Live weather for MSFS

Hi everyone and happy new year. So I'm having a few problems with MSFS and maybe you all can help me out.

Not only do I have no live weather, but once the flight is loaded up I can not change the weather options or even the time of day for that matter. I checked my MS connection and it's set to automatic and connection is good. Any one else having issues with live weather or changing weather mid flight ? I also cant change the time of day mid flight. I used to be able to slide the time of day scaler and it would change the time of day. That doesn't work any more either.

Thank you all in advance and happy flying in the new year !!!

Happy new year!

Are you loading a saved flight by any chance? If so, then that’s the reason you’re unable to change the time or weather. It’s always been like this.

If you’re not loading a saved flight… then I’m guessing it’s a bug

Regards

Stevd

I've noticed the last day or two that I can't get the live weather either. Gives me clear skies and standard barometric pressure.

UPDATE: Just noticed on the MSFS website that live weather is down.

Hi everyone and happy new year. So I'm having a few problems with MSFS and maybe you all can help me out.

Not only do I have no live weather, but once the flight is loaded up I can not change the weather options or even the time of day for that matter. I checked my MS connection and it's set to automatic and connection is good. Any one else having issues with live weather or changing weather mid flight ? I also cant change the time of day mid flight. I used to be able to slide the time of day scaler and it would change the time of day. That doesn't work any more either.

Thank you all in advance and happy flying in the new year !!!

stusue,

Did you by any chance join a group flight. I have had those symptoms after being in a group and the leader of the group leaves before you do.

What has to happen in a group situation is, the leader has to be the last to leave. Anyone that remains in the group after the leader leaves is stuck with the settings used during the group involvement.

If this is your case, get someone to invite you to join a group. Accept the invitation, then immediately leave that group. You should be clear no to change the setting (time & weather) to suit.

Hope this helps. I no longer join group as they are not necessary for multiplayer flights.

Hal

Hi everyone and happy new year. So I'm having a few problems with MSFS and maybe you all can help me out.

Not only do I have no live weather, but once the flight is loaded up I can not change the weather options or even the time of day for that matter. I checked my MS connection and it's set to automatic and connection is good. Any one else having issues with live weather or changing weather mid flight ? I also cant change the time of day mid flight. I used to be able to slide the time of day scaler and it would change the time of day. That doesn't work any more either.

Thank you all in advance and happy flying in the new year !!!

With Season Update 7, they changed things so that when you click "FLY" with live weather selected, it locks out the weather tab during flight. I think its a bug since you're supposed to be able to use it to get METAR's now. Been there a while though so we're probably stuck with it until SU8 at this rate.

Hi again... Thanks for your responses. I don't do group flights and I don't do saved flights. I've been using MSFS since summer of 2020 and weather has always been an issue but it's seems like inability to changing the time of day and weather type mid flight is a new thing. Btw... What MSFS website gives info on weather being unavailable. Is there a link to that website. The MSFS website I go to hasn't had a post since mid December.

Thanks again all.

The forums at flightsimulator.com is the best place to check when you have issues like real world weather not working, and anything that depends on Microsoft’s server farms. Not the best advertising for Microsoft. The servers are down again and there are multiple threads about it.

Microsoft isn’t doing themselves any favors. Their server uptime most not be very good. This has been happening each month since fall began.

And on changing weather or other settings in sim, are you running in VR? In VR the in-sim/in-cockpit menus don’t work. Known bug. If I need to change anything I pause, exit VR, use the onscreen menus, restart VR, and un-pause. This bug was introduced with SU7.

Not the best advertising for Microsoft. The servers are down again and there are multiple threads about it. Microsoft isn’t doing themselves any favors.

The whole world is on leave until January 4, but you want everyone at Microsoft working 24/7 all year round? I wish I had the money...

The whole world is on leave until January 4, but you want everyone at Microsoft working 24/7 all year round? I wish I had the money...

Did I say that? I don’t recall saying that. Do you see it anywhere in my post or just putting words in my mouth to argue against? And no, not everybody. Reducto absurdum. I never said everybody had to be on call or working there 24/7.

Since you sort of asked, this has been a recurring thing, Tim. It’s not just now. It has been multiple times for months. Had they fixed it, or tested enough before so it didn’t keep breaking, there’s a small possibility it wouldn’t be broken now.

And I used to work in IT. I was on call 24/7 when it was my turn in the barrel just like everyone else on the team. Much could even be handled remotely either with a remote login or having the on-site operations folks reset a node or whatever. It wasn’t at Microsoft but most data centers/server farms are pretty similar.

The Microsoft servers are a commercial operation. If you want your business hosted on their server farm, is it ok by you to have your business paralyzed over a long holiday?

It’s their business. It’s other peoples’ businesses. And it is extremely common to have 24/7 support when you play in the big playground. This isn’t a software update at least that we know of. The programmers have been off for a while. Weather was working just a day or so ago at least for me. Some hardware may have died or something may need a reboot.

If Microsft doesn’t staff on holidays with people who can fix those kinds of things, again, bad advertising for Microsoft that they don’t fail over or have people who can kick whatever is wrong. If someone did make a software change over the holiday, again, it’s on Microsoft/Asobo. I doubt that’s the issue, though.

Climb down.

Hi again... Thanks for your responses. I don't do group flights and I don't do saved flights. I've been using MSFS since summer of 2020 and weather has always been an issue but it's seems like inability to changing the time of day and weather type mid flight is a new thing. Btw... What MSFS website gives info on weather being unavailable. Is there a link to that website. The MSFS website I go to hasn't had a post since mid December.

Thanks again all.

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/c/community/community-fly-in-events/143/l/calendar

It’s their business. It’s other peoples’ businesses.

It's a children's video game. Not the end of the world.

It's a children's video game. Not the end of the world.

No, Tim, it’s not the end of the world. Did I say that too or are you just building more strawmen here to make it sound like I said things I didn’t?

It’s a big business model for Microsoft that involves worldwide distribution on both the PC and Xbox. But that’s not all Microsoft’s servers host - not by a long shot.

You can love-fest Microsoft all you want but stop pretending I’m saying things I’m not.

It’s not rocket science when you have literally millions of users to make sure the servers they require actually function - especially when that’s fundamental to the MMO they are raking in the dollars from.

So, do me a favor and how about you stop making stuff up and attributing it to me? It would be appreciated. And climb tf down.

It’s a big business model for Microsoft that involves worldwide distribution on both the PC and Xbox. But that’s not all Microsoft’s servers host - not by a long shot.

And which other vital services are offline right now? Even if you can find any, I'm sure that a few clouds in a kid's video game will be at the bottom of the priority list.

And which other vital services are offline right now? Even if you can find any, I'm sure that a few clouds in a kid's video game will be at the bottom of the priority list.

^^With an attitude like that, it will be no wonder more and more people stop using MSFS and X-Plane will take its place. I spent $3K on PC hardware just for MSFS and no other "kid's video game" as if MSFS is a "kid's video game." I was looking forward to getting more IFR time in real world weather starting New Year's Day. As of this post, it is still down. I also didn't pay $150 for software to run properly on Microsoft's time. Kid's video game...maybe you wandered in the wrong forum Tim.

EDIT: And let's keep something else in mind - Microsoft was REAL PROUD of the MSFS launch of the GOTY edition.

And which other vital services are offline right now? Even if you can find any, I'm sure that a few clouds in a kid's video game will be at the bottom of the priority list.

Which other vital services are offline? No idea. What vital services are up and running? Can you answer that one? No, you can’t.

The fact is that we don’t know how wide the outage is. Is it a node, a rack, or a whole center? Is it simply a hung node? Dead network interface? No idea, Tim and Microsoft would have big security issues if I knew. And it doesn’t matter anyway. You’re just trying to whatabout this. You seem to have taken offense that I dared impugn Microsoft after a year and a half of buggy software and service outages. I’m sure Bill is thinking happy thoughts about you for it, too. Sure he is.

What we do know is there has been a recurring weather server outage issue that has now carried over through today. All I said was this has been a recurring issue, there’s multiple threads about it on flightsimulator.com, and somehow that got your knickers bunched up so you started making junk up and treating it like I said it.

As to FS2020 being a children’s game, well, maybe you’re in the wrong forums. And hate to break it to you but live weather was a big feature of this simulator. It was used as a selling point. As real as it gets as long as you only fly on calm sunny days? Some groups even enforce that achievements are flown using real world weather. Those folks are all dead in the water.

Not that it matters but I was answering someone else’s question - not yours - to explain that weather was down and it was known. Why you decided to start creating nonsense out of thin air and attribute it to me is a mystery. You obviously have no real points to make on this subject. What help have you provided? None. Instead you’ve decided to escalate.

And a little something about server farms - all jobs are important. Some may be more important than others but if nodes go down or other hardware fails, it all gets handled. When jobs need resources, schedulers give them resources. There is only a node:job relationship when specialized hardware is required. I don’t work at Microsoft or know how they provision their servers, but on ours all hardware in a system was largely identical.

It really doesn’t matter. You seem to want to lord over others and assert dominance, but I have better things to do. Thanks for turning an answer to a question into something it never needed to be. Sorry if me not submitting to your abusive snark upsets you.

So you go play your children’s game. I bought a simulator and treat it as such.

as if MSFS is a "kid's video game."

It has a PEGI 3 rating, which states:

"The content of games with a PEGI 3 rating is considered suitable for all age groups. The game should not contain any sounds or pictures that are likely to frighten young children. A very mild form of violence (in a comical context or a childlike setting) is acceptable. No bad language should be heard."

That's why none of the warplanes on the Marketplace have weapons or weapons effects. It's for kids.

It has a PEGI 3 rating, which states:

 

"The content of games with a PEGI 3 rating is considered suitable for all age groups. The game should not contain any sounds or pictures that are likely to frighten young children. A very mild form of violence (in a comical context or a childlike setting) is acceptable. No bad language should be heard."

 

That's why none of the warplanes on the Marketplace have weapons or weapons effects. It's for kids.

So now PEGI ratings define things, not the user. I'm glad you cleared that up for us Tim. You are doing no favors to yourself here as a long time FS community member. And I'll just leave it at that.

What we do know is there has been a recurring weather server outage issue that has now carried over through today.

All I said was that it's because everyone's on leave until January 4.

^^With an attitude like that, it will be no wonder more and more people stop using MSFS and X-Plane will take its place. I spent $3K on PC hardware just for MSFS and no other "kid's video game" as if MSFS is a "kid's video game." I was looking forward to getting more IFR time in real world weather starting New Year's Day. As of this post, it is still down. I also didn't pay $150 for software to run property on Microsoft's time.

 

EDIT: And let's keep something else in mind - Microsoft was REAL PROUD of the MSFS launch of the GOTY edition.

Microsoft has let the weather outages go for too long. I prefer to fly real weather but that’s broken in the US thanks to the visibility bug they introduced SU7.

But this does highlight a larger issue - Microsoft is alienating users. People are going back to P3D and XPlane (if they ever left) because Microsoft/Asobo keep introducing as many bugs as they fix. Hopefully the SU8 bug fix release gathers up most of them.

P3D doesn’t need to worry since they have the training market FS2020 is kind of avoiding, but I want to see XPlane do well especially since in Microsoft’s year and a half with FS2020 it’s still so buggy. Great software but they keep breaking key functionality and they seem in no hurry to fix it. Ultimately I think/bet that this is all being caused by bean counters. FS2020 doesn’t seem so driven by a love of aviation since MS/Asobo aircraft frequently have props turn the wrong way, control surfaces actuate backwards, etc.

I’m still happy with it and am willing to work through the bugs for now. But with the multiplayer outages, weather outages, even sim outages, it’s getting a bit old.

And I'll finish with this thought:

All I'm asking for in this thread is some PERSPECTIVE. It's not as though the entire Azure server network is offline, it's not as though the sim itself is offline, or that pre-set weather doesn't work either.

Here's my perspective: if I pay $150 for a fancy Steak Diane dinner that the restaurant is proud of as a major crowd draw and they ran out of oyster mushrooms that make the dish because their food source company was on holiday vacation, I'm not going to take it in perspective. I'm not going to just suck it up after all the time, effort, and money spent dressing up then getting there and paying for valet parking. And I don't think any other patron would either.

The MSFS team wants all the praises of a revolutionary flight simulator (key words: FLIGHT SIMULATOR) and the expectations are set high to ensure ALL aspects of it deliver AS SOLD. And to Robert's point again, it's not like this is a brand new simulator, and tying into weather servers are one of the easiest services out there. If I wanted to do manual weather I'd fire up my 20 year old retro gaming rig and launch FS2000 before real world weather existed for flight sims.

We all have been very patient for a very very long time now. I delayed my new PC build for a year just to let MS/Asobo get the bugs worked out. No excuses at this point. NONE. If 2022 is a repeat of 2021 and continued breaks with updates (which also break aftermarket payware), I'll move to the new X-Plane coming. We never were dealt these repeated and long term breaks by the ACES team for FSX and previous versions for this consecutively long.

Here's my perspective: if I pay $150 for a fancy Steak Diane dinner that the restaurant is proud of as a major crowd draw and they ran out of oyster mushrooms that make the dish because their food source company was on holiday vacation, I'm not going to take it in perspective. I'm not going to just suck it up after all the time, effort, and money spent dressing up then getting there and paying for valet parking. And I don't think any other patron would either.

Nope. Here's your true perspective: You've paid $150 - online - to sit on your ass in your own home and have everyone else at Asobo Studios, Xbox Game Studios, and Microsoft's entire global organisation run around after you. In your opinion, that $150 ENTITLES you to expect them all to run around after you night and day, all year round.

Clearly you are mistaken. Live weather is offline, they're all aware of it, and obviously it can wait until Tuesday if it doesn't fix itself in the meantime. Oh, the humanity.

How could it possibly fix itself? Well, something like this happened to Heathrow Air Traffic Control years ago.

A cleaner (janitor) pulled a plug out of a wall socket so she could plug her vacuum cleaner in, thereby taking out the entire southern UK's Air Traffic radar between Paris and Manchester. Chaos reigned, for hours on end, because she didn't replace the original plug when she'd finished.

I bet this is what's happened to the MSFS live weather server, and I also bet they don't admit it.

I don’t want to get involved with this one.. but for the local area (while the servers are down) I just look out of the window and adjust the weather in the sim to suit LOL

Better still.. I tune into Leeds/Bradford’s ATIS on 118.025

Speaking of which… why is it listed as 118.030 in the sim? :) Only just noticed that the other day.

Regards

Steve