FS2002, Real world weather problem

[John431]

I have been down loading real world weather. But, it doesn't match the
actual weather as determined from tuning in the FAA automatic weather
stations on the Internet. http://www1.faa.gov/asos/map/map.htm. I've
compared it by listening to the ATIS at the airport of FS2002 and comparing
it with the actual FAA weather report. It is pretty far off. I've made
sure the time at the airport and the time of the weather report were about
the same.

Anyone else have this problem?

John431

[Don Purcella]

I call it real weird weather

"John431" > wrote in message
nk.net...
> I have been down loading real world weather. But, it doesn't match the
> actual weather as determined from tuning in the FAA automatic weather
> stations on the Internet. http://www1.faa.gov/asos/map/map.htm. I've
> compared it by listening to the ATIS at the airport of FS2002 and
comparing
> it with the actual FAA weather report. It is pretty far off. I've made
> sure the time at the airport and the time of the weather report were about
> the same.
>
> Anyone else have this problem?
>
> John431
>
>

[Dan Moos]

I don't know if this is why MSFS goofs, but METARS aren't necessarily where
ATIS is derived from. At my home field (KBLI), METARs are derived from the
ASOS, an automated weather setup, which in the case of KBLI doesn't even
broadcast on the radio. You call a phone number to listen to it. Since it is
a machine, it can easily goof on clouds and precip. It only sees the patch
of sky its sensor is aimed at. Its biggest use is that it is real-time, so
you can track trends in things like wind and barometric pressure easily.

ATIS recordings are often more acurate because the person in the tower that
makes the observations doesn't have the limitations of the machine. But of
course the METAR data is what is availiable to the sim, so that's what we
get.

Another problem can happen if you live right between two reporting stations.
I trained out of Lynden WA, and it is smack between Abbottsford and
Bellingham. There can be drastic differences between the two, and on a day
when the weather was crazy, and I wanted to do a sim-flight out of Lynden,
it was 50-50 that the weather in the sim would match what I saw outside.

Plus, at least here in the Pacific Northwest, a METAR thats an hour old is
many times useless :)

I personally think the best use for the Real World Weather feature is that
it creates a word with varied conditions, without you having manufacture it.
Who cares if its not quite whats really outside. Rarely IRL does the weather
really match the forecast anyway!


"Don Purcella" > wrote in message
...
> I call it real weird weather
>
> "John431" > wrote in message
> nk.net...
> > I have been down loading real world weather. But, it doesn't match the
> > actual weather as determined from tuning in the FAA automatic weather
> > stations on the Internet. http://www1.faa.gov/asos/map/map.htm. I've
> > compared it by listening to the ATIS at the airport of FS2002 and
> comparing
> > it with the actual FAA weather report. It is pretty far off. I've made
> > sure the time at the airport and the time of the weather report were
about
> > the same.
> >
> > Anyone else have this problem?
> >
> > John431
> >
> >
>
>

[John431]

Thanks to all who responded. It confirms what I have been experiencing.

John431

"John431" > wrote in message
nk.net...
> I have been down loading real world weather. But, it doesn't match the
> actual weather as determined from tuning in the FAA automatic weather
> stations on the Internet. http://www1.faa.gov/asos/map/map.htm. I've
> compared it by listening to the ATIS at the airport of FS2002 and
comparing
> it with the actual FAA weather report. It is pretty far off. I've made
> sure the time at the airport and the time of the weather report were about
> the same.
>
> Anyone else have this problem?
>
> John431
>
>

[JasonSJbird]

I have had problems with accurate wind readings in hurricanes above Catagory
2(winds over 100mph). SO at least Isabelle thankfully was a joy for me this
time.

[Mark Cherry]

In ,
wrote:

> Yes, in my experience the real-world WX in FS2K4 often does not
> reflect reality. The most recent example was yesterday.
>
> We were receiving rain and thundershowers at KDSM/KIKV from about
> 2000Z on, with overcast conditions from about 1800Z. When I pulled
> down real-world wx in FS2K4 at about 0200Z, cloud coverage was
> "scattered", no rain.
>
> Winds were pretty accurate though.
>
>
> On Fri, 12 Sep 2003, John431 wrote:
>
>> I have been down loading real world weather. But, it doesn't match
>> the actual weather as determined from tuning in the FAA automatic
>> weather stations on the Internet.
>> http://www1.faa.gov/asos/map/map.htm. I've compared it by
>> listening to the ATIS at the airport of FS2002 and comparing it with
>> the actual FAA weather report. It is pretty far off. I've made
>> sure the time at the airport and the time of the weather report were
>> about the same.
>>
>> Anyone else have this problem?
>>
>> John431


I gather that FS2002 "downloads the weather for you". Does anyone know which URL
it goes to and is this in any way configurable by the user?

In other words, can you choose between TAF and METAR? (other than the coding
format, I'm not sure whether there's much difference between the two).

What I'm getting at is that there's more than one site for obtaining METAR data.
There's one where you input an ICAO code and it will send back a single report
for that Wx station, which is practically instant response
http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/metar.shtml

and there's the anonymous ftp metar-cycles files, which are global in scope but
around a megabyte each.

ftp://weather.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/cycles/

At least that's the case by the time it has finished being appended to and is,
in effect, already time-expired. If you log on just after the hour and refresh
the page, to show the file sizes, you'll notice the current 'live' file is only
a few hundred bytes in size. As more reports roll in, the file grows and, where
the weather is changing rapidly, you may see dozens of reports, all from the
same station, dispersed throughout the document and appropriately timestamped.

I don't know whether 2002 uses the cycle files or, if so, whether it simply
searches for the appropriate ICAO code, according to your coordinates, and loads
up just the first report it finds, or if it reads the whole report, including
the timestamps and then switches the weather as soon as your FS clock reaches
the relevant values.

Then again, tt could just as easily work out what your nearest Wx station should
be and fire off successive requests to the single-report website. The next
question is, whether the results on that page are updated every time a new
report is issued, or only once per hour. I'll have to revisit it and see what it
says there.


--
regards,

Mark
mailto -- .- .-. -.- -.-. .... . .-. .-. -.-- {.- -}-.-. --- -- .--.
...- ... . .-. ...- . {-.. --- -} -.-. --- --