etn wrote:
What do you think of Windy’s competitor Ventusky? On the surface they seem pretty much the same to me (apart from a few cosmetic differences.)
Did someone compare the two? Any winner here in terms of functionality?
I never heard of Ventusky before, but I checked out its web site now. The presentation is much cleaner than that of Windy and they have easily accessible explanations of what the data really means. On the back side, it is lacking much data which is needed for aviation use such as visibility and cloud base. (Or at least I couldn’t find it.)
I think the topic of rectangular holes in. Windy’s cloud layers has previously been discussed and the answer was then, there are no clouds. But look at this: 
While I can believe that holes within a light green region really mean a high enough cloud based, I can hardly believe that the ceiling will be significantly more than 500ft between Bremen and Hamburg. What causes these holes then?
Even the majority of us (according to posts on this forum) are usually happy with Windy forecasts, last few days it totally failed the forecasts for Annecy. According to the forecast checked on Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday was supposed to be partly cloudy while Thursday and Friday were supposed to be sunny. Wednesday morning TAF for LFLP revealed totally different reality (I was bit suspicious about Windy when I checked TAF for nearby LSGG on Tuesday evening) and I landed to OVC007. Following two days were constantly sunny in Windy’s forecasts but the reality was absolutely different, ranging from OVC012 down to OVC008. I departed today at OVC015 (huge improvement 
) and reached sun just after climbing through some 1000 feet of solid layer.
Some wx just can’t be forecast… I’ve just been looking at LFAT or EGJA for Sat/Sun and all the wx models produce different data for whether it will be sunny or not. Yet the wx is obvious: a thin layer, base 2000ft, tops 3000ft
To add to my misery I was considering Aosta and Sion as other destinations for this short trip which were absolutely sunny these 3 days.
When in doubt, always go to the south side of the Alps…
I think Windy is great for general overview of actual weather (satellite/radar) situations, as well as for the same general weather “systems” predictions/forecasts. As soon as we start looking at specific local location forecasts, and in particular at locations with micro-climates, such as mountain areas or areas influence by mountains and close in sea/ocean, Windy become less of a reliable tool in predicting local visibility and cloud ceiling – but remains relatively effective in predicting precipitation and to some extend general wind direction and strength.
As a general overall I appreciate Windy as a good tool for overall actual and predictive weather, in particular for enroute weather. TAF and Metar´s (particular with trends) obviously remains the “go to” source for actual flight planning.
When in doubt, always go to the south side of the Alps
Funny that whenever I have done an airline ski trip, to Verona or Turin, it is hazy as hell down there in that flat part of Italy
Yeager wrote:
As a general overall I appreciate Windy as a good tool for overall actual and predictive weather, in particular for enroute weather. TAF and Metar´s (particular with trends) obviously remains the “go to” source for actual flight planning.
A tool on windy that offers a bit more detail for understanding what the weather might be like such as ceiling, cloud cover and potential for fog can be discerned from the sounding forecast. Have you tried using that at all?
A tool on windy that offers a bit more detail for understanding what the weather might be like such as ceiling, cloud cover and potential for fog can be discerned from the sounding forecast. Have you tried using that at all?
You’re right sounding gave pretty much accurate picture but I didn’t want to trust it I thought it would change and become sunny.
