Weather Awareness "Training the Brain"

nucleus · #1 12-23-2009, 01:14 PM

How I keep track of weather:

Basically just a bunch of weather widgets on my laptop. I put my cursor in the lower left corner of my screen and this is what pops up. Roughly speaking West to East from left to right. I find that looking at the IR satellite animations that I have on the left side (Pacific, Pacific coast, and US) gives me an idea of what is and what is coming. Then across the top I have Doppler radar animations: Northwest, Montana, then US Below that the forecast animations: Northwest Temperatures, Northwest Precipitation, and US combined. Across the bottom forecast widgets for common destinations, with the weatherbug ones that have current winds for my homebase BZN) and most common airports.

Any other other widgets I should be looking at? The complete lack of effort required works well for me. I of course look at the official TAFs before going crosscountry, but I find this setup useful for maintaining general awareness and "training my brain" to generate it's own forecasts... I am constantly creating a "mental forecast" based on my interpretation of the maps, and then comparing the results to the TAF or local TV forecast... I should document it I suppose, but I think I am better for the local area at least.

Hans

Jerry Cochran · #2 12-23-2009, 01:36 PM

Have you looked at it? I wouldn't leave home without it...
http://www.weathermeister.com/ A bargain and tailored to Aviation.

the_other_dougreeves · #3 12-23-2009, 02:00 PM

Hans -

Nice stuff, lots of screen space! I'd recommend a few more:

* Surface conditions depiction showing VFR/IFR and, if you are doing a small region, it will show the METARs (sky condition as a circle, wind barb, temp and dewpoint, present WX symbols).
* AIRMET/SIGMET depiction
* Winds aloft forecast

I'll also put in a plug for Weathermeister, which does all of this in a web page, auto refreshes, customizable areas and layouts.

TODR

Ironflight · #4 12-23-2009, 03:26 PM

I use Weathermeister when I am really getting ready to get airborne, and can't think of anything better right now! But I also go to Doug's (VAF, front page) weather collection when I am just trying to get a feel for what is happening - the 48-hour Prog charts are how I get into sync with where they think things are going. And I probably do this about 20 times a day, every day. (Of course, I fly about 250 days a year....)

For actual flight, I want the details of TAF/METAR (usually as interpretted by WM).

nucleus · #5 12-23-2009, 03:47 PM

I did a trial of Weathermeister a few years ago and I can't say that I liked it. Seemed clunky and I wanted pictures. Probably didn't give it a fair shake. I can say that I never got it to the point of anything that looked this good:

Hans

the_other_dougreeves · #6 12-23-2009, 04:03 PM

Yes, Weathermeister has improved a lot. The "pop up" text as you put the cursor over items is great, for example mouse over the winds at an airport and it will give you the crosswind calcuations for each runway at the airport. TFR, MOA and prohibited area depictions are very good. Lots of goodies in the service.

TODR

PS - Weathermeister also has a stripped down, text only version for cellphone / blackberry users. Quick and easy.