The pretty solid IR image tops were at FL300, plus or minus 5k, I would say.
Oddly enough the sferics image was clean so little or no thunderstorms.
Just one strike in Switzerland. However this was later in the evening.
I don’t think for a moment anybody in Eurocontrol reads notams and incorporates any IFR issues in them into FP validation.
They appear to incorporate a number of NOTAMS into the route validation. I have specifically seen temporary airway closures due to military operations, NOTAMed airway restrictions (I.e. All of Libya) VOR/DMEs being replaced by temporary VORs (the French love this one), and a number of airports that have gone from IFR to VFR and then back (very annoyingly Sion which has a complicated mandatory route pattern and some annoying nearby level restrictions which IIRC need to be filed slightly differently if you are arriving IFR or Transitioning IFR to VFR before arrival)
I believe Eurocontrol pick up closures very quickly from the NOTAM feed, but suspect they are a little bit slower at removing restrictions.
> I don’t think for a moment anybody in Eurocontrol reads notams and incorporates any IFR issues in them into FP validation.
It actually works the other way around. Flight plan validation works with a rule book. Those rules are written and edited by the national bodies that own the airspace, not by Eurocontrol. When that national body issues the NOTAM, it also has to add/change the corresponding rule in the system. Those rule changes become effective immediately and are maintained in a system called CACD.
There is a long term joint project between FAA and Eurocontrol to establish a machine readable NOTAM format. It is still in the early prototype stage.
They appear to incorporate a number of NOTAMS into the route validation
Of course they do that – my post was ambiguous… They have always incorporated enroute restrictions, which change on a daily or hourly basis. On one route generator I used years ago, these were called Daily CRAM 
But incorporating airport restrictions is quite novel IMHO. One could argue it is better to have this, since it could result in a surprise when reaching the airport, but the pilot should have checked Notams 
And if Eurocontrol is slow in removing these restrictions then you have a real problem because you cannot do the flight even if the destination airport is clear.
Wow, I din’t know IFPS did account for such short term issues like a temporary instrument approach outage. Interesting.
That’s the whole purpose of digital notam, isn’t it? 8-)
