Clouds Sea Level

[tbenn52139]

IF I leave Lima Peru and the FS9 automated sea level current weather is correct and I fly to Bogata Columbia which is at 8,500 feet and the METAR Aviation Weather says the cloud base 2200 feet above GROUND LEVEL and not sea level, Do I add the 2200 to the 8500 so the cloud base of 10,700 is correct? If this correct and I'm manually setting the weather how high should the tops of the clouds be when you're only given the base level?

 

I hope this is not confusing.

 

Thanks

 

TBENN

[nadlzfw]

It certainly appears to me that, when using the default weather (which lately has been very unreliable) it consistently misinterprets the current weather conditions. The official standard for weather reporting is to report cloud base above field elevation, but the default interprets this consistently as above sea level. So, if Bogota at 8500' reports clouds as 9000 broken, the clouds will appear to be 500' agl.

 

I very rarely manually input weather conditions, so I'm not sure how this works, if that's what you're asking.

 

All the more reasons to use a third-party weather program...

 

Nadlzfw

[PhantomTweak]

If this correct and I'm manually setting the weather how high should the tops of the clouds be when you're only given the base level?

 

Given the nature of clouds, how could a ground based weather observer report on cloud tops? Also, unless the clouds are certain specific types, the tops are all over the place. And they change by the second. Even if a ground station got reports of cloud tops from airplanes flying over, by the time they published the information, it would be invalid.

 

You'll have to guess at where you want to see the tops, or let FS9 call it. Set the bases, set the top WAYYYYYY up there, and FS9 will draw the clouds for you, with the tops at what FS9 knows that kind of cloud, under the given weather conditions of temperature, humidity, dew point, etc, will appear as. Also, given the information from the weather stations in the area, there are likely multiple cloud layers. Broken at 5, scattered at 8, etc etc.

 

It would be a lot easier to get a third party weather engine, and let IT tell FS9 what the clouds are doing. FSRealwX lite is free, and works very well for me. The regular payware version of it can be used as freeware too, just short a few relatively unimportant features. It's like FSUIPC. The payware version can be used as freeware.

 

Good fortune, and enjoy, however you do it.

Pat☺

[tbenn52139]

Thanks for the Info. It was a big help.

 

TBENN

[darrenvox]

Glad for it to have helped you