Best posts made by Gabou971

Like you said, past wasn't that good. We've improved a lot our life condition over the years. Does it mean we have to stop thinking and stop improving it? I don't think so.

It's true, some ecologists are more or less extreme in their visions. But there are some important facts however, among others: Climate is changing too quickly for a lot of species to survive, and we are killing the oceans with plastic and overfishing. And this comes from scientists from all over the world. I saw with my own eyes a part of the north atlantic plastic vortex last year while sailing from Europe to the Caribbean and we got stuck in that thing for three days. This isn't catastrophism but something real. So yeah we might have some technology "ready for it" and somehow some of us will cope with all that shit... By the way, please send scientific articles about this because so far i've never heard of anything (coming from serious researches, I'm like you and try not to make assumptions) that could clean up that mess or regulate effectively global temperatures...

But anyway, you can't blame people because they try to awake consciences, even if you sometimes don't agree with them. You can't blame them because they fight for a better future. Because this is precisely what you wrote : "Before it was shit actually". So yeah, it means that one day some people thought that sewage you were talking about, going directly into rivers, was a bad idea in the past and you agreed with it obviously. And for sure at that time some people were like "I'm fed up with your waste of money. This river is flowing to the ocean anyway". I think you contradict yourself in a way.

Moreover, regarding the app... It won't be possible to find a weather app / website not talking about global warming and the fact that we should change certain things. Because climatologits see the real crap with their own eyes as well through their studies and data. They're on the front line and they're actually the ones who first sounded the alarm. So trying to find good weather info and data without the catastrophic or realistic part is kind of contradictory as well in my opinion.

Stay safe,
Gabriel

@Siff

Hello, I'm in Sint-Maarten and I survived Irma (My house didn't). REAL wind values have been constantly updated, thanks to NOAA planes flying through the hurricane constantly. They are today the only way to give us real wind data during such storms (because instruments on the ground fly away). During the peak intensity just before Irma hits sint maarten, they measured 225 mph wind gusts in the eyewall of the hurricane, and sustained wind of 185 mph. We had an anemometer here in Grand-Case airport. the last wind gust measured by the instrument before it broke was 135 mph 2 hours before the eyewall. Everything is destroyed here.

Models like GFS and ECMWF cannot predict hurricane winds, especially close to the eye, where the wind is the strongest, because the resolution scale of these models is not wide enough (this is the main reason to me). In the front of the hurricane, there is northerly wind with strong updrafts, 7 kms away, in the eye there is no wind and a strong downdraft, and the 7km away there is a strong southerly wind with updrafts again ! All of that with huge changes in pressure. It's so powerful in a so small area ! That's why they created the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model(HWRF). It is the only model using recon aircraft data, satellite imagery and buoys data at the same time !!! And it is the more precise model to predict hurricane wind direction and force (not the path of the hurricane).

So, regarding wind force and direction, the more you are close to the eye, the more GFS and ECMWF model will be inaccurate. But these models are better to predict the path of hurricanes, they work well on bigger scales !

Like I said I vote for AROME. This picture shows the actual coverage of the arome model which works now in other places in the world.
Arpege model is also available in open data as Arome is...

Here is a website using the AROME model open data to display them on some maps: https://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/arome.php?ech=3&mode=1&map=50

Very good job and improvements as always :)

Hey,

Well, a good alternative is to use "Satellite layer", with "Infra +" sublayer (and by the way that's what some other apps call "radar" but it's far from being true):

Satellite is not updated as often as radar layer though, and it also doesn't work the same way, as you might know already:

-Radars are on ground and get echoes from intense precipitations (liquid water). They reveal instantly the storms cells and that's why they're used on planes too. The main disadvantage is that only small areas are covered because radar echoes are limited in range and blocked by obstacles (mountains...)

-The enhanced satellite layer, using infrared bands, show the coolest and intense cloud tops, from 250 K (≈ -23°C) to 200 K (≈ -73°C), see the color scale on windy. Those cool clouds are the result of intense convection that pushes air upwards, which triggers thunderstorms. So it's also a good tool to track storms.

Let's have a look over Malaysia, It seems that there are huge cumulonimbus clouds developing in the area. Big wooly clouds, some of them even have a shadow over the ocean:

Let's have a look at the enhanced infrared picture now... Yes, something is definitely happening. The color scale reveals high intense cold cloud tops (thunderstorms) :

Using the radar layer, I could see the most active cells and storm cores. But I should be aware that clouds too far from radars will not be depicted (depending on power, height of the radar, etc...). Also some mountains might block the signal to the south:

Nice show observed last week in Slovenia.

Northerly wind pushed up by the Julian Alps. This picture shows the south of the alps.

Yep, good point, but I think It would be simplier to use the same feature if you're a pilot or not.

First, it might be a good idea to explain what are height and altitude to other users => height has the ground level for reference (AGL-above ground level). Altitude has the main sea level for reference (MSL)

There are in my opinion two options regarding aeronautical weather data :

-Forecaster point of view: Using charts, he gives the ALTITUDE of clouds (from MSL - main sea level) and doesn't care how you use the info...

-Pilots or controllers point of view: They don't want you to crash and provide the HEIGHT (from AGL - above ground level) of cloud base. So you have an idea of what you're going to see (or not...) while arriving or departing from an airport, whatever the altitude of the airfield.

Considering this, I think that giving the HEIGHT of cloud base is the best option (AGL), which is already the case. It is also good for non pilot users as it provides a useful and easily understandable info.

Regarding Freezing level... It's indeed more useful for pilots when using ALTITUDE (MSL) for other technical reasons. And... It's more logical for pilots but also for other users ... For hikers for exemple. They want to know the freezing ALTITUDE and not height, so they can compare it with the ALTITUDE of a mountain for exemple, because what is depicted on topo charts are ALTITUDEs.

A good solution in my opinion would be to use the words "height" and "altitude"in windy layers names and provide a clear definition of these 2 terms in the help forum section/legend, and obviously use MSL for freezing level and AGL for cloud base.

Hello ! :)

Could you tell us what your main ideas for improvement are ?

Indeed Windy is a great tool to have a quick access to general weather like surface wind, cloud base, temperature... You can also see Jetstreams patterns but I doubt general aviation pilots are interested in jetstream for flight planning... You can also quickly see lows and high pressure systems... With some experience you can locate warm and cold fronts... Of course, notams, taf and metar are accessible with recent tafs which is great ! And I was about to forget the awesome RADAR data !!!!!!!!

As you know however, aviation weather is more than that and it has to be provided in a very professional and standardized way. This involves for instance "significant weather charts", which are always drawn by forecasters on a regular basis after a careful analysis of multiples parameters including pilot reports.

This is why you should never rely on Windy for flight planning or any other app (free or not) that doesn't provide professional charts and data. The best solution for me to fly VFR or IFR on small planes is to rely on the aviation met service of the country I intend to fly. It's 99% of the time free and you get official aviation weather. For that reason, I never use an non official app to get aviation weather forecasts. (Or yes...there are private professional providers like rocket route... Jeppesen... Those are expensive though).

Regarding those charts:
I think Windy uses open data to provide us this awesome automated tool. Data like aviation charts or cold / warm fronts, which are not automatically generated (drawn by someone), cannot be used by windy as far as I know.

See you in the sky !
Gab

Hello,

Yes it's a storm now! But a it's a very small one at least. Its convection area is very small and thunderstorms appear to be quite small compared to other typical tropical storms. However at this moment thunderstorms tops are reaching FL450. That represents a lot of water that could surely cause flash floods and mudslides...

Satellite imagery showing the size of the storm and thunderstorm tops

People from Guadeloupe to Grenada should be extremely careful regarding floodings, wind gusts and also waves caused by this little storm.

AROME wind accumulation for the next 42 hours, showing gusts up to 130 km/h

And ahah yes I didn't notice that about island names :)

Those clouds are pure beauty.

You made a little mistake with the altitudes (15000 and 20000 km)

:) thanks for all these articles.

@mrandall overlays are available directly from nhc and other specialized websites. Feel free as well to add them when necessary! :) there also a live aircraft recon overlay available at tropicalatlantic website.

Yeah sad to see that Islands are too often forgotten ... Yes they are land and people live on it by the way :)

And Lorenzo is now the most intense hurricane ever recorded so far east (~ 40° W) in the Atlantic. Last one was hurricane Helene in 1988. But it reached the same intensity 400 miles west of current lorenzo position and much more south! Julia in 2010 reached its peak intensity on 33°W, 115 knots windspeed.

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Lorenzo peak intensity was reached on Friday 27th around 09:00 UTC:

Minimal pressure : 937 Hpa.
Wind: 145 mph or 126 kts or 233 km/h.
Gusts: up to 173 mph or 150 kts or 278 km/h.

Lorenzo should be downgraded as a cat 1 hurricane before it reaches Acores islands. Impacts on the region are still expected to be intense and dangerous.
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It's been 3 years hurricanes have been breaking records in the Atlantic basin... Irma, Maria, Dorian, Lorenzo...I'm not sure it's a coincidence.

As forecasted, hurricanes are becoming more powerful, they form earlier next to Africa and then affect directly Europe. It's crazy.

Hello,

Please see post and answers, and feel free to post in this topic to avoid multiple topics about the same thing:

https://community.windy.com/topic/9720/hi-end-category-4-hurricane-lorenzo-makes-a-turn-towards-europe-but-no-threat-to-land

And yes, Acores are on Lorenzo path I agree with you, and of course I consider those islands as "land". They are not "rarely" hit unfortunately. It happens quite often. However they were threaten by a Cat 4 hurricane this time and it was scary. Fortunately, It will most probably be a cat 1 hurricane when it reaches Acores, which is not particularely rare (but of course still dangerous). I hope impacts will be limited.

I lived in New Zealand for one year and I can tell you they know about those storms... Winds up to 120 km/h is common in new-zealand and the local met office often issues storm watches and advisories. The term "cyclone" alone or "hurricane" or "typhoon" is not to be used there because they are front related storms, like the winter storms in Europe (but turning clockwise in the southern hemisphere). When a warm air mass from the tropics and a cold air from the pole start to swirl, an extra tropical storm or extra tropical cyclone is born. Hurricanes, typhoons or (tropical) cyclone (all the same thing) are formed within the same tropical air mass and are not front related.

Is that the one also called "morning glory cloud" ?

1. Add a button like the new "pressure button" to switch to UTC Time / Local time based on your position.

2. May be it's not the most important thing to do but ... Add an hurricane layer showing current storm positions and names, previous track with intensities, and NHC official forecasted track + few relevant model tracks, intensity and wind radius. I know that a good programmer can do that working all automated, as raw data is available for free (god bless america). It might even be possible to add the HWRF model for those storms, as it's the most accurate model for hurricane wind prediction today (not for the track)... With the awesome windy graphic style that could be a very nice feature. I tried to do that few years ago but my programmer skills are too bad. I have a ton of websites for raw data or automated websites to show you some exemples.

Today on french TV for the transat race "Route du rhum" !

Well,

Same case in Slovenia. Hottest ever temp has been recorded for february : 24.1°C on the 28th.
https://t.co/WJJx5Njb07

The same in Hungary... 23.5°C recorded in Sarvar. This is a new record for the country...
https://www.met.hu/omsz/OMSZ_hirek/index.php?id=3135&m=2&hir=Uj_orszagos_es_fovarosi_homersekleti_rekord_(2019.02.28

And I was thinking... Ok this is happening in Europe.... But...
Tasmania has just experienced 39.7°C on the 2nd of march. All time record...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-02/march-temperature-record-set-in-hobart-for-tasmania/10864696

Poor us !

Hello,

Be also aware that models can also predict clear sky where there is a high pressure area... But those areas are subject to fog or very low clouds, especially in the morning. Some other local phenomena can be very hard to take into account by computer models (local winds, advection fog)...

The sky can also be clear but "grey" at high altitude because of dense high cloud layers coming from a distant thunderstorm area for exemple...

In the caribbean it can be also very hazy because of fine sand coming from the Sahara. Even without a cloud in the sky, people all agree to say that "weather" is bad or that it's going to rain...

In all those cases, sky is actually clear... but not according to our expectations of a clear sky... or simply not clear from our very precise location (in case of fog, it can be clear less than one kilometer away).

It wasn't sunny but what the weather looked like exactly that particular day?

@tkeane

You can say the sky is clear when you see no clouds from your position. However, it doesn't mean the visibility is good, and that you're gonna be able to see stars for exemple, because others things have to be taken into account (light pollution, haze, ect...)

That is also an official definition for weather given to plane pilots, but in this case, you only consider a volume with the destination airport in the middle (so from that airport a controller might see distant clouds out of the airport volume, and announce "sky clear" to an arriving aircraft).

But I think the first definition is what he wanted to say. :) ?

Hello,

I know that arome model is available for some areas around the globe in addition to a part of Europe. Are the data source different for those areas? It is possible for Windy to use and display data for these areas ?