Instantaneous precipitation rate
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Hi, love the app, I have been a subscriber for several years.
The one thing that I ever have to switch away from Windy for, is a forecast for instantaneous precipitation rate.
The "rainfall/thunder" layer appears to show the total rainfall expected over a period. I think it might be 1 or 2 hours. First of all, it's not very clear - so I'd like an explanation or visualization somewhere of what that range is. For example, if I choose 10:00 AM, I believe it will show me how much rain is forecast to fall between the two hour window from 9:00AM to 11:00AM.
This is a very useful layer, but it doesn't give me the most useful piece of information I would like to have, which is the specific predicted rainfall rate. On Windy, If a model tells me to expect 0.6 inches of rain at 10AM, (assuming it's a 2 hour window like I mentioned above) it doesn't differentiate between whether it's steady rain of 0.3 inches per hour from 9-11am, or it's a downpour of 6 inches per hour for 5 minutes and then dry otherwise.
This can be useful for predicting the precise time that a front will pass through, in order to schedule timing for outdoor activities. It can also be useful for preparing what gear to bring, as planning for a short burst of 6 inches of rain per hour is quite different than planning for a two hour long steady rain of 0.3 inches per hour.
Most/all major models publish instantaneous precipitation rate products. I would like to see these products included in Windy for the models where they are available. Most weather apps don't do this, so I always have to go to a website like tropical tidbits. If Windy had this, it would be yet another differentiator, and I'd never need to look elsewhere.
Thanks
Owen -
@opevans
In the FAQ you can read that Rain layer is the forecast as described:
Rain, thunder: Rain/snow accumulation in the last 3 hours, combined with lightning density forecast.The ECMWF model is forecasting precipitation rate of different type of precipitation in mm/h but this parameter is not displayed in Windy.
