Thêta e and Theta’w
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I use a lot the equivalent potential temperature thêta e and thêta’w, at 850hPa to follow the temperatures of the air mass. I don’t think this is possible with Windy unfortunately.
Am I correct ? If yes, what do you use ?
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@Yves70
The equivalent potential temperature is not available on Windy. All parameters provided by a weather model are not shown on this app. Mainly only those necessary for outdoor activities. -
For sure, this is not possible and probably not the purpose of this site or application.
Having said that within all parameters provided by weather model, thêta e or thêta’w are within the most important parameters to make a forecast.
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Professional forecasters could of course use Windy if they wish, but the latest is obviously not enough for them to produce reliable and highly standardized WMO/ICAO forecasts; they generally use much more sophisticated (and costly) applications and data sources (LongRange/NowCast/Ensemble/etc. forecast models), which are generally not available to public users.
Parameters like thêta are useless to the major part of Windy users; global models have hundreds of parameters, atmospheric levels and forecasts, which would be hard to handle on Windy UI for most of its users... E.g. each hour forecast of GFS 0.25° model consists in 1 grib2 file (300+ MB), which contains 525+ grids (one for each parameter/level).
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@Yves70 said in Thêta e and Theta’w:
For sure, this is not possible and probably not the purpose of this site or application.
Yes, Windy has been designed first as a handy app for outdoor activity, but also to provide weather forecasts to weather enthusiasts all over the world and even to some professionals.
As a rough estimation, I use the Temperature map at 850hPa as the EPT is not available.
What miss me really is a Geopotential height map (the geopotential heights are only available as isolines i.e. isohypses) -
Yes, agree with you. I would love to get the geopential height map, that I use on a daily basis. So useful,... Together with thêta’w, I would not need to use another site than Windy to prepare my forecasts for my outdoor activities !!!!
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About geopotential height: wouldn't the combination of pressure color shading map and geopotential height isolines be enough useful?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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@vsinceac
Of course not, this map is at sea level !!
Geopotential heights are useful at much higher levels. They are used generally at 500hPa and allow to show the air masses and advections. On Windy it’s necessary to display isohypses on Temperature layer or Wind layer, which is not ideal.
Geopotential heights are shown in colours at 500hPa. White lines are isobars, but less useful. -
Mea culpa, you're right: on Windy, Geopotential Height isolines may be displayed at any standard level, but Windy cannot do it as color shading map.
As Windy has the grids of parameter Geopotential Height at all standard levels, I guess it would not require too much effort to render it also as a color shading map... Someone in the wind should just take such a decision :o))) Even If I'm not sure this would add more info than current isolines rendering...
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Definitely more visual information. Much clearer.
Rather than just isolines with Temperature layer:
With another colour setting for Temperature:
With Wind layer:
I really prefer the map of Météociel here above.
Windy has already the data to make a Geopotential height layer. It should very useful for a better understandIng of future weather development.
