Windy.com introduces soaring forecast

julianysouza_ofc

opelvivaro

fantastiskt bra

xfcstormchaser

Tiny Cyclone in the atlantic ocean got sucked in big cyclone with name 90L Снимок_2021_05_20_19_13_59_52.png Снимок_2021_05_20_19_14_06_113.png
This cyclone got sucked after 3-2 Days
Wind of 90L, 38kt

ozone

@filip_k
That looks pretty good to me.

A request: can you use the same color scheme as the drjack.info or the topmeteo website so that it's possible to compare apples to apples? Also, like the Drjack website, is it possible to break down the max climbable height into smaller increments, with more colors? Drjack.info uses every 1000 feet ( sorry about the english units- it's all we have in the USA).

whoosh

@korina Thanks for adding the thermal forecast, Im sure it will be appreciated by all pilots. Is the forecast model similar to the RASP forecasts that we have for soaring or have you used a new model?

rayssa_brasil

@discoverpg concordo

steelek

Holy molly. Now I'll be able to see in the morning if I need additional pillow under my butt when planning to fly :D

chrab

Nice. We will see how it work. Some ideas:

calculate speed of lifting
rating soaring condition
better sounding, like eg. xcmeteo.net.

Korina

@whoosh Hello, the calculations are performed by us, but we also use additional data sources.

Korina

@chrab Thank you, we will consider it :)

vicb

@chrab I just happened to have developped a plugin called "better sounding", see https://www.windy.com/plugins/windy-plugin-sounding

vicb

Pretty cool,

@FILIP_K Could you expand on how you compute the Top Of Lift and give details about the algo ?

vicb

One small nit: thermals are still displayed at 11PM...

vicb

@ozone You can customize the colors to your liking in the settings.

Go to Settings > Customize color scale > Thermals

To windy, may be add a "s" to scale ? ("Customize color scales")

Filip_K

@vicb Thanks for reporting that. We've noticed it too and we're looking into what is causing it.

Filip_K

@vicb Sorry, that is something we want to keep to yourselves yet.
We're open to discussion on what should be forecasted under which conditions though.

KommandorKeen

Excellent addition.
Ignore all comments regards extra soaring specific layers as most can be derived very broadly from thermal height. How fast a thermal goes up is first driven by the height it attains, and secondarily by the temperature profile on the way. So unless you are going to deliver a profile tool for soaring........ :-)

There is one additional piece of information that would be useful, and that is the buoyancy to shear ratio (b/s ratio) or bullshit ratio, as we call it. That helps determine if the thermal will be too broken up to use, even if it goes up a long way. That said, simplistically if its windy the B/S ratio is low, if it is light winds it is high. Exceptions are the record breaking long distance days on the flatlands where the airflow is laminar but strong and the temperature gradient favourable. Individuals chasing those records will go a bit beyond windy anyway.

Thanks for continuing to improve a great product. If you want to incorporate the Australian BOM ACCESS model send me a message.
Simon

mteugels

@korina Great Idea . Any chance to have PFD (Potential flight distance) based on the normal 18M span like Topmeteo/Skysight does ? Many thanks !

Korina

@mteugels We will consider it :)

TZ

Hi, we are planning to add some more features, but not everything. The way we are walking is not a detailed flight calculator for questions like "how many points can I get tomorrow with my specific glider?", but rather "is it going to be good weather tomorrow?". For better insights we are planning to add/improve meteograms for points or routes and also improve sounding. These tools should work well together and be part of whole Windy ecosystem with all its features and layers.
Would you for example be interested in maximum climb displayed as isolines?