Windy.com introduces soaring forecast

[Korina]

As some members of our team are pilots themselves, we decided to enrich Windy.com with a new soaring forecast layer for (but not only) glider and paraglider pilots!

The new feature is called Thermals and is a part of the Clouds group. To access it, open --> "More layers.." and add Thermals to your main layer selection:

The color scale indicates thermal height (meters or feet AMSL) and is overlayed with cloud type icons (small/large cumulus, overcast, lightnings). Soaring forecast is available for all the global models (ECMWF, GFS, ICON) as well as for the local models ICON-EU and NAM.

During the initial beta phase, thermals will be available to all of our users. Once the beta phase finishes, Thermals will be available to subscribers only.

The thermals layer is available on all platforms - desktop, app, and mobile browser.

Thermals layer was brought to you by our developer @FILIP_K , who is a passionate pilot himself. Well done Filip!

Feedback wanted!

This is an experimental feature in early stages of development, we will appreciate your feedback below this article! (:

https://www.windy.com/-Show---add-more-layers/overlays?ccl,50.087,2.387,5,i:pressure,internal

[Filip_K]

More information on how to read Thermals is provided under "info" icon

[DiscoverPG]

Just chatting to my paragliding class last week... "Windy doesn't have anything for the thermal index yet besides the CAPE forecast. I'm hoping they expand that capability soon!"
THANK YOU!!!

[glover]

This is an excellent addition to the site. It will prove to be very helpful. Thank you!

Greig Glover
Woodbury, MN, USA

[Pirbakhsh]

All is best

[graverobber90089]

@korina
How often does sheer winds affects Michiganians homes?

[MG]

Epic layer,
would it be possible to add airspace VFR toggle on an off switch maybe switch in and out of the clouds? Im just being picky. this is epic.

[idefix37]

@graverobber90089 said in Windy.com introduces soaring forecast:

@korina
How often does sheer winds affects Michiganians homes?

Windy does not provide historical or statistical data. There are many articles on Internet that you can find about the frequency of wind damages, like for example this one:
https://project.geo.msu.edu/geogmich/tornades.html

[Filip_K]

@mg There is already a way to display airspaces using Airspaces plugin by @rittels (at least in the desktop version).

Go to Menu --> Install Windy plugin and load it.

[julianysouza_ofc]

@filip_k Oi

[opelvivaro]

fantastiskt bra

[xfcstormchaser]

Tiny Cyclone in the atlantic ocean got sucked in big cyclone with name 90L
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