In my last couple of flights I discovered that current rain/ts areas are not shown in the sim (MSFS2024). Default weather engine.

I collected two really clear examples in the last days:

First example:
Rain/TS cell 20.06 wandering from east germany over to poland, with Sigmet for TS up to FL420. Real world aircraft are all flying around the area.

Displayed on Vatsim / Meteoblue real world rain radar:

Vatsim

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://i.postimg.cc/gcC666Zc/ex2.png[/img][/url]

Meteoblue

[url=https://postimg.cc/p5r3csqy][img]https://i.postimg.cc/p5r3csqy/ex2-3.png[/img][/url]

Weather Radar Fenix
=> Nothing at all

[url=https://postimg.cc/cKW2GxFy][img]https://i.postimg.cc/cKW2GxFy/ex2-1.png[/img][/url]

View outside in the sim just in front of the (real world) wx cell:
=> Nothing apart from some clouds

[url=https://postimg.cc/tsQmFRQp][img]https://i.postimg.cc/tsQmFRQp/ex2-2.png[/img][/url]

Second example:
Heavy cell above Düsseldorf (it was crazy, real world aircraft where completly avoiding the area doing crazy routings into Düsseldorf)

Real world rain radar:

[url=https://postimg.cc/JtSTW7h3][img]https://i.postimg.cc/JtSTW7h3/Screenshot-2026-06-19-202708.png[/img][/url]

EDDL Metar at this time:

[url=https://postimg.cc/py5ZkNBk][img]https://i.postimg.cc/py5ZkNBk/Screenshot-2026-06-19-203507.png[/img][/url]

Weather Radar Fenix:
=> Nothing to see

[url=https://postimg.cc/CB3b914Z][img]https://i.postimg.cc/CB3b914Z/Screenshot-2026-06-19-202725.png[/img][/url]

View outside in the sim inside the wx cell
=> Nothing, coulds in the distance but still no rain

[url=https://postimg.cc/Mf0f4YT0][img]https://i.postimg.cc/Mf0f4YT0/Screenshot-2026-06-19-202920.png[/img][/url]

I didnt notice that the last years.

Did anyone made the same experience lately? What could be the issue in MSFS 2024 since Meteoblue is showing the rain areas correctly on their map?

Thanks!

Edited Sunday at 11:50 AM3 days by CallsignBA

Okay, I am to dumb to find out how to insert pictures directly, sorry. Thought this is the way
[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://i.postimg.cc/gcC666Zc/ex2.png[/img][/url]

Edited Sunday at 11:54 AM3 days by CallsignBA

Lately? only for the past 5 years 😆
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/c/bugs/weather-bug/

Asobo are unfortunately very ig-nor-ant (seriously this is in the swear filter!?) of the Live Weather issues facing the Sim, especially Thunderstorms whereby Seb relentlessly tells us "it's not summer in the northern hemisphere" which he's said in the past when not understanding the issues. See here for proof in a recent Q&A where they ask users to post in the forums......which people have been doing for years....!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPHlS1Iu6ys&t=2800s

Edited Sunday at 11:59 AM3 days by MarcG

That is the practical problem with this more than the visual one, I think. For IFR I don't expect the sim to match every radar return perfectly, but when a large convective area is missing completely, route planning becomes awkward because the cockpit picture, external radar and what other traffic is doing no longer line up.

I usually end up cross-checking an external radar or Meteoblue before departure if the weather looks active, then treating the in-sim weather radar with a bit of caution. It is workable, but it is not ideal when you are trying to make a sensible deviation decision in cruise.

5 hours ago, MarcG said:

Lately? only for the past 5 years 😆
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/c/bugs/weather-bug/

Asobo are unfortunately very ig-nor-ant (seriously this is in the swear filter!?) of the Live Weather issues facing the Sim, especially Thunderstorms whereby Seb relentlessly tells us "it's not summer in the northern hemisphere" which he's said in the past when not understanding the issues. See here for proof in a recent Q&A where they ask users to post in the forums......which people have been doing for years....!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPHlS1Iu6ys&t=2800s

They're not ig-nor-ant of course, but this user is ig-nor-ant about exactly how and why Asobo prioritizes what it does. They're not obligated to adhere to anyone's set of priorities. They have to consider EVERYTHING, financial and otherwise, not just what this party or that party thinks matters most. This is a massive project developed to work well on a giant range of performance capabilities and do it in such fashion that it is sustainable and that last piece is the most challenging of all considering the franchise is attached to MS.

I flew CYEG>CYVR yesterday and it was an absolute downpour with puddles all over the runway and wretched visibility, and some lightening strikes nearby such that I would never have been allowed to TO, but I did anyway! MSFS continues to deliver an astoundingly good simulation overall and I'm very thankful for it. I'm looking forward to night lighting being added to default airports and so much more...

It’s not ignorance, because the community has told them this time and time again over the years.

It’s not a matter of prioritizing resources either; the community and third-party developers have asked them to open the API to third parties so they can fix it, but they don’t want to.

The weather really isn’t important to them; we have to accept that and make do with what we have.

Yeah, it's priorities and might even be engine limitation too. Does anyone recall how quickly Asobo responded when someone hacked their sky color code? They actually included a patched sky color in their next update! Was it because someone was able to hack the code? Or was it because the sky color "issues" went "viral"? I tend to think the latter... speak up enough and they will react!

5 hours ago, KERNEL32 said:

Does anyone recall how quickly Asobo responded when someone hacked their sky color code? They actually included a patched sky color in their next update!

The maddening aspect is that they work with third parties in every aspect of the sim - except for Live Weather.

Unfortunately they missed hiring said someone (who went by "Biology2394" in the Forums), who is now working magic on XPlane's atmosphere and weather depiction as far as I am aware, which is imho - although flawed in many instances too - far superior to the oftentimes comic-style and cumulus ridden MSFS Live Weather (and yes, i have stunning expierences as well, but all in all it lacks far more than it delivers). And there is development, whereas larger efforts beyond the occasional tweaking here and there are missing in MSFS entirely since SU7(2020). There are evidently circumstances that do not even allow the topic to be addressed openly.

It is sad that a modern flight simulator settles for such a mediocre implementation, especially after such a promising start.
The primary argument against opening up the weather engine for third party developers was that it constituted a core component of the product. I was going along with that decision, because there was so much potential. Yet, this core component has seen no further development for five years now, whereas all other areas have. That argument has therefore lost all validity.

But the truth is also that many weather related threads in the Forums didn't gain much traction, like a Wishlist-thread asking for a dedicated Atmosphere and Weather related SimUpdate back in 2020 days. So it’s fair to assume that most gamers are satisfied with what they get. They are not to blame, because most don't even know what they are missing. For me, as a PPL holder, a whole dimension of flying - the go/no-go decision or any serious planning for adverse weather, dodging storms.... - is missing, and the way I feel is that it is not what was promised before the release of 2020.

"And when will the weather radar be improved"?

55:16