Hurricane chasing

FireRx

New member
Hey guys,

Was I misinform or was this supposed to depict hurricane cloud formation when flying over them? I'm Flying over Hurricane Madeline right not too happy with the results. :disgust:
 

tmpyflyer

Banned
You too, huh? I'm right in the middle of what is supposed to be class 2 hurricane lester and it's just a bit rainy.
 

maxam

Testing Team
Not sure if the metar has to list the hurricane " HURCN" what does the METAR say? If you head over to the search tab in AS16 select hurricane, is there one listed? Hurricanes are depicted when a tropical storm or actual hurricane is active with greater than 60 kt winds over a 12 hour period.
 

maxam

Testing Team
ASN> Thank you for sharing that information. The same search function is also available in ASN. It appears it was a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds just at or under the 60 Kt wind threshold and could be the reason why the hurricane was not depicted.

Regards,

Robert
 

maxam

Testing Team
There is a search function in ASN. I will have to ask the dev's about hurricane depiction in ASN. It worked just fine during testing.
 

FireRx

New member
yeah maxam I was meaning the cloud formation structure when you fly over them and the eye in particular. although it I look from the top downon the aircaft on the outside, I can see the clould spin below :)
 
I'm not seeing anything fantastic either in AS16, just a bunch of clouds and rain in FSX:SE. Nothing differentiating at all.
 

vgbaron

Testing Team
I see them if I am in map view and I pull out far enough. A lot depends on the size of the hurricane. Cat 1 & 2 are very small and could be difficult to see.

Vic
 

maxam

Testing Team

-Pv-

New member
Maxim is correct that ASN/AS16 only report "named" storms with winds greater than or equal to 60 knots.
If when flying over a known storm area, the storm is not available in the quick search hurricane tool, you will be shown only what local stations are reporting as cloud and wind activity. If the metar reports for the area and nearby have extreme data associated with them suggesting an active convergence, ASN/AS16 will generate TS and most certainly rain.

When a named storm is available and you have "Depict Hurricanes" enabled in the options, the main map will display a generic hurricane cloud pattern over the area and the graphic along with its associated extreme weather conditions will move over time based on real world geo data. You may have to zoom out to see the symbol, otherwise the map will display the precip patterns in the area. In the sim, FSX/P3D is not capable for displaying circular cloud patterns as you would find in a tornado or hurricane eye. Instead, you will see a large area of tightly grouped and intense thunderstorms over a wide area in a roughly circular pattern.

It is not unusual for some data sources and ASN/AS16 data sources to disagree as to when a tropical storm gains or loses hurricane status. Storms within 100 miles of land regardless of their status will have very active display in the sim since the metars in the area will be reporting rain, wind and TS. Over remote areas of the ocean far away from actively reporting stations, if AS is not listing a named storm in the intro page of the UI or in the search, the area in the sim may not look anything special or intense unless a real world aircraft flies there and provides a sigmet/airmet. One way to get an idea if an area where a non-named storm may have extreme conditions is to focus on that area of the map with sigmet/airmet layer on and look for a red pentagram. When Hermine hit western Florida recently, it was not being reported as a named storm in AS16, but when I flew there, I had intense TS activity as a result of the metars in the area and my aircraft broke up.

-Pv-
 

-Pv-

New member
Which are you looking for? The zoomed out hurricane location swirl, or the high detail TS activity?

Currently, there are no named storms (Active Hurricane) in the program. You can confirm this two ways:
1) View the HOME screen and the lower right side "Named Storms"
2) Use the Quick Search "Hurricane" feature.

-Pv-
 

tmpyflyer

Banned
I went ahead and upgraded to as16 thinking that would probably help. Now I'm looking at cat 2 hurricane Orlene which is reported to have sustained winds of over 100 mps. AS16 is neither reporting or depicting it. I've tried several spots around it's location and find winds no more than 39 knots in any of them. So my question is, does this program actually depict current, real world weather or not?
 

-Pv-

New member
I've noticed storms not mentioned on the US National Hurricane Center are less likely to get included. Google Earth isn't showing it also.

-Pv-
 

tmpyflyer

Banned
Ok, so the program only shows current real world weather for certain areas. Can we get a break down on what areas those are?
 
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