Real Weather Questions

[AceChaplan]

Hullo!
What is the real difference 'tween local and global?
When you download local does it download weather for the particular weather station that is closest to you only or does it download weather for all stations?
Does global mean all weather stations or current weather for closest station applied to the globe?

I don't understand the explanations in the manual, but I was under the impression that when you download local weather it does so for the area you are currently in respective to the closest reporting station, and that once you are beyond the stations reporting area the weather would clear and you would have to download weather the area you just arrived in. I also know that you can download weather for each station along your route.
However, it almost seems like all the weather is downloaded for all stations around the globe at once, since whenever I go to download the weather for the next station it is already set to weather conditions current to the last time I downloaded local weather, and only changes significantly if there was a long duration since the last local weather download. Sometimes if I go to an airport clear across the globe I find the same thing? Is this pure fluke? Is it supposed to work like this? Or do I have the MSFS2K2: Magical Mysteries Edition?

[AceChaplan]

bump.

[flyinggriffin]

Local weather only covers a fairly small area. I believe it uses the METARs, these are the weather reports, like a snapshot of what is going on outside. Reporting stations for weather can be few and far between and sometimes not there if the tower or the machinery that reads the weather is on the blink.
Global weather covers just that..the whole globe. If you want to have 400ft ceilings and rain all over the world then you can get rid of local weather and just set up global.

[AceChaplan]

Thanks!

[Simon Evans]

You can have global weather everywhere except at departure and arrival airports, which you can set as local. Just d/l global first, then the local variation for the airports or en route areas required.

As a demonstration flight for some non-simming friends I set up a fully socked-in 8/8 overcast with a weather `hole` over the Grand Canyon and the departure airport. Took off in clear skies, flew into and above the clag, then descended just in time for the skies to clear for a spectacular view of the GC. A real `Oooh Aaah` moment.

Simon Evans


Simon Evans