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Weathermeister field

RV7A Flyer

Well Known Member
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Can someone explain to me all the overlapping time periods on this Weathermeister data?

This is the Winds Aloft section:

For Use (PST)
Mon 1:00 PM Until Mon 10:00 PM 035? @ 12 ...
Mon 4:00 PM Until Tue 4:00 AM 045? @ 17 ...
Mon 7:00 PM Until Tue 4:00 AM 073? @ 15 ...
Mon 10:00 PM Until Tue 10:00 AM 045? @ 12 ...
Tue 4:00 AM Until Tue 4:00 PM 040? @ 7 ...

What am I missing here?
 
I does this all the time, though...I never really paid any attention to it, but now I'm curious. Nothing on the WM FAQs or anywhere else.

Just a niggling little thing...I just wanna know what it means :).
 
First of all, what you've pasted is no doubt from an area briefing, not a route briefing. I'll get back to that...

Weathermeister picks up updated winds aloft forecasts throughout the day. They have different "time windows" of validity. That's what you're seeing. Slightly older -- but still valid at present time -- forecasts interleaving with slightly newer ones.

The further out the forecast, the longer the window. For example, right now on NOAA I see valid windows:

0200z - 0900z (7 hour window)
0900z - 1800z (9 hour window)
1800z - 0600z (12 hour window)

Weathermeister presents all data that the source has indicated is still valid. You could argue that it should "hide" time windows that have partially elapsed. If only they coincided exactly...

For my personal flying, I don't pay too close attention to the winds aloft forecast in an *area* briefing. If I'm just flying locally, a quick glance shows direction and strength and trend. On an area briefing, Weathermeister doesn't know your departure time, so it can't pick the best time window for you...it leaves that up to you.

When traveling, the *route* briefing is where it's at. The winds aloft section on a route briefing has data interpolated for your exact route, and the exact time Weathermeister calculates (using your aircraft performance profile) that you'll be over each point along the route. You don't have to make sense of time windows on a route briefing. You just get a single color-coded table with altitudes and waypoints/distances along the route. To me, that's what's most useful.
 
Aha! That explains it. And yes, that's pretty much how I use Weathermeister, too...

Thanks for the explanation!
 
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