPE index and other indicators from forecast models may describe a certain probability, but that's about it.

When you say you had CB (although their depiction tends to be underwhelming in my experience) in the vicinity ("to the East"), I would consider the weather in the sim to be reasonable. The expectation to always have conditions at the airport exactly matching the METAR report is unrealistic, as with that METARs alone I would also expect the possibility to land in bright sunshine. That's why taking the general weather situation (Highs/Lows, fronts, stability/lability, local particularities....) into account is part of any irl flight preparation.

But again - that's not to say that storm depiction/thunderstorms don't need serious attention, as do many aspects of the Atmosphere-, Weather- and Environment simulation in MSFS.

2 hours ago, Tom_L said:

I'm with you that Thunderstorm depiction needs serious attention, however I doubt that with conditions as described in the METAR reports you quoted we can have a 100% match with real life conditions. While frontal Thunderstorms can be fairly well predicted even by forecast models, "VCTS" hints at an unstable airmass producing the occasional thunderstorm "somewhere in the vicinity". The CAPE index and other indicators from forecast models may describe a certain probability, but that's about it.

Except:

^^That's a front covering the most of the southern central band of France, including Bordeaux.
So why could I only count ~15 small, puffy clouds?

If you follow the link below, you can see an animation of lightning activity in the time in period in question.
LightningMaps.org map of time conditions

 

So, no. I did not base my frustrations of lacking weather representation solely on one airfield's METAR report.

Go to Nassau (MYNN) now and you'll see thunderstorms with lightning and thunder with live weather.

On 6/7/2023 at 12:17 PM, Alvega said:

Go to Nassau (MYNN) now and you'll see thunderstorms with lightning and thunder with live weather.

I hope ill be able to encounter some later this week.  During the summer in the southeast of the USA, theyre common but typically very isolated.  I dont know if MSFS would be able to replicate that or even have the time to do it before theyre gone (in real life weather).. I passed over a known area of t-storms just a few days ago, guy on vatsim verified it also.. When I flew over it at fl330 it as just higher cloud tops, not thick at all, no lightening visible, no turbulence.  

interesting, I spawned in RJTT yesterday the weather icon on the world map showed lightning, but none actually appeared in the sim.

Edited June 10, 20232 yr by Tuskin38

2 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

interesting is I spawned in RJTT yesterday the weather icon on the world map showed lightning, but none actually appeared in the sim.

And I spawned again in MYNN today, the weather icon just showed clouds without lightning but there was lightning. Guess the icon is not very trustable.

XP72 is seeing distant lightning right now

Last night flying across Mexico I witnessed some lightning, albeit coming from clouds that should never be Thunderstorms in the first place. A quick check of Blitzortung and there was very few lightning strikes in the area, checking meteoblue they had absolutely nothing 🙄 I wasn't anywhere near any airports to provide METAR either.

Oh how I wish we could go back to pre-SU7 storms, they were great, still it was a refreshing moment and now that the summers heat is here I may go storm chasing in the Sim to see if I can find a good one.

The UK is forecast to have extensive thunderstorms today, so if I don't see any in sim, then they must be gone from live weather.

Decent storm in the US near KBFR right now, loading the Sim to see if it's there

6 minutes ago, MarcG said:

Decent storm in the US near KBFR right now, loading the Sim to see if it's there

Nope, no lightning, the rain clouds are there albeit much smaller than what Windy & Meteoblue are saying but zero lightning

How are they gonna simulate tornados in 2024 version if they cant get proper clouds and thunderstorms depicted correctly in the sim?

Just asking

Don

REX Weatherforce and lightning are working fine for me. I notice when using Live weather the storms are very light. With Rex they are about 60% stronger and cloud to cloud and cloud to ground present.