Pilots

@rittels suggested to use https://windy.com/plugins on iOS to get at the list of blessed plugins

long press this link and choose "open link" does work on iOS/Chrome

still... error reporting for windy needs some love

up until a few days ago one could visit https://windy.com and use it like on the desktop (with Hamburger menu and all)

the Hamburger menu is gone on iOS both with Chrome AND Safari, it still works on Android

means: use of plugins impossible - why?

was that intentional? or just an accident?

where can I find a list of changes over time so I can avoid asking here and check myself first?

what is the proper place to report this? This category? Any category?

what about an issue tracker for changes and defect reports instead of littering this stuff over dozens of themes and categories?

@dicksonfu thanks for notifying us. We've switched from NOAA NOMADS to NOAA FTPPRD as our import source. FTPPRD seems to be faster in serving us data, which was slowing our import from NOMADS before. Latest update (reference time 2022-01-17T06:00:00Z) is already available as for now (2022-01-17T11:20:00Z)

I created this for my hot air balloon community fellows, but it might be useful for others:

https://static.mah.priv.at/public/windy-for-balloonists-2022/#0

feedback welcome

Michael

@wadoadi @windy1994 @Korina I did the same reset the Apple Watch app from the iPhone application. For others, if somebody would have the same issue, here you have a little help.

If the new features did not appear after you updated the iPhone Windy application you can follow the following steps to make the new functions available on your Apple Watch:

• open the Watch app on your iPhone
• scroll down and open Windy app (you will find it under "Installed on Apple Watch")
• Toggle OFF the "Show App on Apple Watch" option and then turn it ON again
• wait some seconds until it will appear again on your Apple Watch
• open the Windy app on your Apple Watch and magic happens, from now it will shows all of the new features:)

I hope it helps!:)

@zanep-0 I had the same issue like you, it did not appear after I updated the iPhone Windy application. But I was able to make it appear, follow the following steps to make the new functions available on your Apple Watch:

• open the Watch app on your iPhone
• scroll down and open Windy app (you will find it under "Installed on Apple Watch")
• Toggle OFF the "Show App on Apple Watch" option and then turn it ON again
• wait some seconds until it will appear again on your Apple Watch
• open the Windy app on your Apple Watch and magic happens, from now it will shows all of the new features:)

I hope it helps!:)

@tz In this case maybe it would be better to have "Ceiling" word despite of the currently used "Cloud base", if the data is ceiling data that Windy got directly from ECMWF. Because Cloud base means the first cloud layer that can be also lower extent than 50%, in aviation it can be written like FEW (1-2/8 octas) / SCT (3-4/8 octas), in the METARs at the airports we can find these informations. Regarding the Ceiling, it can be from BKN (5-7/8 octas) to OVC (8/8 octas) types, because these two are covers more than 50% of the sky, so either BKN or OVC is depicted in a METAR this will be a "Ceiling". And this difference between Cloud base and Ceiling is very important according to my opinion.
I think maybe in this case it would not be so confusing, if you would change its name to "Ceiling" on Windy Meteogram.
What do you think about that? @TZ @Korina @ivo

I am happy to announce a significant improvement to the data quality availability through the windy radiosonde plugin, related to the backend service

in summary:

we have MUCH better coverage in high-resolution ascents since two days, as well as new stations appeared which had no coverage at all so far

this is thanks to a patch developed by windy's formidable Mr Karpíšek @FILIP_K which is running in the backend now - congratulations, Filip!

the gory detail:

radiosonde ascents are distributed in two formats, a telex-oriented legacy format called FM35, and a more recent high-resolution format called FM94 (or BUFR in meteospeak)

due to redundant data feeds, we receive both formats for many stations - if for a given station a high-res view is available, that is given preference - if we do not have something else, we fall back to the legacy format

I've been running this backend service for close to a year or so, and I always wondered why for some stations we have a strange form of coverage: sometimes we get hi-res data, but in many cases just legacy format. And there was no obvious pattern recognizable why this is so. My initial suspicion was that this was just an artefact of some data feeds which we have no control over, so have to live with it.

This manifested itself most visibly in Russian radiosonde ascents, but - as we later found out - has affected data from many other countries as well.

Following an in-depth exchange with helpful friends in Russia, it became clear we better search for errors in our software. I detected a smell in a central piece of code, and Filip came up with a key improvement in no time flat.

I very happy to have that mystery resolved.

You can probe yourself:

• Hohhot ZBHH (China, WMO id: 53463) - visible in hi-res since two days, no previous data
• same for  Lhasa ZULS (WMO id: 55591),  Ezeiza Aero SAEZ (WMO id: 87576), Neuquen Aero SAZN (WMO id: 87715)
• Bechar DAOR (Algeria, WMO id: 60571) - hi-res now, previously only legacy format
• all Russian stations are hi-res now AFAICT
• ascents distributed via NMC Denmark and Meteo France als improved in quality

I am pretty sure this service is now best-of-class as far as publically accessible sources of radiosonde ascents worldwide go!

@sdolotom There is no only right way to do so. You could perhaps have a look at what meteoblue has to say about this topic (section Quantification of cloud cover) https://content.meteoblue.com/en/specifications/weather-variables/clouds

Hello @sdolotom. Are you referring to ptype parameter? If so, check Parameters section of docs https://api.windy.com/point-forecast/docs#parameters