Having looked at the WXSim site and a few of the messages posted here, it is obvious that what I call a forecast and what WXSim produces are two different things. All those codes and numbers…yuck.
I would prefer a simple icon/text forecast similar to what I get now from the NWS as seen here
I just wanted to post a message that a couple months ago I suggested to Tom that he adds a feature to where it will produce a sentence forecast version such as what NWS does. (ie: Monday: Rain with the high in the upper 60. Monday Night: Lows in the lower 30’s with west winds, etc)
He said he had others request this and he will consider implimenting it, just no eta at this time. I don’t want to speak for Tom since I don’t know if he’s really doing this or not but thats what he told me in his reply to my suggestion.
I personally would love to use a sentence base forecast then the hourly one. The hourly one would be perfect on a seperate website (ie: file by itself). As far as the sentence base i’d love to use this on my flyer and get rid of the NWS forecast and put WXSim’s forecast up vs the NWS. I’d make WXSim’s forecast the main forecast that users see when they click forecast but I’d add a “Click here for NWS Forecast” in case users want to view that.
Sorry if im not making sense, Im just waking up and about to leave for work. yay…So im a litte out of out it and running low on surgar 
Wouldn’t it be rather trivial for a code junkie to parse the data to produce such a thing? Find the high value and time, find the low value and time… and look for any precipitation and amounts… then dump that into a tag or some other file format for displaying… Could WD perhaps do this with the .csv forecast file WXSIM produces? Brian is amazing at parsing, perhaps he could create a custom page that looks for a current WXSIM forecast file and converts it into html…
Not being able to do this is about the only thing preventing me from buying WxSim. It would be fun to play with but all of the cutting and pasting would take a lot of the “fun” out of it.
I may be confused at what you are saying. If you do get wxsimm then also get wxmate. It downloads every thing you need except,ready. IT does get the info from WD and uses in in your forcast.
Chuck
Agreed. The best solution I have read so far involves having WD read an file output from WxSim and creating a simple icon based forecast from that for the next 3, 5, or 7 days. If it could be done and made totally automated I would be on board as well. Hopefully the guys are working something out…
I think we have convinced Tom to work on an automated version. He is such a fanatic about getting it right I understand his reluctance to automate. I have wxsim, and with the companion wxsimate it really does only take about 10 minutes max to get a good forecast. Due to the availability and reliability of data I’ve not seen very precise forecasts past 3 days, but I can tell you he is VERY GOOD at 3 days and under… down to the minute good in some cases! WXSIM put rainfall yesterday at about 1:30pm… rain began at 1:22pm… how is that for close?
But to be honest I do almost the exact same thing each time I run WXSIM with WXSIMATE, so automating it shouldn’t be a problem for short range forecasts. Getting READY and MAPS/RUC-2 data has to be done by hand, but we can add that in optionally once or twice a day to tweak the forecasts. I’d like to see it so that WD can call wxsim to update the forecast every hour or two automatically… it can look for the existance of any READY/MAPS/RUC-2 data and use it if it is there, and skip it if not…
It may happen… it may happen faster if we can convince Tom that he’d sell more copies of WXSIM if it did get done! It’s a great product and deserves to be used!
Hopefully we have convinced him already 
I’d be very interested in a more automated version.
–Dave
Anyone using this in the southern hemisphere, in particular Australia successfully ?
It sure sounds interesting.
Chuck,
What I am looking for is a way to have WxSim generate a simple 3 day forecast that is automated and hands free. Some simple text, ie. saturday partly cloudy in the morning then becoming mostly cloudy. a chance of light rain. highs around 53. southeast winds up to 10 mph increasing to 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon and then, have WD include the icon with the forecast so I can post it to my website. From looking at the WxSim site examples it appears to be very complicated. I have some free time today and I am going to download WxSim and WxMate and have another go at it and see what I come up with for data.
I would even settle for something like:
Today:
7 am - partly sunny 60 deg. wind SW 7mph
noon - sunny 70 deg. wind S 15mph
6 pm - sunny 75 deg wind S 10mph
midnight - clear 55 deg. wind calm
low - 55 deg at midnight
high - 77 deg at 5pm
(or whatever times we choose to display)
I know that is not as wordy as Dans suggestion but I could live with the above for now if that would be easier to do while you work on getting a discriptive forcast working properly. Heck, if these items were broken down and WD tags created for each item within a time then we could construct the discriptive part of the text.
Hi All,
I’m glad to see all this discussion of WXSIM! 
To back up what a couple of others have reported (or at least expressed a wish for), I am indeed trying to create a much more automated option. Making it an option (with some kind of disclaimer attached) would satisfy my concerns about reduced accuracy when run in that mode. I think on most days, it makes little difference, but there are other situations that call for some good human decision making with regard to what options to use.
Another thing I’d like to point out is the learning value of actually taking the time to go through the whole (few minutes’ worth) process of running WXSIM ‘manually’. I think carefully looking at the data, and how WXSIM uses it (and by running different scenarios with slight variations - or just playing around with ‘pretend’ weather conditions in other seasons, even some of the other sample locations), can make the user a better forecaster.
Also, I’ve given considerable thought to the ‘plain English’ forecast output. I think I can do it. The challenges are mainly related to wording of changing conditions, like, under what circustances to say “increasing cloudiness tonight” instead of just “partly cloudy tonight”.
I’ve done actual work on the automating part, and have it partially working. I need to make improvements (like maybe even a timer to have the program start a forecast at prescribed times). I’m very interested in doing this, but quickly get swamped. In between teaching high school full time, doing WXSIM customizations, and of course spending time with my wife and two kids, there’s not as much left for program development as I’d like. I am plugging away, though as time allows.
Thanks!
Tom
Tom,
I recently installed WxSim and WxsiMate and couldn’t find a tutorial. There are so many choices and I find it daunting. Perhaps you have a “WxSim for Dummies” type walkthru that would help me learn? Something that says start with these settings and see what you get, then change “this” and see how “that” changes. I don’t know all the lingo and abbreviations and what I should be expecting or looking at specifically.
Anyways, good to hear your working on the forecast automated option.
NorCal Dan,
When you installed the application it should of put a manual.doc file that opens up in word in the wxsim directory. In there you would then have some scenarios to run through with all the different options that WXSim has. I also got Tom to add a glossary of terms in the manual as well with some basic terms which helped me a lot.
In the manual you will have two main topics:
III. Example Scenarios 5 - are the scenarios
XIV. Glossary of Terms 51 - is the glossary of terms.
that you can goto and learn about WXSim. Hope this helps!
Thanks for that…I will take another look at the manual. I read thru it once before but found it hard to understand all the terms, abbreviations, etc.
You ain’t the only one who got totally lost with all the functionality of wxsim.
I’ve taken a stab in the dark and registered it, as I feel it a waste of time fiddling around with Atlanta all the time, when I’m primarily interested in something on the other side of the planet.
I “think” I have been importing my WD data and not Atlanta, but I can’t be sure #-o
I used Wxismate to import my log file, but it still says Atlanta across the top of the window. It’s suppose to be a fully functional program so I assume you can get a forecast for an area besides Atlanta even though thats what is displayed on the box. Just finishing up some loose ends here and then I am going to take it for another spin, at least until I get disgusted with it again 
Maybe if I keep messing around with it something will click… #-o
The unregistered version of WxSimMate will only download data for Atlanta.
Hi All,
I registered WXSIM and WXSIMATE today and I have been working with Tom to get my software customized. I should be up and running in a few days. I will let you know how its going once I learn how to operate the model.
John