Longer preview of radar expeced
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Hello,
Today i changed to windy premium and found, that radar preview of rain and thunderstorms is still limited to only 1 hour forecast . It will be nice to have 3 hours to make detail plan.
Stefan / Berlin -
@stebobln I just paid for the premium, because I thought the extended future view would be apart of it. Mine remains at 1hr and it is super disappointing.
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I agree... In fact that was one of the features I was looking for when I upgraded tp Premium. Also the forecast weather just looks like it just moves the active radar in the direction it's trending but doesn't really reveal a true forecast map.
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@pentexco said in Longer preview of radar expeced:
Also the forecast weather just looks like it just moves the active radar in the direction it's trending but doesn't really reveal a true forecast map.
Yes, absolutely. A forecast for the next 3 hours or more, based on the latest radar image, is irrelevant. Even though some weather apps do it. A weather radar is only an observation tool, not a forecasting device.
Or to provide Nowcasting you need to combine this picture with a 1km-resolution model. But this type of weather model is not available everywhere. -
If you read the discussions here, radar "forecasting" is a very controversial feature. That's due to it not really being a forecast. Instead, it's just an extrapolation, where we take the current images from a radar, calculate the movement vectors of different features and show how the situation could look if the features kept moving in the same direction and at the same speed during the next hour.
However - it will not show new phenomena that could emerge and it assumes that they will not disappear. It's a feature that is really popular in some regions, where it is a good predictor of rain or thunderstorms which are coming in the next hour. However, in other regions, with different geography, it can be less useful. For example, it's good for people who live in a single spot and know how storms tend to behave as they approach from different directions. However, without this local knowledge, you really cannot rely on it even within a 1h timeframe. A 3 hour radar extrapolation would basically be complete fiction.
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@selverob Well, the news stations can do it... Just saying? They may be off but at least they are trying to predict a few hours out.
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@pentexco
Windy can do it! Just check the "Rain, thunder" layer to get rain forecasts from several weather models. -
@idefix37 Thanks, I give that a shot.
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Oh yes, if you want rain or thunderstorm forecast, you can just use the rain layer to get it :) It's just that the Radar/Radar+ layers show radar data, where the preditction works very differently, as I wrote above.
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I find it comical how many people purchase/subscribe to Windy expecting what very well may be THE most requested feature on possibly EVERY single weather service.
I did it.
And boy howdy how disappointing.
Has anyone at Windy ever taken a step or two back and considered that many (arguably MOST) of us are not full blown sanctioned meteorologists?
How about (of the multitudes of layers available) adding one for us "Dummies" that's called- I don't know- "Forecast, FOR FUNSIES!"
I'm sure this has been suggested or requested before. Don't waste your breath telling me I'm the only one.
The granular control and layers are absolutely fabulous. I enjoy exploring the platform. I could spend a 40 hour week tinkering and I'm sure I would barely scratch the surface of Windy's capabilities.
Unless I was looking for a simple forecast. Like we can get ANYWHERE, just with a boatload of ads. I am trying the "Rain, thunder" layer now and I am... underwhelmed. 14-ish day timeline? Cool! Where is the loop feature?
Also, the whole argument posited earlier about the accuracy of predictions, or it "just being fiction," well- yeah? I suspect the average user knows that. We don't look at the news or Windy for that matter expecting an airtight guarantee that will hold water in a court of law. For crying out loud- it's right there in the name- "forecast," "prediction." Give us a break, geez. That is the weakest argument and so played out I'm not sure why you're even bothering.
Thanks for all the other features, though! Wild app!
