Know that there are some general problems with any rain radar:
It can be triggered by virgae and very high local humidity, so then you get an echo without rain at the ground. Also at the edge of the radar windows I have seen ghost echos.
Windy probably cannot fix these issues, so be aware of them.
Best posts made by jupaketto
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RE: Radar show rain but no rain
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RE: How to set up a Windy Alert
It would be cool to also be able to set a wind-gust range. This is sometimes more important than the middle wind strength.
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Number of vertical levels / datapoint in calc. soundings
For instance the ICON model seems to have 120 / 74 vertical levels (Global / EU, couldn't find how many D2 has) and only a few select vertical levels are available in windy.
I can understand that the height slider will not allow all of them (lots of data to process!), but why are there such big gaps in the lower atmosphere (current: 0, 600m, 750m, 900m, 1500m, 2000m) and is the spacing so weird?
Between 900 and 1500m ICON offers 3 more levels and between 0 and 600m even 7 more. It would definitely be helpful if more vertical levels in lower atmosphere were available.
The Soundings tab is even somewhat useless due to the very rough vertical resolution. The position of inversions is off by over 500m often due to the lack datapoints (which are available in the model data, but just do not seem to be used).
ICON documentation:
ICON model description -
RE: Windy.com introduces soaring forecast
Thanks for the additional layer. I have just evaluated the predicition over the last few thermal flying days. It is always important to note that thermal predicitions are also a bit regionally influenced, so my assessment is mainly valid for the thermally weaker area in NW Germany.
What I notice is:
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The thermal height predicition is usually overoptimistic. Often 200m below is about right. And I am already talking about the best height achieved by the best pilot of the day.
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The thermal max. height is an important parameter, but the thermal avg. strength would actually be much more useful and better to compare.
a) To begin with, the thermal height can be easily derived from the temp, which an advanced user will anyway look at. Thermal strength is less easy to derive without actual calculations and it is not so that high base = strong day.
b) Over mountainous terrain always the highest peak have the best thermal max. height. They do not always have the strongest thermals though, usually the better ones, but not always the strongest. Thus the prediciton becomes a terrain map there rather than a thermal forecast there.
Speculation:
Hard to say why the forecast is nearly always overoptimistic in my region. One reason might be that ground dryness plays in reality a role in how good the ground warms up and that is perhaps not used in the calculations.
Also anything a bit closer to the see gets see wind effects, though not in all wind situations and I find the predictions also over-optimistic in south wind situations. -
Latest posts made by jupaketto
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RE: Windy.com introduces soaring forecast
@idefix37 said in Windy.com introduces soaring forecast:
Even if the knowledge of sailors on the thermal is not so thorough, they know at sea the reasons for the coastal breezes.
By the way, just as a side note, sea breeze is not created by the thermals glider pilots talk about, but rather by the general thermal warming of landmass vs sea. You can have lots of sun and heat but bad thermals on an overheated day. This will give a strong sea breeze and lousy thermals then. This is the difference of macroscopic vs microscopic thermal effects.
That beeing said, are there improvements / more details planned as requested in the previous Posts?
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RE: More height levels possible?
@Filip_K yes, IT would alteady be cool If the 975 and 1000hPa levels we're accessible in the height slider and the progtemp.
After all we move mostly in the lower atmosphere and there are large gaps now. -
Number of vertical levels / datapoint in calc. soundings
For instance the ICON model seems to have 120 / 74 vertical levels (Global / EU, couldn't find how many D2 has) and only a few select vertical levels are available in windy.
I can understand that the height slider will not allow all of them (lots of data to process!), but why are there such big gaps in the lower atmosphere (current: 0, 600m, 750m, 900m, 1500m, 2000m) and is the spacing so weird?
Between 900 and 1500m ICON offers 3 more levels and between 0 and 600m even 7 more. It would definitely be helpful if more vertical levels in lower atmosphere were available.
The Soundings tab is even somewhat useless due to the very rough vertical resolution. The position of inversions is off by over 500m often due to the lack datapoints (which are available in the model data, but just do not seem to be used).
ICON documentation:
ICON model description -
More height levels possible?
I know the weather models do not deliver an unlimited resolution in regard to height levels, but afaik Icon-D2 offers more than what is shown in windy interface. This limits the information one can draw out of the interface and makes the soundings chunky when zooming in.
Would it be possible to show all available height levels (e.g. as an advanced option) for those interested? -
RE: New Position of Altitude Slider very bad
Thanks, I also used the altitude slider a lot with wind.
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RE: Radar show rain but no rain
Know that there are some general problems with any rain radar:
It can be triggered by virgae and very high local humidity, so then you get an echo without rain at the ground. Also at the edge of the radar windows I have seen ghost echos.
Windy probably cannot fix these issues, so be aware of them. -
RE: Show multiple altitudes simultaneously
You can use the aerogram for that already and the color coding is used to clarify windspeeds.
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Startup weather model preference
I would like to set a preference with which weather model windy starts up. For my home area IconD2/EU is much more appropriate than ECMWF often.
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RE: Alerts in need of gusts speeds
Seconded. Windspeed without a maximum gustspeed is not usable for many Sports.
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RE: Popup at start
Yes, this should be configurable: Show, don't Show, only show when GPS within proximity.