Best posts made by idefix37

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 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 issued from weather forecast models, there is no way to show fronts automatically.

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 plotting of fronts.
Personally, 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

The color palette used for the wind layer can be optimized for navigation at sea.
Most sailors know and use the Beaufort scale. Each degree of this scale corresponds to a range of wind and to a sea state. Therefore it is useful to calibrate the wind color settings according to the Beaufort scale. In this way, at a glance, it is possible to know which are the areas concerned by a certain wind force.
These settings are based on the following considerations:

• Light winds are displayed by light colors while strong winds are shown by denser, darker colors for an intuitive approach. However beyond 64 kt i.e. 12 Bf or Hurricane force, rather than being darker, the colors become very bright « like LED lights ».
• Each wind range is represented by a uniform color without shading or smoothing, with only a small mixing transition.
• From 64 kt, colors are chosen according to degrees used by NHC (Cat.1, Cat.2...)
• Choice of colors has been mainly based on
  BLUE when conditions are too light or just enough to use sails (0Bf - 3Bf)
  GREEN when conditions are the best for sailing (4Bf - 5 Bf),
  ORANGE when conditions become tougher (6Bf),
  RED when a coastal cruising sailboat must find a shelter (7Bf - 8Bf).

HOW TO APPLY THESE COLORS

You must be logged in on desktop to apply these settings in your Windy cloud. Then these settings will be applied to all your devices including mobiles.

In the Menu (hamburger icon)
Go to Settings
Choose Customize color scale
Select overlay: Wind
At bottom of page find the line Import/export
Click on [view code] to open a window pop up
Delete the text code in this window
Select and copy all lines of code here below and paste them in the window
Then press [Import Gradient]
Press Save

[[1.5,[134,163,171]],
[2.5,[126,152,188,256]],
[4.12,[110,143,208,256]],
[4.63,[110,143,208,256]],
[6.17,[15,147,167,256]],
[7.72,[15,147,167,256]],
[9.26,[57,163,57,256]],
[10.29,[57,163,57,256]],
[11.83,[194,134,62,256]],
[13.37,[194,134,63,256]],
[14.92,[200,66,13,256]],
[16.46,[200,66,13,256]],
[18,[210,0,50,256]],
[20.06,[215,0,50,256]],
[21.6,[175,80,136]],
[23.66,[175,80,136]],
[25.21,[117,74,147]],
[27.78,[117,74,147]],
[29.32,[68,105,141,256]],
[31.89,[68,105,141]],
[33.44,[194,251,119,256]],
[42.18,[194,251,119,256]],
[43.72,[241,255,109,256]],
[48.87,[241,255,109,256]],
[50.41,[256,256,256,256]],
[57.61,[256,256,256,256]],
[59.16,[0,256,256,256]],
[68.93,[0,256,256,256]],
[69.44,[256,37,256,256]]]

Try to use these new colors during at least one week. If you like them, keep them. If you don’t like, you can come back to the default Windy settings by pressing Load defaults

If you keep them, you can use the wind speed units that you like ...kt...km/h...mph...m/s

WIND SPEEDS EASY TO IDENTIFY BY COLORS :

EXAMPLE OF WIND FIELD WITH THESE NEW COLOR SETTINGS :

It's really fabulous !! This addition is huge, congratulations to the team !

@af4ex

This question has been raised many times, almost for every hurricane:

https://community.windy.com/topic/4415/why-is-wind-speed-in-hurricanes-so-wrong

In this long list of articles, some explain perfectly why global models can not predict the intensity of hurricanes. The others you can forget them.
 I would like to add that the ECMWF model, which is Windy's default model, uses the average wind speed over 10 minutes. The Saffir-Simpson scale is based on a sustained 1-minute wind which is about 15% higher.
 Then, if you compare GFS, ECMWF, and NAM, the higher the model resolution, the closer the speed to NHC's. If they send recon flights to hurricanes, there is a reason. Otherwise, they would only use weather models.
 For me, at least, the trajectory prediction by models is quite good and especially by ECMWF.

@Geroe
@ergun_33

The update of the ECMWF model is at best 4 times a day (every 6 h), and 2 times a day in the standard version. So the update cannot be every hour !

Until now it was only possible to display Geopotential isolines from ECMWF model. That was not possible with GFS. Today these isolines work perfectly with these 2 models ! Many thanks for the repair !!
Even more it works with ICON too. But instead of levels expressed in metres, they seem to be in decimetres, ....or if they are in metres that corresponds to stratospheric altitude :)
At 500hPa, Geopotential heights are around 5500m.
With ICON layer, figures are around 55000 ??

By the way Geopotential heights (isohypses) are often in decametres (dam) and 5500m=550dam.

And now a nice future feature would be to add a Geopotential height layer, not only as isolines.

@meridies
@Eand

As you probably know the shape of waves, in a given place, is a mix of different kind of waves:

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

• The main swell is produced by a strong wind far away.

• Secondary swells are produced also by winds far away but in other places.

All of them have different heights, come from different directions and show different periodes (which is 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)
In this example below, Wind gives the direction of windsea. Swell 1 has a height of 0.6m and a period of 9 seconds.

The best surf conditions correspond to a strong swell with weak windsea and secondary swells.

A cross sea thrown up by a strong wind and a strong swell whose directions make an angle close to 90º gives hard conditions for navigation.

@pcherry
Let's hope Windy will never make such an illusion. I observed several days since your message how this type of radar map works. It is obvious that the last radar image is moved in the direction of the wind with some small additional and random variations. For me, it's just a graphical simulation.
 BTW a weather radar is an observation device, not a forecasting one.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_radar
Then they show radar reflectivity charts in the middle of the Atlantic and the Pacific ! It is simply a dBZ simulation of the global ICON rain forecast (13 km resolution with a 3 h rain forecast divided by 3!). Have you seen this type of construction floating in the ocean ?

@tz
Hi, here you find some information and data sources about wildfires over the world.

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#z:6;c:-3.2,14.4;d:2018-10-10..2018-10-11

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/web-services/

@gkikas-lgpz
There are different thickness of flash symbol as it can be seen on this zoomed view on a thunderstorm area in North Dakota this morning at 9h00 UTC. They correspond roughly to the lightning density.

In winter is it possible to have snow precipitation and thunderstorm at the same place? Then it could give some display trouble?

@capt-Amory
No, GFS 22km has a lower resolution than ECMWF 9km which has a higher resolution.
https://help.weatherflow.com/hc/en-us/articles/207913278-Weather-model-resolution
The resolution is the number of grid points on a given surface (or pixels on a digital photo). If you decrease the distance between the points, you increase their number and so the resolution.