Did you know that you can customize Windy colors for almost any layer? What is the point of doing it? You may prefer your own color palette, but also, by this way, you can deal with some specific requirement.

For example, it may be helpful to visualize a particular level of temperature from which you consider that it may hurt people and your environment. By using a particular color you will be alerted just by looking at the map.

If you are fan of boating, you may use a color like red - the usual sign of danger - when the wind reaches a certain force. And as everyone does not have the same threshold of danger for outdoor activities, it is better to set the threshold by yourself. In the example below the red color was used from 28 knots of wind, i.e. 7 Beaufort which is an usual warning level for a coastal cruiser boat.

Details are shown here.

But there are other reasons, such as the case of a Windy user who is green blind. It was better for him to replace this color with another one.

How to change a layer color scale?

This change can only be made via the website windy.com, not in the phone app, and you need to be logged in. But when the change has been made on desktop, it will automatically be applied also on the phone or tablet application.

Go to Settings and choose Customize Color Scale. Select the layer you want to edit.

You may want to customize the Waves layer. If you are fond of paddling on the seashore or if you are a transoceanic sailor, you will not consider the same scale for waves height.

Selecting the Waves layer you get this table:

In the first column, you can change the steps of the scale and/or, in the second column, the colors.

You know that colors on your screen is a mix of 3 base colors: Red, Green, Blue, which are specified by the RGB code with 3 numbers as you see in the second column like rgb (192,51,95)

How to modify the RGB code

1st solution:

When you click a color line you open a small window which allow you to change the hue (1) and the density/brightness (2).

2nd solution:

You can use some RGB palette like this one:

• RGB Color Codes Chart by RapidTables

The first tool, RGB color picker, is similar to the Windy tool here above. The second one, RGB color codes charts, is easier to use. Click on a color, note the 3 figures for RGB and type them in the Windy table.

When you are satisfied with your colors, click Save. At any time you can switch back to the Windy default settings by clicking Load defaults

And for example you can get this type of colors scale for waves:

If you want to obtain directly this color scale just look at this thread in Windy community:

• Waves colours

Large commercial vessels use poorly refined heavy fuel containing sulfur compounds. These boats release large amounts of sulfur dioxide SO2 which is a source of acidification for the environments (oceans, forests ...). Due to local regulations on the US coasts, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the English Channel, these vessels must switch locally to a more refined fuel with a limited content of sulfur compounds, similar to the diesel fuel. Elsewhere they can use this heavy fuel, even in the Mediterranean where there is a lot of traffic.

In addition to SO2, these ships produce a lot of nitrogen oxides, such as NO2, to the point that coastal areas may become highly polluted areas. One can imagine pollution in cities with car traffic or near certain industrial sites. But at sea, people think that the air is clean, which is not the case everywhere.

The Windy maps that present these pollutants, SO2 and recently NO2, speak for themselves: they make it possible to highlight and monitor this pollution along the trade routes of the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean ... The comparison of these traces of pollutants at sea with the main shipping routes shows an obvious correlation.

However, these big boats remain the least expensive and even the least polluting means per ton of freight transported. If it were necessary to transport the same quantities of goods by truck, plane or even diesel train, the pollution would be worse!

The dust of the Sahara desert raised by the wind can cross the oceans. Using NASA satellite imagery, scientists have shown that this transport by upper tradewinds reaches the Amazon basin and contributes to the supply of nutrients to the Amazon rainforest. Part of this dust comes from the Bodélé depression, which is an ancient lake that covered part of Chad at the time when the Sahara was green, several thousand years ago. It has disappeared, and the current Lake Chad is somehow a remnant.

The bottom of the Bodélé depression, located approximately 17°N and 17°E, is rich in dust from the microorganisms that lived in this ancient lake. This region, between the mountains of Tibesti and Ennedi, experiences violent local winds in winter that lift clouds of dust.

The transport of this particular dust is a source of nutrients needed by plants especially phosphorus, but also potassium, soluble iron... Thus the largest desert feeds the largest rainforest in the world.

This dust from the Sahara can also reach the Amazon rain forest, the Caribbean zone and even the southern part of United States.

In spring and summer, SW currents frequently bring mineral dust from central Sahara to Western Europe. The early spring that we know this year in this part of Europe because of the blocked high pressure is causing a rise in temperatures and the transport of dust from the Sahara as shown by this map from Windy. The southern flow on the west flank of the anticyclonic ridge carries this dust over Spain, the west of France, Great Britain and Ireland, up to Norway.

https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-how-much-saharan-dust-feeds-amazon-s-plants

https://www.windy.com/annotation/5ca33262ade88d001cd025d5

@ivo
Vote 2: AROME

AROME is available as free data. Very interesting along coastline, in mountain zone and for local forecasts (thunderstorms, large towns effect...)

Cover image: Sea near Marseille when Mistral blows

Next Sunday, May 5, all models predict a storm at sea, or at least a strong gale weather, with average winds of 9 Bf (40kt, 75 km/h) and gusts of more than 75kt (130km/h). This type of storm is quite common in this region and it is linked to the typical conditions that cause these violent winds.

The French coast of the Mediterranean Sea is surrounded by mountains that change the speed and direction of the winds when high pressure is established on the near Atlantic. The northwesterly flow at ground level is deflected by 3 mountains, the Alps, the Massif Central and the Pyrenees.
The Mistral blows in the narrow valley of the Rhone to the coast, in Provence and in Languedoc. It is a strong and gusty wind, usually cold, which is feared in the summer for the risk of forest fires.

Northwestern Tramontane causes sudden storms in the Gulf of Lion. Both are accelerated by the upper flow crossing the mountains with a foehn effect providing gusting conditions and a typical blue sky.

In addition to the pressure gradient, a dynamic low in the Gulf of Genoa results from the divergent upper flow after the passage over the Alps. This depression in the Ligurian Sea can move and it is its position that actually controls the direction of the winds at sea, between Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands.
  At sea, sailors generally fear deep depressions, but in this region, the high pressures that settle in the west or the north of France resulting in mistral or tramontane storms, mariners rather watch the anticyclones!

@ivo
Great idea to mix the layer of rain and lightning

@robbrooks33
Fronts are NOT drawn by numerical weather forecast models, but by skill weather forecast meteorologists.
As Windy shows maps directly and automatically issued from weather forecast models, there is no way to show fronts.

Moreover, what does the drawing of the fronts bring? The position of the air masses? The changes of direction, and the eventual strengthening, of the wind? The type of weather, cloud systems, precipitation? All of this you find it in detail on Windy. The fronts were imagined in the 1930s, at the time when this synthetic and graphic presentation allowed a simplified representation of current and forecasted weather. Today's weather models provide much more detailed forecasts, even if they are not able to offer drawings of fronts.

Personnaly, I use to look at Temperature layer at 850hPa which gives a rough idea of the location of the different fronts...

@ivo
I’ve just changed the colors of this layer, considering White for 0°C.
Then I have kept the default colors for positive temperatures, except for the highest. I have replaced the Black by White, because I keep the image of a piece of steel that you heat. It takes successively these colors: Red-brown, red, light red and finally white, with no risk for me to confuse with the 0°C color.
For the negative colors I have changed the default colors too. There are OK near the ground but in high altitude e.g. at 500hPa, I would like more color changes. Just need to work on it.

@phil-lay58
The seastate that you can observe in a given place, is a mix of different type of waves:

• The windsea (also called wind waves) is produced by the local wind.

• The main swell is produced by a strong wind in a remote place. The swell travels great distances to where you observe it.

• Secondary swells are produced also by winds in other remote places.

All of them have different heights, come from different directions and show different periods (i.e. the time between 2 wave crests)
Swell 1 is the main swell,
Swell 2 and 3 are secondary swells
The swell classification 1, 2, 3 depends on their respective heights

You find this detail on Windy by pressing the amber arrow on the picker.

@pezblanco
There is no glitch.
Rain and snowfall are shown in a different way.
In Basic diagram rain and snow are shown on the same line named "rain". But snow is displayed with an additional IN and with lighter blue color figures.

In Meteogram it is more obvious

@ulmgilbert
In the Alps the forecast is given at ground level, not at sea level.
You must know that global models with resolution such as 9km may give in mountains some inaccuracies. See models with higher resolution like ICON-EURO or AROME.

@captth said in Altitude-Altitude & Altitude...:

So, when I want to get an idea the winds on the surface at Lake Tahoe do I need to set my slider to 6000' level or should I leave the slider at Surface setting?

@UlmGilbert

Leave the altitude at Surface setting.
6000’ level provides parameters in free atmosphere, not near the ground.

@rkulferst
Windy shows true direction for wind, and for all other directions too.

@bolle007
The dew point is the temperature at which water vapor condenses. When the dew point and the air temperature are close to each other, the humidity is high. When the two are identical near the ground, fog appears. In higher levels it gives clouds and possibly rain.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taupunkt

@bolle007
The minimum daily temperature is not shown directly in Windy. You must look at Basic meteogram and see the lowest forecast temperatures, generally at the end of the night.

@gabine
You know that Windy is just visualizing Weather models developed by leading weather centers. I don't think they have recently changed dramatically their models.
Making a comparison between observation and forecast at this official weather station, there is not a very gap concerning wind.

The discrepancy could be due to local wind conditions that global models cannot predict (only high resolution local models can do it)

You can use the tool "Observation vs forecast" and test different models:

https://community.windy.com/topic/9425/how-to-use-the-observation-vs-forecast-feature

In addition, Wind is the averaged wind and should not be confused with gusts.

@sabkuchmilega

What do you mean by "stop the Timeline when I'm outside Windy" ?
For me the time slider, when used in autoplay mode, stops immediately when I leave Windy.
If it is not same for you, you can click the stop button at least.
Or do you mean something else?

@dorucalinciobanu
Snow depth is computed by weather model and it is the accumulation of old snow + next snow falls, less natural compaction and melting of the snow cover. For this reason this layer shows the snow density too.
Are the values accurate? First the resolution of the ECMWF model is 9km (5.6M). So in mountains it cannot be not very accurate, also because the orography model ( i.e. the vertical terrain resolution) used by the weather model is quite coarse too.
Then, after snowfalls, snow layer compacts and its density increases. This factor is difficult to estimate. And finally snow partly melts. In addition the limit between snow and rain is not precise too.
The Snow depth map is interesting to compare a region with another one or to get an idea about the snow depth in the following days. But it's not a way to know the precise snow depth at a location particularly in mountains. In cold countries where snow is not only present in altitude, the accuracy is probably better in non mountainous areas.

@tembek
Sorry, I am not an aviation specialist but I see over the rockies the freezing isolines match approximatively the map display.
At the picker point both are shown at 0ft, so they seem consistent and isolines can’t be amsl. As said before there are possibly locations where isolines don’t give precise values because they are smoothed, more than the model orography. Hope aviation specialists confirm.

@mtaboada
If you are talking about the Satellite layer, you have got an explanation in your previous topic:
https://community.windy.com/topic/15669/clouds-with-no-movement/4
BTW please don't multiply topics on the same subject.

An unusual long time in satellite image dissemination is may be due to this outage:
https://community.windy.com/topic/15379/eu-satellite-9-5-e-data-outage