Forcast

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 :wink:

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. :slight_smile:

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! :slight_smile:

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! :slight_smile:

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. :slight_smile:

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 :smiley:

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

Hmmm, sure is a lot of clicking and altering in those examples. I had hoped it would read my log files and handle all the details…It seems to require a lot of hands-on to make it produce an output.

Atlanta…no wonder my attempts at producing a local forecast seemed out of whack…bummer…

Hi All,

To answer a question which seems to have come up, WXSIMATE WILL read your local data from WD, even if it’s not registered. What it WON’T do until you register it, is to cull data for your specific site. It can’t, because to do that it would need all your site data, which is what I develop in the process of customizing it for you.

I think one source of confusion is simply that it’s hard to realize at first what the program is. It’s a ‘local interactive atmospheric model’ - not that there are any others. It’s not intended as an auxiliary tool for WD, as I didn’t even know about WD till a couple of years ago, and over 20 years into the development of WXSIM. The tie in with WD is nice and convenient, but is actually a rather small part of using WXSIM.

Those tutorials in the manual were in response to requests for users, and many people have found them quite helpful. It does take a lot of patience to work through them, but I think learning the program is quite worthwhile.

Something that only a few users realize at first is the value (and fun, really) of using it in a ‘play’ mode. Even with the demo, you can pick one of the four sample sites, or enter latitude, longitude, and elevation, etc. data for anywhere in the world, and run all kinds of experiments. You can make cold fronts come through in Sydney in July or watch the sea breeze effect shift the wind there during the day in January, put snow on the ground in Atlanta in July and see how long it takes to melt, play with surface and upper air temperatures to see under what conditions various types of freezing or frozen precipitation occur, compare windy clear days to calm clear days - or to cloudy days, to see how that affects the daily temperature range. Of course, you can also make a serious, accurate forecast with all kinds of detailed information you’d rarely find elsewhere, which for most people is the main point. I just think you’ll get a much better feel for it if you play around with it and enjoy it, instead of trying to get all the features working at first. It can be run in a very simple mode.

I think it’s very instructive to read the background of the program, both at www.wxsim.com and in the manual. Also, I recommend taking a look at the cty.fdt file (it’s plain text), to see what all goes into customizing it. I develop data like that for each site I do.

Oh, be sure to click on any blue word in the program which you don’t understand. Instant help on that exact topic will pop up.

Hope that helps!

Tom

After playing with WxSim for the past few days I believe I finally understand. I think you have a great product and, in the right hands (not mine obviously), have no doubts it will produce accurate data. Good luck with your project.

Hi All,
I know it’s beginners luck, but yesterday I ran my first forecast and it projected todays high temp. to be 31.8 — it was off the actual high temp was 31.6.

This is a very complicated program but I’m an old retired IS executive and I will figure it out. It has a zillion things you can tweak so it should be a fun challenge.

I would welcome and advise anyone has on running the program.

Thanks John