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    Best posts made by ivo

    • In these challenging times, Windy.com will stay free and without advertisement.

      photo: Ivo;desc: Just before lockdown I made some nice adrenaline rideups;

      Hi, I am Ivo, founder of Windy.com.

      The times we are living in are not normal. We, pilots, kiters, sailors, and all the outdoor people value freedom the most. Yet we are being told to stay home.

      Most of us, including me, have no fear of death, and some of us, also including me, challenged life-threatening situations a few times. Yes, death is an integral part of life, and we all have to die someday. Yet we are witnessing the panic and hysteria that is not the equal danger we are facing.

      At Windy, we are working from home, using teleconferences to see each other, so everything is running as usual, and we have no service outages at all. But making innovations in this environment is a little bit difficult. And four weeks of lockdown, took its toll on our spirits.

      As you know, in 2019, we have collected almost 500.000,- EUR/USD in voluntary donations from 55.000 donors, and we are grateful for that. Some of the donors were so generous that they send us a few thousand dollars. Thank you very much for this help.

      But in order not to loose cash as hell, we need at least to double that amount. Windy.com is becoming more and more popular and offers more and more services. We have to pay an enormous amount for infrastructure to serve millions of users we have, and the amount doubles every year.

      Windy Premium

      Unfortunately, the coronavirus crisis stopped the economy. It broke our plans to find an income in the B2B segment, so we have decided to launch a Windy Premium subscription (details). It will offer something more for just the price of one lunch.

      Bear in mind that Windy.com remains free of charge, fast as hell, and without any advertisement or tracking cookies. And everything, what was for free in 2019, remains free in 2020. Our subscription covers only new functionality that was not present in Windy.com in the past. And of course, our generous donors will get one year of subscription for free (details here).

      So far, Windy Premium offers a 1h forecast. We also plan to add a 6h update time for the ECMWF model.

      Windy Premium is available on desktop and in our mobile apps version 24.0.0, that are being updated right now.

      desc: Windy.com team during our meeting. We are quite wore down. 4 weeks of lockdown is taking its toll on our spirits.

      We need your help

      But running the company from our bedrooms and developing this functionality is very difficult. These times are not typical, so please be patient and tolerant of the mistakes we make. We have difficulty in pairing some of the payments with your user account. Some of the problems are caused by not so reliable third party services that collect these payments for us. We are working hard to fix these issues.

      Dear Windy.com friend.

      The times we are living in are not normal. We are staying at home, and the only risk we are taking now is overeating and gaining more weight. But all the pandemics have ended someday.

      I am sure that we will see each other personally sooner that we think. We will see each other on kiting beach, airport, marina or in the mountains and we will have many perfect sessions, flights or sails together.

      Stay safe, keep social distancing, and do not catch the coronavirus.

      Ivo

      posted in Announcements
      ivo
      ivo
    • Would you like to receive Windy Alerts as push notifications to your mobile device?

      Dear users

      We prepare slight overhaul of 2 years old "Windy Alerts" feature. If you have any ideas, or thoughts, now is the time to let us know.

      And btw, would you like to receive Windy Alerts as push notifications to your mobile device?

      Ivo

      posted in General Discussion
      ivo
      ivo
    • Windy launches Satellite layer

      Weather radar covers just a fraction of the World. But what is happening outside radar range can play sometimes a crucial role for human safety.

      That is why we have decided to add worldwide Satellite layer to Windy.

      Huge satellite dish, expensive equipment and a half year of development. Our last addition was not simple at all, but we have worked hard.

      So far we have a few issues with Satellite layer and we are working hard to fix them.

      desc: New icon directly on the launch screen of the mobile device is a great shortcut to access Radar and Satellite layers

      Nice bonus can be easy to use the animate tool at www.windy.com/animate, that will create a shareable video for your news server or a social account (works only on a desktop computer). Use the video as you wish, just do not forget to add a clickable link to Windy.com.

      A lot of people worked on this big feature: I, personally, have bootstrapped CSS classes, Milan, our webGL guru created front end player. But most of the work (approx 80%) was done on the backend. Importing, transformations, delivery. Tomas, Martin, Jakub a Jindra did the job.

      Enjoy satellite and stay safe.

      desc: Windy team in front of our EUMETSAT dish;photo: Windy

      posted in Announcements
      ivo
      ivo
    • Windy.com updates ECMWF model each 6h, with 1h detailed resolution

      While forecast model ECMWF is updated every 12 hours (twice a day), our Windy.com offers 6 hours ECMWF forecast updates (four times a day).

      6h ECMWF update time technically means that scientists can feed forecast models with more recent data and produce even better forecasting results than before. Together with a 1h detailed forecast, this innovation brings you a completely new quality level.

      6h ECMWF update with 1h detailed forecast is available for our Windy Premium subscribers.

      If you are already a Windy Premium user (the yellow crown icon is present in your avatar), you get your 6h updates now. No further action is required.

      Otherwise, you can subscribe to Windy Premium in less than 3 minutes, either from your browser at windy.com, or as an app-in purchase in our Android or iOS app by clicking on "Windy Premium."

      6h ECMWF update is available for desktop and the latest versions of iOS and Android apps.

      This innovation was a heavy duty achievement of all people in our Windy.com tema, mostly backend. So good job boys.

      Enjoy our new functionality and stay safe!!

      Ivo

      posted in Announcements
      ivo
      ivo
    • Premium subscribers will get premium support

      Amount of Windy functionality is growing.

      Number of Windy visitors is growing.

      Therefore we have decided, that our "Windy Premium" subscribers will receive premium technical support on our Windy Community website (at https://community.windy.com).

      Our girls are ready during office hours Central European Time (which is almost UTC time).

      Every subscriber have "Premium" badge, so we could prioritize the ones, that are subscribers.

      Screenshot 2020-11-18 at 09.47.18.png

      The same logic will apply also to new ideas and features.

      Opinions of Windy Premium subscribers are much more valuable for us, since without them, we would not be able to pay the bills.

      Enjoy this new feature and stay safe.

      Ivo

      posted in Announcements
      ivo
      ivo
    • Windy version 19 brings articles, better distance tool and Leaflet 1.4

      Windy version 19 is here and it brings some major changes:

      Summary

      • Windy Articles
      • Better Distance & Planning tool
      • Better possibility to share tracks, positions via URL
      • Major mapping library updated to Leaflet 1.4

      Changes in detail

      • Windy is here to help save lives or property by informing others about severe weather phenomena or state of our Earth's climate. Therefore we are proud to present to you Windy Articles. Windy Articles should help our users and other media to inform about these events, but not only that. We would like to educate others about weather and its dangers. You can use Windy Articles as a publication platform and start writing your articles too, here is how.
      • The major mapping library we use was upgraded from Leaflet 0.77 to Leaflet 1.4. This will help mainly our Plugin developers and later on our API users. So if you will have feeling that something is not right, just let us know. Unfortunately we use some fixes in the library so here is our fork of Leaflet that seems to work https://github.com/windycom/Leaflet
      • We have brought back the possibility to open Windy and force to display the weather picker in the middle. Just add d:picker to one of the URL params and it should work.
      • We have improved the distance & planning tool, so now you can export your track in GPX or XML. And we have also fixed the timeline bug, so your track can cross the timeline.
      • A major improvement is also the fact that now you can share or even open Windy with some track, just by constructing the track in URL. The format is simple. Just use semicolon separated coordinates where lat and lon are separated by comma. Example: www.windy.com/distance/lat1,lon1;lat2,lon2;lat3,lon3

      desc: Windy version 19 has improved distance tool

      A lot of work on this release was done by Ivo, Marek, Milan, Filip and Martin.

      So enjoy Windy 19, report any issues and stay safe!

      posted in Announcements
      ivo
      ivo
    • Windy predicts extreme wind, rain and temperature

      Windy is proud to announce that we have just launched new layer Extreme forecast.

      desc:How to activate extreme forecast

      Extreme forecast displays unusually low or high temperature, wind or precipitation, forecasted 7 days ahead. All this is based on heavy duty statistical science, using 20 years climatological data.

      So whether you work in agriculture, seek a strong wind for your kiteboarding session or want to avoid extreme temperatures during your holiday, our new extreme forecast will help you.

      But not only that. We believe, that 7 days ahead extreme forecast can help emergency services and governments all over the World save lives. And that is one of our main goals here in Windy.

      Extreme forecast has values from -100% to 100%. While 50% to 80% (irrespective of sign) generally signify an unusual event, above ±80% means extreme event.

      Our Extreme Weather layer is based on ECMWF EFI and we can just say: "You guys (and girls) at Reading, UK do excellent job!"

      Here at Windy Extreme Forecast was implemented by Jakub on backend and me personally on frontend.

      So enjoy our new Extreme forecast and stay safe

      posted in Announcements
      ivo
      ivo
    • Windy version 14 brings sharper map and better colors

      _center_shadow

      A sharper map and new beautiful colors – this is the main innovation of the new Windy version 14.00.

      But not only that.

      We bring you the new layer Precipitation type, and two pure experimental layers Fog and Thunderstorms from the ICON GLOBAL model.

      Let us know what you think about these data.

      Enjoy!

      Ivo and the Windy team

      _center_shadow

      posted in Announcements
      ivo
      ivo
    • Windy predicts extreme wind, temperature and rain

      Is 35°C too hot for temperature in Prague, in the middle of Europe, today? Yes, at this time it certainly is. But 35°C in Dubai can be a normal temperature today. But what is normal and what is extreme weather at this time of the year for any particular location in the World?

      Windy is proud to announce that we have just launched new layer Extreme forecast.

      Extreme forecast displays unusually low or high temperature, wind or precipitation, forecasted 7 days ahead. All this is based on heavy duty statistical science, using 20 years climatological data.

      So whether you work in agriculture, seek a strong wind for your kiteboarding session or want to avoid extreme temperatures during your holiday, our new extreme forecast will help you.

      But not only that. We believe, that 7 days ahead extreme forecast can help emergency services and governments all over the World save lives. And that is one of our main goals here in Windy.

      desc:How to activate extreme forecast

      Extreme forecast has values from -100% to 100%. While 50% to 80% (irrespective of sign) generally signify an unusual event, above ±80% means extreme event.

      Our Extreme Weather layer is based on ECMWF EFI (check official docs) and we can just say: "You guys (and girls) at Reading, UK do excellent job!"

      Here at Windy Extreme Forecast was implemented by Jakub on backend and me personally on frontend.

      So enjoy our new Extreme forecast and stay safe

      https://www.windy.com/annotation/5d09ef386590870019ed08a8

      https://www.windy.com/annotation/5d09efb66590870019ed08a9

      posted in Announcements
      ivo
      ivo
    • Windy.com introduces real-time satellite animation

      All the satellite images out there, are delivered in 5 to 15 minutes steps.

      But can you imagine seamless, real time satellite imagery. It is technically impossible, yet we have tried to do our magic. Tomas, Jindra and Milan came with the concept of interpolation of missing images, that display clouds movement in "real-time" (quotes are necessary, since it is not real-time in fact). But not only that, satellite images are much more detailed and sharper, then in previous version.

      See the difference in the video, it is amazing :)

      To save bandwidth or spare your notebook battery you can switch off this feature off in Menu > Settings by disabling Smooth satellite animation switch.

      This new feature is available on desktop only and we are still not sure, if we port this to our mobile apps, where bandwidth can be a limiting issue.

      So enjoy new satellite and stay safe.

      Ivo

      posted in Announcements
      ivo
      ivo
    • About Windy

      Hi, my name is Ivo, and I love the wind!

      I am an addicted kiter, helicopter and jet pilot who seeks the wind, waves, METARs and powder snow almost constantly. Since programming is my passion, I coded Windyty.com in 2014 as my pet project. The original version was highly inspired by the products from the Swiss company Meteoblue and other project called "Earth", that displayed animated wind particles on the globe. I have completely rewrote open source codes of Earth and also made an agreement with Meteoblue to use some of their products that time. And thus Windyty was born (renamed to Windy a few years later). My goal is to keep Windy small and fast to be accessible in the most remote locations.

      In 2014 Windy was born, under its former name Windyty.

      In 2015 the Windy team grew to a few more programmers: Milan and Tomas. We use GFS and NEMS as the main forecast models.

      In 2016 we launched Android and iOS mobile Apps and we renamed Windyty to Windytv, which turned out to be a big mistake. As one of the few companies in the world, we have the use of the ECMWF forecast model, which is recognised as the most accurate model available.

      In 2017 our team grew to 5 people and we have changed the name to Windy with nice and short address www.windy.com. During hurricane season Windy become major source of weather information for governments, institutions and individuals in affected areas, virtually saving the lives.

      In 2018 we launched a new European weather radar, thunderstorm forecast and many other major innovations.

      In 2019 we have launched new Satellite overlay, route planner, donations, new iOS/Android app Windy Maps and "reality vs. forecast" feature. We have also integrated webcams.travel and lookr.com websites into the Windy. Our team grew to 15 people.

      In 2020 we have launched new Air Quality overlay, optical flow and enhanced satellite layer. Much more better and detailed 1 hour forecast data, updated 4 times a day, become available as Windy Premium.

      Our goal is to provide the best weather forecasting service in the world.

      The original "launch" video from 2014:

      Windy team as of 2019 in front of our satellite dish

      _center_shadow

      Jobs: Opened positions (in Prague, Czechia, EU) can be found here

      Contact: Contact us here in category Report an issue or category General discussion so we can share your issue with other Windy users.

      You can also contact us via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/windyforecast

      We do not use email so much, but if you insist send us a mail at info[at]windy.com. Expect slow response.

      Investor relations: Windy is a private company owned by its founder and employees.

      Note: Updated Sep 2018

      posted in Frequently Asked Questions
      ivo
      ivo
    • Help us to test new Weather Radar overlay

      As we are continuously improving Windy, we’ve never stopped thinking to create – and expand – the 'Weather Radar' feature. However, this service is depended on various data providers, and each country has a different policy regarding the management of these data (see https://on.windy.com/RadarDataGathering).

      So far, our radar layer has been covering the USA (including Hawaii and coastal parts of Alaska), South Korea and a couple of islands in the North Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean.

      After a period of hard work, now we are excited to announce that the long-anticipated Weather radar for a large part of Europe is out! Radar is covering the area from Spain to Finland (see this table). We are gathering radar data for other countries and we will be adding them slowly but surely.

      Check this most beautiful composite:

      _center_shadow


      Shortened version of this link: https://on.windy.com/WeatherRadarTesting


      Blog post: https://blog.windy.com/help-us-test-our-new-weather-radar-overlay


      posted in Announcements
      ivo
      ivo
    • And yes, we can...

      Download warming stripe for your country at https://showyourstripes.info/

      Here in Windy, we believe in science, math and facts.

      But not only that. We observe with our own eyes that the climate is rapidly changing. Here in Prague, Czechia in the heart of Europe, we witness the effects of global warming almost every day.

      • Our whole country encountered several years of serious drought
      • Forests in our country are dying in large volumes due to the drought
      • We witness unprecedented torrential rains and winds destroying huge areas of forest
      • While we had nice white winters in my childhood, snow becomes an exception these years
      • Summer heatwaves have become common, paralyzing people and our nature

      And that is just Czechia. Imagine e.g. Quatar that will become uninhabitable before the end of the century.

      In order to show others that we take our climate seriously, the climatologist Ed Hawkins (https://twitter.com/ed_hawkins) created easy-to-understand Warming Stripes that display annual average temperatures for the globe (or specific country) from 1850 to 2018

      desc: Warming stripes for Qatar from 1901 to 2018;licence: CC;photo: Ed Hawkins

      But not everybody believes in science. "Global warming is a hoax," is the argument that I hear sometimes. Or "we cannot do anything with it".

      That is totally untrue.

      Of course we can do something about it. And we will! Almost all countries signed the Paris Agreement, and they agreed on the 1.5°C - 2°C goal. I am happy to see that governments all over the world are getting on board with this, and that this effort will maybe preserve the conditions of this planet.

      Not for ourselves anymore but for our children and grandchildren.

      Ed Hawkins's Warming Stripes are the simplest thing that everybody can do, and do it now.

      Download stripe for your country at https://showyourstripes.info/ and use these stripes on your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Preferably as a profile picture.

      And if you still think Global Warming is a hoax, just watch this video.

      posted in Articles
      ivo
      ivo
    • Windy.com brings high visibility satellite layer

      How to make good even better? Make it more visible to human eyes.

      Our original satellite layer offered (as a default) images from the visible spectrum, which means we presented the data "as is" straight from the satellite camera. This gave us the full detail. But for most of us, it was hard to distinguish countries, seas, oceans, and lakes. We have left "Visibility" as an option, but we have added the "Blue" spectrum that uses a false-color range as a default.

      desc: Our new Satellite layer;photo: Windy

      From our point of view, the changes are magnificent. It enables us to understand weather patterns to an even broader audience.

      This feature was brought to you by our whole Windy team. But being honest, most of the work was done by Milan, our WebGL guy. So kudos to him.

      desc: Milan enjoying his time in Norway;photo: Milan

      https://www.windy.com/-Satellite-satellite?satellite,51.865,24.046,4,internal

      posted in Announcements
      ivo
      ivo
    • Track Vendée Globe progress on Windy.com

      72ac4eca-95e7-4fcc-a622-ac4f38fae960-image.png

      Our user Kevin Saliou created WIndy Plugin, that tracks unofficial positions of Vendée Globe. So far plugin works on desktop only, but we hope this will not be issue.

      To open the plugin go to Menu -> Install Windy Plugin and open the plugin Regadata.

      Enjoy the plugin and Stay Safe!!!! Especially if you are one of the Vendee Globe racer.

      Ivo

      posted in Announcements
      ivo
      ivo
    • The next BIG THING

      The human brain is a weird organ. It can solve complicated math equations, yet it fails us when making decisions that are simple but that can determine if we live or die. If someone promises us a quick and painless solution, we tend to believe them even if it lacks basic logic.

      We watch the news and are eager to try out all the new technologies and gadgets that will soon be part of our life. We are unable to imagine a complete change of an hundred-year-old paradigm, even though this change can be inevitable and can increase the quality of our lives in the long run.

      What if I told you that such a change is coming and that your government has already decided on it?

      The process that will change everything is called decarbonization [0].

      Decarbonization means that by a specific date (worldwide consensus is by 2050) we reduce greenhouse emissions to zero. That means not only CO₂ but also Methane and other gases. Scientists and policymakers believe that the process of decarbonization can keep the Earth’s rapidly increasing temperature within 2°C above the pre-industrial level [1]

      And while 2050 seems like a distant future, it is just 31 years from now, which implies that we need to decrease the production of greenhouse gases by an average of 3% annually. That is a lot.

      If you feel somewhat tricked now, and your reaction is “oh what!!!” let me remind you that you have been informed four years in advance.

      Paris Agreement was signed in 2015 [2] and it was all over the news including the endorsement by Leonardo DiCaprio in a role of a Messenger of Peace.

      It was just now that the first countries pledged to decarbonize their economies, and if you can read in between the lines, the others will follow, even though it will take years for some of the more conservative ones to jump in.

      And here is the point where our brain fails us badly.

      After many years of studying Climate Change and talking about it with people around me, finally there is almost nobody who would deny the fact that the climate is changing.

      But when I talk about decarbonization, I see the same set of reactions: “Yes there is Climate Change, but we humans are not responsible for it”.

      Human-induced Climate Change is backed by 20 years of research, with more than 13 thousand scientific studies and papers supporting the theory (only 3% of the studies denying the theory, mainly ones funded by oil companies). But instead of being convinced by the abundance of facts, we tend to believe an obscure blog, an uninformed friend, a disgruntled politician or a weird theory that enables us to believe whatever we want to believe.

      Because the change in front of us, it is so big that our brain is simply unable to process it.

      The argument that I hear the most often all around me is that the climate is changing in natural cycles, based on solar activity.

      Yes, people who say this are right.

      The solar activity oscillates in time [4].

      But the thing is that we are in the cold cycle now and the solar activity has been decreasing since 1950, and as soon as we reach the warm period the s**t will hit the fan.

      photo:NASA, desc: Solar irradiance vs. global mean temperatures

      But is decarbonization really coming?

      The price of oil is on a record low, and CO₂ emissions increase by 2% annually [5], and soon after Canada declared a state of Climate Emergency (probably because of 21 massive forest fires in Alberta) it also approved new 5.5bn pipeline project [6]

      Gulfstream, Boeing [7] and Airbus are unable to satisfy the demand for new planes, and the capacity of cargo vessels is sold out many months in advance.

      Not a surprise for me. The amount of draft horses in Europe reached its highest record just before the steam engine and combustion engine was widely implemented, and the printing industry peaked precisely in the time when the Internet left universities and become a mass medium.

      And here is another point, where our brain fails us even severely.

      Among those few people in the World that accept the fact about decarbonization as an inevitable step for humankind, most of them see it as a restrictive process that will lead to lowering the quality of our lives.

      Not at all.

      What will decrease the quality of life is extreme weather, floods, droughts and famine. But mainly in the form of climatological migration. 140 million people will have to leave their home by 2050 (the official estimate by the World Bank)[8] due to the rising seas, inhabitable heat and lack of freshwater. Those are the results of Climate Change, not decarbonization. And if you happen to be living in a developed country, high above the estimated level of a rising sea, let me remind you, that climate migrants will want to become our neighbours [9], or at least they will want us to help them materially.

      The decarbonization is not the process that should make our lives miserable. It is the process that should make it better, at least in the long term.

      Please allow me to jump into a minefield of estimates and speculation. I assure you that I have zero qualification for it, too. Not mentioning the fact that as a pilot of helicopter and jat I am hypocrite.

      I believe, that decarbonization will be the most significant economic stimulus since the industrial revolution and it can make our lives healthier and happier in the long run.

      Decarbonization will be the most significant economic stimulus since the industrial revolution.

      If you look at our economies, you see fossil fuels all around us. Cars, boats, chemistry, power plants, heavy industry. All this should be replaced with new technologies. “Technologies yet to be invented,” said Bill Gates, who also sees decarbonization [10] as the next BIG THING and invests massively into it [11]. Needless to say that his fund is backed by few other visionary billionaires.

      Even now, when the process has not yet started, the stocks of renewable energy companies gain 100% annually. And the same will apply to the whole industry. Any patent, technology or a startup that will help us cut greenhouse gases, produce clean energy, store energy, provide fresh water or food and mainly proteins in a time of need, will be valued by markets and investors the most. Massive scientific grants and subsidies will also pour into this industry.

      Imagine that the most prominent investors in this field will be big fossil and oil tycoons, not because they will not have another choice, but also because it can repair their damaged reputation.

      One of the main reasons people are afraid of decarbonization is the fear of losing their job. It has been already proven that renewable energy, conservation or for example sustainable agriculture creates more jobs than the standard fossil economy.

      The wealth and low unemployment we enjoying now is not the result of fossil-fuel-based economy. It is a result of the high complexity of our society.

      Decarbonization, energy conservation and sustainable agriculture will lead to even higher complexity.

      Decarbonization will lead to the redistribution of wealth

      All this technological shift comes at a price, and someone will have to foot the bill. So far, we live in a world where our national product is based on cheap fossil fuel, and yet we are unable to keep a balanced budget even in times of prosperity.

      But half of the World's net wealth belongs to the top 1%, and there is one thing the wealthy people fear the most: That they will lose their fortune.

      I predict massive demonstrations and uprisings in next years demanding to do some climate action.

      And I personally believe that in the face of increasing public pressure, wealthy people will offer part of their wealth to help solve the problem. Not only that. That they will use their charisma and power to convince policymakers to take action. This process had already started when few wealthy Americans repeatedly called for higher taxation of the rich, in order to solve climate-related issues.

      Wealthy people recognize that we live in relative social peace, and if there is one thing they wish, is to keep it that way. Anyway, they are also aware of the fact that their wealth is useless if the whole society collapses.

      Fun fact: When Extinction rebellion movement started its protests in London, the number of private jet flights dropped by 10% there, despite the 3% gain in other parts of the World.

      Decarbonization could bring completely new technologies enhancing our lives

      The mobile phone in your own pocket has better parameters than the average computer and digital camera combined 20 years ago. And in a few years, a new version of your phone will be even better, and since it will definitely make it to the main headlines, it will give you false feeling, that technology advances fast and it increases the quality of your life.

      That is not true. Technology has stagnated a lot in the recent years, and it often creates more problems than it solves.

      Some of the latest widely adopted technologies even decrease the quality of our everyday life. First research papers have appeared, linking smartphones use to decrease in our cognitive abilities, not mentioning the amount of accidents caused by texting & driving. Social networks are even worse. Destroying the privacy of millions, separating relationships, slowly undermining oldest democracies and isolating people that have different opinions.

      Research and development nowadays is not driven by the needs of our societies and people, but by the potential profits of huge monopolies.

      Breakthrough technologies that influence our everyday life were invented during WWII, most home appliances were invented just after that and computers and Internet came 50 years ago. Space exploration and experiments in quantum physics have been ongoing for a long time now, although we already know that Mars is uninhabitable and quantum physics can not solve our energy needs in the foreseeable future.

      Decarbonization can change all of that.

      A few years ago, I bought an electric vehicle. But I have not bought it just because its energetic efficiency, but because driving electric vehicle is so much more convenient than driving a traditional car. It is quiet, it is fast, it does not smell, it does not need service, it is almost free to operate, it is safe, and in the evening I just plug it in. An electric car is not only earth friendly (if I buy renewable energy only), it gives you a completely different quality of driving.

      But the first company to build electric vehicles was not a Tesla. In 1996 General Motors rolled out 1,117 electric vehicles and leased them to test drivers (including some Hollywood celebrities). When GM decided to end the tests, drivers refused to give it back since they loved to drive it. But GM succeeded, destroyed project, scraped the cars and hoped that nobody will notice how great that car was [14] They just did not want to disrupt their monopoly.

      Disruption.

      That is exactly what we need now. In the world of huge monopolies, that only want to maximize their profits, we need to break from the old status quo and finally come up with something new. [15]

      Imagine that decarbonization will force monopolies, start ups, research institutions, and universities to search for new technologies that will change the old paradigms in other fields of our everyday's life.

      Humankind is capable of huge things, if it is pushed to its limits. We knew nothing about atom energy before project Manhattan [15] yet in the prospect of the Nazis inventing an atom bomb, we were able to reach impossible achievements in less than 4 years.

      I personally believe that we will see more project Manhattans in the future, and I am eager to see all this technology breakthrough that will make our lives better and replace such insignificant innovations as new version of a mobile phone.

      Decarbonization will lead to a healthier population

      The number one cause of premature death in the World is air pollution, killing approximately 9 million people in a year. It is more than wars, obesity, smoking, and malnutrition [11]

      The second place in premature deaths is so-called civilization diseases. High blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes or cancer.

      The world we are living in looks like this, so we take it for granted, and our brain that fails us in the most important decisions of our life is unable to imagine something better.

      We perceive as inevitable the fact that 33% of adults in the US have prediabetes or that 72% of US adults aged 20+ are overweight (including 8% with severe obesity). And thus profits of food processing industry and health industry are soaring to record highs, inevitably helping each other.

      Also, can you imagine that the air you are breathing in is clean? Can you imagine, that instead of going to the gym and doing some stupid activity on a treadmill, you will do your daily errands just by walking or bicycling, because it will be a most convenient way to do so? And it will be a pleasure to do so because cities will be filled with cars that do not smell and are quiet.

      But can you imagine that you change and reduce your diet, just because the food will not be so cheap any more? Not mentioning that the most expensive stuff will probably be red meat, which was proven to be carcinogenic [12].

      Can you imagine that every day, you will fall asleep almost instantly, and that you will sleep like a baby, being nicely tired from several miles of cycling/walking you did that day?

      I can.

      For the past four years, I use my own body to experiment in this field. I commute to work on a kick scooter almost daily (20km / 12 miles). I do not touch processed food, stopped eating sugar, fruits and gluten and eat meat just occasionally.

      My body reacted almost instantly. People guess I am 25 (I am 45) and except for many small residual issues from my adrenaline-sport-related injuries, I have never been healthier and felt better.

      Human DNA is basically the same for the past 70.000 years, accustomed to a lot of walking, physical activity, and a diet rich in fibre, that contained meat just occasionally. It is only the last few generations, when our lifestyle was utterly changed, leaving our bodies chronically ill.

      I believe that decarbonization will force us to use our bodies to work as they are supposed to work: Move more and eat less.

      Decarbonization will increase overall happiness of people

      The material quality of life of today’s average person greatly surpasses the quality of life of the wealthiest emperors of the past. We can keep our bodies at the perfect temperature, we buy a lot of useless stuff. We eat an abundance of food imported from all over the World, and we travel just for fun like crazy. Not mentioning perfect health care that did not exist a few years ago.

      But does it make us happy?

      Not at all.

      US suicide rates in age 15-24 have rocketed [12], and deaths by suicide, drugs and alcohol reached an all-time high in 2017 [13].

      I believe that the unhappiness of our “have it all” generation is driven by three primary reasons:

      We have too much choice in our lives. Scientific theory “paradox of choice” proves that having too many options makes you unhappy.

      The second reason is that we have no higher meaning of life. We are just born, we work, and then we die.

      The third reason is that we live in a perfect World free of any imminent danger. Yes, it was also scientifically proven that we humans need some level of risk, stress on insecurity to unveil our full potential.

      Now imagine that people will realize Climate Change as a threat and that abundant and luxurious life is not in accordance with sustainable Earth climate.

      Imagine that people will voluntarily limit their own choices just to help our future generations.

      All three problems of human unhappiness are solved. The imminent threat is there (overheating planet), no more paradox of choice and BINGO, there is something more relevant we can live for. Live for the planet.

      During the major world wars of this century in both participating and non-participating nations, an increase in suicide rates declined during the war. Regarding common population health issues, people were extremely healthy.

      The idea of people voluntarily limiting the choices is not crazy at all. Mass psychosis[13] can move our burn & waste societies in completely different direction. We just have to wait till our kids will have serious talk with us.

      And if the wealthy folks are also affected by decarbonization people will have the feeling that there is justice in the World, and life is fair for everybody.

      When I have accidentally learned that EU finance NGOs to communicate the change we are facing, I have finally realized that this is really coming. One of the presentation EU Commission sent to this NGO contained sociological research. Among all the stuff, one line struck me deeply: People will accept the change, as long as it is fair and will apply to everybody.

      And that pretty much sums it up.

      Updated 12.7.2019: Added note that I am hypocrite

      posted in Articles
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    • New on Windy: Detail forecast for 10 days and more innovations

      Windy v 19.7.0 brings some sweet innovations

      • Detail forecast (now 6 days) can be extended to 10 days

      • Forecast model NEMS in detail was renamed to METEOBLUE. There is quite difference in between these two. NEMS4 is forecast model covering just central Europe, while METEOBLUE, from Swiss company www.meteoblue.com is ensemble of multiple models together, and covers whole world.

      • On mobile there is no more sliding window with nearest webcams, yet the slide up gesture still works.

      • We have simplified a little bit menu on mobile devices

      • Our super popular Animate feature now produces also videos (alongside with animated GIFs) in webM format. We will investigate to use mp4 format too.

      • Owners of PWS now can finally get their credits (logo and link to their website)

      Screenshot 2019-05-07 at 12.38.47.png;licence: cc

      So enjoy...

      posted in Announcements
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    • New mobile version is here, how do you like it?

      Update: After a lot of complaints, Weather Picker on single click is BACK.

      • We are launching a new version of mobile/tablet version of Windy - which attempts to solve a lot of complaints we've received so far. The mobile version of Windy was considered complicated and difficult to navigate. Some people even claimed it unusable on a small display. A minimalistic and simplistic version should solve this, including the fact that now there is more space for the weather map.

      • 100% of functionality of the previous version is included, but not only that: Now you can stop animated particles on your mobile (as requested).

      • To see the popular "weather picker", just long tap on a map.

      • You can change the altitude in the menu on the right side.

      _center

      We will be more than happy to hear your opinion.

      Ivo

      posted in Announcements
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    • Windy joins forces with Webcams.travel

      Jörg Eugster is a visionary man from Switzerland. He had this brilliant idea of aggregating weather outdoor webcams. Switzerland is mountain country, with specific weather phenomena in each valley, and therefore checking webcam before trip become important part of any travel planning. Jorg founded webcams.travel website in 2007 and later on in 2013 sleek and modern lookr.com. Both websites gained its momentum soon and whoever wanted to go skiing in Alps, got in touch with webcams.travel.

      We, at Windy, also believe, that checking weather webcam is necessary part of each adventure.

      And we, at Windy, are committed to provide better and better service for people like myself. For pilots, kiters, adventurers, mountaineers and all the souls, who are rather outside, than inside the shopping mall.

      But not only that. We, at Windy believe, that checking outdoor webcams, before your adventure, for example before your flight with small plane, can significantly increase level of your safety.

      So after I have checked that weather is good on webcams, even in mountains, I have flown from Prague to Switzerland with small helicopter, to meet Jorg personally.

      I love to talk with clever people, so together with Jorg, we have immediately found common ground and later on we have agreed to merge all three projects (Windy.com, webcams.travel and lookr.com) together.

      desc: Jorg Euster, founder of Webcams.travel and Tomas Zamecnik, director of Windy

      Ingo Oppermann, main programmer of webcams.travel and lookr.com worked on both projects since 2007. He developed both websites, but not only that. He was able to manage all the technical stack by himself. And he did excellent job. Both websites runned smooth and fast, and webcams API that they provided was able to serve billions of requests with minimal delay. This is just called Swiss service.

      But since we want to actually merge projects together we had to abandon this legacy codes and convert it to the latest technology stack. And we are happy that Ingo helped us a lot to do this difficult job, not to mention a lot of Swiss chocolate he brought us to Prague. It took several months of hard work, but Ingo, Martin, Filip, Marek and David later on did really great job. But most of the work was done by Jan (snowkiter and VAKE 2019 winner) who coordinated it all.

      Our main goal is to increase amount of webcams in our database and also provide webcam pictures in a little bit more convenient format without advertisement and tracking cookie. As of now, both websites (webcams.travel, lookr.com) should be redirected to Windy.com/webcams so you can see yourself, if you like how we merged all projects together.

      desc:Webcams.travel - left - will is fully integrated into windy - right

      Webcams API

      webcams.travel provided popular API to developers so they can integrate their webcams to their website.

      We have full commitment to continue providing webcams API to other websites and developers, and we will not restrict anyone.

      Of course there will be changes in the API, like new conditions, API endpoints, change of API authorisation and also output JSON format will also slightly changed.

      All the changes will be announced in timely manner so developers will have time to adjust their services. Therefore please watch Webcams API category of our Community to stay informed in advance.

      Further info about Windy Webcams

      • Add new webcam to Windy
      • Webcams API discussion
      • Windy Webcams discussion

      Enjoy new webcams on Windy and stay safe

      Ivo

      Related content

      • Windy Tutorial: How to add your webcam to Windy
      posted in Announcements
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    • Carbon is better in the boat, not in the atmosphere: Track Team Malizia and Greta on their journey across the Atlantic

      desc:MALIZIA II - Boris Herrmann and Pierre Casiraghi to sail Greta Thunberg; photo: Malizia team; licence: CC

      ➜ ➜ The tracker can be found at https://www.windy.com/greta-thunberg

      I am Ivo, founder of Windy.

      14 years ago I was part of the Czech sailing team RADOST (happiness in English) and we had a beautiful self-made carbon monohull T830. We won most of the races in fact, because we participated in a special category where better design and a faster boat gave us a big advantage.

      A lot of time has passed since then, and hearing about Greta Thunberg setting sail to New York on a beautiful carbon IMOCA 60 monohull Malizia II brings back a lot of nice memories. So I am more than happy that we can provide a live tracker where you can see Greta's progress online, together with a wind and wave forecast and with almost real time satellite and lightning observation. Windy is a good choice for such a tracker since we DO NOT serve tracking cookies to users, and we are a free and zero-advertisement service. There was a time in our company's history when we wanted to turn Windy into a non-profit, Wikipedia like foundation, but complicated EU legislation and corporate greed of our providers destroyed these plans.

      But back to Greta.

      ➜ ➜ The tracker can be found at https://www.windy.com/greta-thunberg

      Details about Greta's trip can be found in Pavel's article here

      In the next generations our societies will go through a big transformation called decarbonization and I am aware that a lot of activities and hobbies we have today will be reduced by carbon taxes and regulations. This is quite unsettling, but thanks to Greta and millions of young kids like her, I understand that the change is necessary. On the other hand, as a kiter and former sailor, I know how much fun a person can have with just a gust of wind. And that is the reason I founded Windy back in 2014.

      Carbon is better in a boat than in the atmosphere.

      Greta, enjoy the ride and stay safe.

      Ivo

      desc: Ivo sailing on his carbon T830

      posted in Articles
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