TopMeteo Soaring Weather Now Available for United States Region

[WaltWX[_2_]]

During the 2016 SSA convention, TOPMETEO.COM announced availability of their suite of soaring, ballooning and general aviation forecasts for the United States Region.

Dr Bernd Goretzski briefed me on the soaring version of this product. It looks to be nearly identical to all the TopMeteo soaring forecasts for the European and African regions. Naviter is partnering with the release of SeeYou version 8. In that version the winds, soaring forecast and PFD(Potential Flight Index) are combined with the tasking features to suggest the distance and best time to fly in any region of the U.S.

This is a significant new option for getting your soaring forecasts in the U.S. TopMeteo is the premiere soaring forecast service for the last 15+ years throughout Europe. Dr Goretzski explained that their "Regional Numerical Model" is initialized by the NOAA GFS model at boundaries allowing forecasts for soaring, ballooning and GA out to six days. To keep their "Regional Model" synchronized, it is initialized by the GFS model every 24 hours out to six days.

I haven't had a chance after returning from the SSA convention to experiment with this product yet. There is a subscription free period through April 30, 2016 where anyone can register to try it out. The voucher code is:

C-SSAUSA-2016-2016

After the "free" period is over the subscription fee is $99/year. There is a bundled price if you subscribe with through SeeYou's annual fee

Naviter's announcement is here:

http://www.naviter.com/2016/02/seeyou-8-with-top-meteo-weather/

Login at TopMeteo.com to get started.

Walter Rogers "WX"

[Tony[_5_]]

I've been enjoying learning topmeteo this week and getting it to work with see you. Exciting news for US pilots!

[[email protected]]

On Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 1:17:03 AM UTC-6, WaltWX wrote:
> During the 2016 SSA convention, TOPMETEO.COM announced availability of their suite of soaring, ballooning and general aviation forecasts for the United States Region.
>
> Dr Bernd Goretzski briefed me on the soaring version of this product. It looks to be nearly identical to all the TopMeteo soaring forecasts for the European and African regions. Naviter is partnering with the release of SeeYou version 8. In that version the winds, soaring forecast and PFD(Potential Flight Index) are combined with the tasking features to suggest the distance and best time to fly in any region of the U.S.
>
> This is a significant new option for getting your soaring forecasts in the U.S. TopMeteo is the premiere soaring forecast service for the last 15+ years throughout Europe. Dr Goretzski explained that their "Regional Numerical Model" is initialized by the NOAA GFS model at boundaries allowing forecasts for soaring, ballooning and GA out to six days. To keep their "Regional Model" synchronized, it is initialized by the GFS model every 24 hours out to six days.
>
> I haven't had a chance after returning from the SSA convention to experiment with this product yet. There is a subscription free period through April 30, 2016 where anyone can register to try it out. The voucher code is:
>
> C-SSAUSA-2016-2016
>
> After the "free" period is over the subscription fee is $99/year. There is a bundled price if you subscribe with through SeeYou's annual fee
>
> Naviter's announcement is here:
>
> http://www.naviter.com/2016/02/seeyou-8-with-top-meteo-weather/
>
> Login at TopMeteo.com to get started.
>
> Walter Rogers "WX"

Signed up right after my return from Greenville. It works fine for all US areas in the TopMeteo.com site but I encountered trouble when running it in SeeYou. I upgraded to version 8.02 and TopMeteo was in the completely new menus. However, in the TASK tab the program halts and completely locks up SeeYou. I sent a troubleshooting ticket to Andrej Kolar, does anybody else have this problem?
Herb

[Minot Moonshiners]

I didn't realize it was new. A friend who was at the convention told me about it. I signed up for the two weeks. Headed to Williams next week.. been watching it daily to see what it looks like this weekend, hope for good flying next weekend.

JP

[Fox Two[_2_]]

I've been using TopMeteo in France for several years now and find it to be a great product. I just upgraded to SeeYou 8.02 and have no problems with the weather overlay and tasking projections. It's a great new tool!

Chris

[[email protected]]

On Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 9:04:02 AM UTC-6, Minot Moonshiners wrote:
> I didn't realize it was new. A friend who was at the convention told me about it. I signed up for the two weeks. Headed to Williams next week.. been watching it daily to see what it looks like this weekend, hope for good flying next weekend.
>
> JP

That was quick!!! SeeYou just issued version 8.03 and my above stated problems disappeared, thanks. Looks like this will become a new must-have tool for serious OLC pilots and contest tasking.
Herb

[[email protected]]

I logged in but have not been able to find US weather
On Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 2:17:03 AM UTC-5, WaltWX wrote:
> During the 2016 SSA convention, TOPMETEO.COM announced availability of their suite of soaring, ballooning and general aviation forecasts for the United States Region.
>
> Dr Bernd Goretzski briefed me on the soaring version of this product. It looks to be nearly identical to all the TopMeteo soaring forecasts for the European and African regions. Naviter is partnering with the release of SeeYou version 8. In that version the winds, soaring forecast and PFD(Potential Flight Index) are combined with the tasking features to suggest the distance and best time to fly in any region of the U.S.
>
> This is a significant new option for getting your soaring forecasts in the U.S. TopMeteo is the premiere soaring forecast service for the last 15+ years throughout Europe. Dr Goretzski explained that their "Regional Numerical Model" is initialized by the NOAA GFS model at boundaries allowing forecasts for soaring, ballooning and GA out to six days. To keep their "Regional Model" synchronized, it is initialized by the GFS model every 24 hours out to six days.
>
> I haven't had a chance after returning from the SSA convention to experiment with this product yet. There is a subscription free period through April 30, 2016 where anyone can register to try it out. The voucher code is:
>
> C-SSAUSA-2016-2016
>
> After the "free" period is over the subscription fee is $99/year. There is a bundled price if you subscribe with through SeeYou's annual fee
>
> Naviter's announcement is here:
>
> http://www.naviter.com/2016/02/seeyou-8-with-top-meteo-weather/
>
> Login at TopMeteo.com to get started.
>
> Walter Rogers "WX"

[John Carlyle]

Signed up for an account at TopMeteo.com, successfully got the maps. Upgraded SeeYou to 8.03, put in a task. Then put my username into the TopMeteo box, and it retrieved my account. But the data download only partially completed, then stopped with an error. Exited SeeYou, tried again, same result.

Is anyone else having this problem?

-John, Q3

PS - on TopMeteo.com the Site Forecast is in SI units, while the wind speed on the charts is in kts and the altitude is in feet. Does anyone know how to make the data consistently be in Imperial units?

On Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 11:56:14 AM UTC-5, wrote:
> That was quick!!! SeeYou just issued version 8.03 and my above stated problems disappeared, thanks. Looks like this will become a new must-have tool for serious OLC pilots and contest tasking.
> Herb

[Dan Daly[_2_]]

On Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 4:39:52 PM UTC-5, John Carlyle wrote:
> Signed up for an account at TopMeteo.com, successfully got the maps. Upgraded SeeYou to 8.03, put in a task. Then put my username into the TopMeteo box, and it retrieved my account. But the data download only partially completed, then stopped with an error. Exited SeeYou, tried again, same result.
>
> Is anyone else having this problem?
>
> -John, Q3
>
> PS - on TopMeteo.com the Site Forecast is in SI units, while the wind speed on the charts is in kts and the altitude is in feet. Does anyone know how to make the data consistently be in Imperial units?
>
> On Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 11:56:14 AM UTC-5, wrote:
> > That was quick!!! SeeYou just issued version 8.03 and my above stated problems disappeared, thanks. Looks like this will become a new must-have tool for serious OLC pilots and contest tasking.
> > Herb

Signed up with topmeteo, upgraded seeyou, and restarted. Then, went into topmeteo, filled out my location, and it popped up the weather.

I, too, wish for imperial measurements vs metric. In there somewhere...

[Tony[_5_]]

Just as a data point, TopMeteos forecast today was much bluer than actual. They had the boundary of the cu field just east of my course line, when it ended up being well West of my course, until the end.

Because of that the predicted flight distance was significantly low.

DR Jacks NAM was pretty good on the cloud field today. The RAP was also too dry.

Like any tool you have to learn how to use it. I'm looking forward to using top meteo to maximize my distance this spring.

Can't wait to get home and update SEEYou. I also had been having trouble downloading the top meteo weather.

[Dave Springford]

Hi Walt,


I have found GFS to be not nearly as accurate as the NAM model in north america, to the point that I never use the GFS with Dr Jack or XC skies. What is your experience with GFS? If topmeteo uses only GFS and the input data is not good as NAM then the resulting output won't be good either. What's your expert opinion on this?

[[email protected]]

On Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 7:05:19 PM UTC-5, Dave Springford wrote:
> Hi Walt,
>
>
> I have found GFS to be not nearly as accurate as the NAM model in north america, to the point that I never use the GFS with Dr Jack or XC skies. What is your experience with GFS? If topmeteo uses only GFS and the input data is not good as NAM then the resulting output won't be good either. What's your expert opinion on this?

I can't seem to get the US weather only Europe?? I tried re-logging in still no luck??
Glen

[WaltWX[_2_]]

Dave,

Since they're running their own regional numerical model only initialized by the GFS, the model parameterized physics and boundary layer will be different. Local higher resolution initialization features from the GFS may not be the same as the NAM. Nonetheless... let's not discount how TopMeteo will perform in the U.S. Let's wait and see.

Walt WX



On Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 4:05:19 PM UTC-8, Dave Springford wrote:
> Hi Walt,
>
>
> I have found GFS to be not nearly as accurate as the NAM model in north america, to the point that I never use the GFS with Dr Jack or XC skies. What is your experience with GFS? If topmeteo uses only GFS and the input data is not good as NAM then the resulting output won't be good either. What's your expert opinion on this?

[George Haeh]

Gave up on GFS pretty
quickly.

Anyway nothing usable
for glider folk in Alberta
and BC.

The Ontario guys (Dave)
can check out how it
works for them.

XCSkies allow you to
choose between GFS,
NAM and RAP. What's
stopping TOPMETEO?

[George Haeh]

Gave up on GFS pretty
quickly.

Anyway nothing usable
for glider folk in Alberta
and BC.

The Ontario guys (Dave)
can check out how it
works for them.

XCSkies allow you to
choose between GFS,
NAM and RAP. What's
stopping TOPMETEO?

[Peter von Tresckow]

George Haeh > wrote:
> Gave up on GFS pretty
> quickly.
>
> Anyway nothing usable
> for glider folk in Alberta
> and BC.
>
> The Ontario guys (Dave)
> can check out how it
> works for them.
>
> XCSkies allow you to
> choose between GFS,
> NAM and RAP. What's
> stopping TOPMETEO?
>
>

Nothing other than that they have their own model.

Peter

[Chris Snyder]

I have to give a big thumbs-up to TopMetro. Today in Central VA their forecast was spot on where XC Skies was 1-2k under actual conditions.

Unfortunately I didn't actually stay in the 5.5k thermals :(

[krasw]

I believe Topmeteo uses limited area WRF with global GFS boundaries, same as pretty much everyone. WRF is far from being state of the art, but it's free and easy to set up. RASP and Topmeteo give basically the same information with different visualizations.

[WaltWX[_2_]]

Today is the last day of the Topmeteo free demo trial.

I've been using it from graphics on the web page rather than through SeeYou focusing on my flight area which is the Southern Sierras, Mojave Desert and Central California. My comments up to this point:

* Thermal Height Cloud Base seem pretty comparable to the gfs and nam. There are occasional discrepancies like for tomorrow... Sun 05/01 over the San Joaquin Valley. XCSkies and DrJack cloud bases 10.5k msl... versus TopMeteo 7.5k msl

* Geo referencing is poor. It's using river/aqueducts instead of GoogleMaps or OpenMaps. Would much prefer use of highway, major roads, airspace Class B,C and restricted. It's a definite plus for XCSkies and DrJack with their ability to fade background maps in/out with a javascript slider

* Six day forecasts are a definite plus although XCSkies reaches out to day five with the gfs.

* I like the ability to configure site forecast tables by lat/lon. This give one considerable information on thermal height, strength, cloud bases, top, winds, etc

* The cost of Topmeteo is a bit high at $99 ($109 if you want days 5 and 6) compared to free for DrJack and $40 for XCSkies. Although, SeeYou integration is a big win for TopMeteo.

Overall, it's a toss up in my opinion regarding the value of Topmeteo. If you use the subscription SeeYou, Topmeteo integration is a wise investment for planning flights out to six days. Given the lower cost DrJack and XCSkies, Topmeteo should lower it's cost for U.S. pilots.

One definite plus for Topmeteo is the long term support that extra dollars provide. Jack Glendening is no longer developing DrJack.net... and when he is no longer able to make small updates, that site will likely disappear. Support from XCSkies leaves something to be desired. The service hasn't been updated significantly since around 2010.

Walt Rogers