What happened to xcskies???

[Scott Alexander[_2_]]

Everytime I have used xcskies over the past month it is plagued with
problems.

The contour of the top of useable lift maps are straight lines that go
for 100 some miles, which is obviously false. And the selection of
dates and times is 90 percent missing. The areas that historically
had higher lift, such as higher elevation. Now are reversed and show
lower lift.

I am wondering if the new format is screwed up....or if I am not using
the website correctly.

Anyone else having the same issues?

[Grider Pirate]

On Mar 3, 4:30*am, Scott Alexander >
wrote:
> Everytime I have used xcskies over the past month it is plagued with
> problems.
>
> The contour of the top of useable lift maps are straight lines that go
> for 100 some miles, which is obviously false. *And the selection of
> dates and times is 90 percent missing. *The areas that historically
> had higher lift, such as higher elevation. *Now are reversed and show
> lower lift.
>
> I am wondering if the new format is screwed up....or if I am not using
> the website correctly.
>
> Anyone else having the same issues?

Your post prompted me to take a look. My XCSkies looks okay. A
temporary condition maybe?

[JS]

Version 2 came out at the same time as my last trip to Australia. I
used it to set tasks and it seemed fine. Even uploading flight logs to
compare them with the day's forecast looked accurate.
I noticed something like that in the San Joaquin Valley for a while.
Too-regular lines that didn't seem to move much hour to hour or even
day to day, while the Sierra Nevada and Mojave Desert seemed fine.
There were a couple of other glitches with version 2 which I fed
back information on. Chris took care of those things quickly.
Contact Chris (info (at) xcskies.com) with your specific questions,
including the location where you're finding this problem. He's quite
responsive.
Jim

[Scott Alexander[_2_]]

Thanks I sent him an email describing the glitches. It is the same on
both of my computers.

The main problem is the inability to access forecasted weather on the
NAM or GFS. Tommorow wont show up, 2 days out only has one forecast
available at 13:00 and 3 days out has no forecast available. It's
been doing this off and on ever since the format changed a month or so
ago.

Does anyone else have this specific problem?

[JS]

Chris is looking into it.
Jim

[BT[_3_]]

I just checked my login
3 day forecast is looking fine.

BT

"Scott Alexander" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks I sent him an email describing the glitches. It is the same on
> both of my computers.
>
> The main problem is the inability to access forecasted weather on the
> NAM or GFS. Tommorow wont show up, 2 days out only has one forecast
> available at 13:00 and 3 days out has no forecast available. It's
> been doing this off and on ever since the format changed a month or so
> ago.
>
> Does anyone else have this specific problem?

[Dan[_6_]]

On Mar 3, 9:03*pm, "BT" > wrote:
> I just checked my login
> 3 day forecast is looking fine.
>
> BT
>
> "Scott Alexander" > wrote in message
>
> ...
>
>
>
> > Thanks I sent him an email describing the glitches. *It is the same on
> > both of my computers.
>
> > The main problem is the inability to access forecasted weather on the
> > NAM or GFS. *Tommorow wont show up, 2 days out only has one forecast
> > available at 13:00 and 3 days out has no forecast available. *It's
> > been doing this off and on ever since the format changed a month or so
> > ago.
>
> > Does anyone else have this specific problem?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

with this new version I've never been able to get a forecast. Only
the past.
Hope this gets sorted out soon.

Dan

[Dan[_6_]]

On Mar 4, 6:08*am, Dan > wrote:
> On Mar 3, 9:03*pm, "BT" > wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > I just checked my login
> > 3 day forecast is looking fine.
>
> > BT
>
> > "Scott Alexander" > wrote in message
>
> ...
>
> > > Thanks I sent him an email describing the glitches. *It is the same on
> > > both of my computers.
>
> > > The main problem is the inability to access forecasted weather on the
> > > NAM or GFS. *Tommorow wont show up, 2 days out only has one forecast
> > > available at 13:00 and 3 days out has no forecast available. *It's
> > > been doing this off and on ever since the format changed a month or so
> > > ago.
>
> > > Does anyone else have this specific problem?- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> with this new version I've never been able to get a forecast. *Only
> the past.
> Hope this gets sorted out soon.
>
> Dan- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I e-mail Chris at XC Skies....I think my subscription may have run
out. It does recognize me and allows me to log in, but just doesn't
show a forecast. I'll re-new and se how it goes.

[Chris]

Interesting to note that when compared to Dr Jacks BlipMaps, the poor
lift over the Sierras shows in those maps as well (look at March 3).
This is due to surface heat flux values being too low for the
mountains which is represented in the raw model output data. This data
comes from Land Surface Models (LSMs) that try to derive the surface
characteristics. During transitional months (mostly spring time) the
models use a statistical approach for turning on certain key elements
such as snow cover, leaf area index values, and so on. Because of
this, when you compute the lift potential and use surface heat flux
values to determine the top of usable lift, the result shows poor
areas of lift over mountains. With shallow lift profiles, thermal
velocities are calculated as being abnormally low. In the US, the
Sierras and Rockies have this problem in March and April. In Europe,
the Alps are often poorly characterized over spring. In fact, hang
gliding records were broken last April in the Alps (for out and
returns) and all of the models used for forecasting showed that top of
lift was at ridge top heights which was grossly inaccurate.

This problem has plagued boundary layer forecasts for a long time and
there's not a good solution yet. The best approach (being used now) is
to rely on data collected historically and then represent the land
characteristics statistically. Eventually, real-time remote sensing
from satellites will likely replace the source of this data, but it
will take time.

-Chris Galli

On Mar 3, 10:03*pm, "BT" > wrote:
> I just checked my login
> 3 day forecast is looking fine.
>
> BT
>
> "Scott Alexander" > wrote in message
>
> ...
>
> > Thanks I sent him an email describing the glitches. *It is the same on
> > both of my computers.
>
> > The main problem is the inability to access forecasted weather on the
> > NAM or GFS. *Tommorow wont show up, 2 days out only has one forecast
> > available at 13:00 and 3 days out has no forecast available. *It's
> > been doing this off and on ever since the format changed a month or so
> > ago.
>
> > Does anyone else have this specific problem?

[Dan[_6_]]

On Mar 4, 6:08*am, Dan > wrote:
> On Mar 3, 9:03*pm, "BT" > wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > I just checked my login
> > 3 day forecast is looking fine.
>
> > BT
>
> > "Scott Alexander" > wrote in message
>
> ...
>
> > > Thanks I sent him an email describing the glitches. *It is the same on
> > > both of my computers.
>
> > > The main problem is the inability to access forecasted weather on the
> > > NAM or GFS. *Tommorow wont show up, 2 days out only has one forecast
> > > available at 13:00 and 3 days out has no forecast available. *It's
> > > been doing this off and on ever since the format changed a month or so
> > > ago.
>
> > > Does anyone else have this specific problem?- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> with this new version I've never been able to get a forecast. *Only
> the past.
> Hope this gets sorted out soon.
>
> Dan- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

re-newed my account and XC Skies works great!
just didn't know my account had expired....
great new features.