Quick Tip: The Awesome “Windy” for Aviation Weather

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waynemcc999
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Quick Tip: The Awesome “Windy” for Aviation Weather

Post by waynemcc999 »


You might ask “Why is Windy so popular?”, or maybe “What the heck is Windy?”. After using Windy for the past several years and over a thousand flight hours as my primary tool for mid- and short-range weather planning, I thought I’d document in both paper and video form how to get a jump start into using Windy. With how fast this software has evolved as both a website and app, I believe you’ll be hard pressed to match the breadth of the weather datasets, the choice of worldwide data sources (European, NOAA, Meteoblue), cutting edge graphics, and a compact user interface… oh, and it’s FREE. Have you tried Windy? Lately? What do you like best about the product, and what new aviation magic would you like to see from Windy.
Thanks for your insight and enjoy the flight!
Wayne, GeezerGeek Pilot
(in no way affiliated with the company, simply an amazed user)

Primer on Windy: bit.ly/wam-windy
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Re: Quick Tip: The Awesome “Windy” for Aviation Weather

Post by CFIDave »

I didn't know about Windy's "soundings" feature until watching your video. What would be really cool would be if Windy had the option of displaying soundings in standard "skew-T, log-P" format (rather than showing temperatures on the horizontal axis without the skew).

To me the most useful feature is the Meteogram display in the city weather forecasts -- it does an awesome job of predicting cloud layers at different altitudes -- even better than the cloud ceiling display I had been using on the usairnet.com website.
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waynemcc999
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Re: Quick Tip: The Awesome “Windy” for Aviation Weather

Post by waynemcc999 »

CFIDave wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:26 pm I didn't know about Windy's "soundings" feature until watching your video. What would be really cool would be if Windy had the option of displaying soundings in standard "skew-T, log-P" format (rather than showing temperatures on the horizontal axis without the skew).

To me the most useful feature is the Meteogram display in the city weather forecasts -- it does an awesome job of predicting cloud layers at different altitudes -- even better than the cloud ceiling display I had been using on the usairnet.com website.
Dave, I agree about the Sounding being a rather poor-man's SkewT. Also agree that the Meteogram is super useful as a quick way to understand lots of weather items over time at a given location.
Thanks for watching and adding to this important weather topic,
Wayne
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Re: Quick Tip: The Awesome “Windy” for Aviation Weather

Post by Chris B »

CFIDave wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:26 pm I didn't know about Windy's "soundings" feature until watching your video.

Started as "windyty.com" in 2014 and first highlighted on DAN by Eric in 2015, this visualization tool has been continuously enhanced (including IOS & Android apps added in 2016). New features regularly appear without fanfare. Apparently the team is now up to 15 full-time people!

One overlooked feature that I find very helpful is embedded links to nearby webcams. When available, this provides a richer METAR context.

For example, while the HAF METAR is often laughably misleading, the linked webcams provide a clear view of the Rwy 30 approach. From experience, if the "golf ball" is visible in the top webcam, then an LPV will work. :thumbsup:

Chris

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Re: Quick Tip: The Awesome “Windy” for Aviation Weather

Post by waynemcc999 »

Chris, thanks for the good insight on the team behind Windy... and for the needed emphasis on the Windy Webcams. For some reason I tend to overlook the webcams and need to put it on my checklist.
Wayne
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Re: Quick Tip: The Awesome “Windy” for Aviation Weather

Post by Boatguy »

On the subject of weather tools, I'm also a big fan of Windy for the synoptic weather picture anywhere in the world. I use it for general weather and not just flying.

I'd like to add a plug for EzWxBrief. I use this before every flight.

What I like is the profile view of my route. It knows how fast I fly, my approximate route, and is showing me the weather to expect at each waypoint at the time I will pass by or arrive. Clouds, wind, temps, turbulence, icing, etc.

I can store routes that I frequently use, or are the individual flights of a longer trip. Additionally, it flags departure time windows based on my personal minimums, and it has the usual static imagery, airmets, sigmets, etc.

It's a web app so it can run on any device/browser. It can feel slow because it's integrating a number of weather sources along the route to create the totally custom composite view of my flight, but a little patience is rewarded.

And after the first year, you can pay whatever you want to use it.

I use this for every flight, and cross check with a Foreflight briefing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASo3r17oDR0

https://ezwxbrief.com
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Re: Quick Tip: The Awesome “Windy” for Aviation Weather

Post by mfdutra »

I really like Windy. The new aviationweather.gov site is quite interesting as well. I've been using it more and more.

I used to like EzWxBrief, but the web-app seems abandoned. The interface is terrible and too slow.
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Re: Quick Tip: The Awesome “Windy” for Aviation Weather

Post by Boatguy »

mfdutra wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2023 8:34 pm I really like Windy. The new aviationweather.gov site is quite interesting as well. I've been using it more and more.

I used to like EzWxBrief, but the web-app seems abandoned. The interface is terrible and too slow.
It's definitely not abandoned. The UI is not the best, but I've heard there is an update coming.

I credit the "slow" to the number of forecasts that must be collected, analyzed and integrated to create the custom forecast for my route and potential departure times. Yes, I usually wait about 30s for my custom forecast. However, it would take me a lot more than 30s to figure out at what time (adjusting local to Z) I'll pass by a each waypoint, look at all the related forecasts (the various forecasts having different availability and effective time periods), review airmets and sigmets, repeat for each of the next 52hrs and a range of possible altitudes, and then integrating that in my head into a comprehensive picture for each of the next 52hrs.

The new aviationweather.gov is a big improvement, but is still 10 different wx maps, for different time periods and discrete altitudes, that have to be integrated by me into a comprehensive picture of my route at various possible departure times.

And no, I have no financial interest or connection to EzWxBrief, other than I know if it has more users, it's more likely to be around for me to use.
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Re: Quick Tip: The Awesome “Windy” for Aviation Weather

Post by steve_falconer »

I agree the UI is slow and not that good looking, but the route views are pretty amazing with terrain and forecast cloud layers and views across 52 hours of change. I just signed up for a trial and played with it on Alaska Airlines wi-fi getting the hangE of it. We’ll see how well it does with forecasts, but it aligns with the data really well and helps plan more quickly.

I tried adding Boatman as a referral, so we could have a financial interest ;-), but I’m pretty sure his last name isn’t Boatguy. I added Diamond Aviators instead.
Boatguy wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2023 9:53 pm
mfdutra wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2023 8:34 pm I really like Windy. The new aviationweather.gov site is quite interesting as well. I've been using it more and more.

I used to like EzWxBrief, but the web-app seems abandoned. The interface is terrible and too slow.
It's definitely not abandoned. The UI is not the best, but I've heard there is an update coming.

I credit the "slow" to the number of forecasts that must be collected, analyzed and integrated to create the custom forecast for my route and potential departure times. Yes, I usually wait about 30s for my custom forecast. However, it would take me a lot more than 30s to figure out at what time (adjusting local to Z) I'll pass by a each waypoint, look at all the related forecasts (the various forecasts having different availability and effective time periods), review airmets and sigmets, repeat for each of the next 52hrs and a range of possible altitudes, and then integrating that in my head into a comprehensive picture for each of the next 52hrs.

The new aviationweather.gov is a big improvement, but is still 10 different wx maps, for different time periods and discrete altitudes, that have to be integrated by me into a comprehensive picture of my route at various possible departure times.

And no, I have no financial interest or connection to EzWxBrief, other than I know if it has more users, it's more likely to be around for me to use.
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Re: Quick Tip: The Awesome “Windy” for Aviation Weather

Post by ememic99 »

As I can see from the samples on their web site, EzWxBrief is US (and Canada) only. I don’t say it’s easy to develop such comprehensive tool but it’s much easier than for the rest of the world (even Europe) having in mind huge amount of weather data available in US.
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