Historic weather has been requested several times.
So to sum up, why is historic weather important:
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It has been a familiar feature in other sims (provided for example by Active Sky) for ages. I used it all the time and considered it a matter of course in a flightsim. It’s a shame that the current state of the art flight simulator lacks this feature.
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Historic weather offers an abundance of different weather to choose from, just by selecting a date and time. Much more than weather presets ever can. And furthermore - different to weather presets - historic weather is realistic, diverse and dynamic.
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Only historic weather allows to realistically experience any season in the sim - independent from the real world season. With live weather you set the date in the sim to July and still encounter a blizzard over New England when it’s December in the real world.
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The same goes for the time of day. Historic weather is needed to experience a realistic scenario in any time of the day - independent from the real world time. Weather typically is different at different times of day: At night the temperatures are lower and the air is smoother than in daytime. There is morning fog that dissipates by noon, there is building cumulus in the afternoon. If we ever get gliders we will need the thermals of the daytime. Right now with live weather if you set the time in the sim to noon but it’s night in the real world you will get weather which is just not adequate.
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Historic weather allows to relive experiences you’ve had in the real world:
You are a passenger in an airliner on a turbulent and stormy approach in the real world and look forward to recreate that approach in the sim when you get home. Impossible with live weather because the weather will have changed by the time.
You enjoyed a scenic ride in a Cessna last summer around some spectactular weather themes and want to recreate that experience a few months later in the sim. Impossible with live weather.
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Historic weather allows to practice the same flight again and again. Impossible with live weather because the weather will be different every session - and weather presets just don’t offer the dynamic and variety of real historic weather.
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There have been several threads in the forums where people enthusiastically tried to chase hurricanes. Bad luck for those who didn’t have time for simming at that very time. With historic weather it can be done any time.
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If you want to do a VFR flight and find that the real world weather is too bad to allow a VFR flight your only choice now is to use a weather preset. How much more enjoyable it would be to just change the date and get realistic, varied and dynamic historic weather allowing for a VFR flight.
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You don’t have time for a longer flight today but already look forward to the flight you will be doing next weekend. So you already plan that flight, create a simbrief flightplan etc. Just to find that wind, runways, time and fuel calculations will all be wrong when you actually do the flight a few days later with live weather. Only historic weather allows for that.
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You set up a multileg rotation with an airliner. You are behind schedule on your first flight because of the headwind. But you already plan to catch up that time on the return flight thanks to the tailwind. Unfortunately you don’t have the time for that flight today and can only do it a few days later. With live weather your tailwind will be gone.
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You plan a multileg / multiday VFR cross country trip. Because of your real world obligations a few days in the sim will take you a few weeks in real time. With historic weather you will be able to make these flights in a consistent and immersive weather scenario in the sim. Imagine you land at an intermediate stop with a front approaching on the horizon. You are aware that you need to hurry on the ground to make it out of this valley VFR for your next leg before the front arrives. But when you do that next leg the other day that front will be long gone of course with live weather.
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Only historic weather allows to pause the flight for more than just a few minutes.
You have set up everything for the approach shortly before your TOD in an airliner, when real world obligations force you to pause the sim. When you continue the flight a few hours later all your approach settings are completely wrong because the live weather has changed.
Even worse, you have to pause your VFR flight midair while flying clear of clouds and find yourself in a thick soup some time later when you return to the sim - unable to continue your VFR flight unless you switch to a weather preset.
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Historic weather opens up many new opportunities for screenshots and videomakers.
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Last but not least historic weather simplifies the bugfixing. I remember when we had thunder and lightning out of the blue and Asobo had a hard time recreating this issue because of the ever changing weather conditions. It would have been easy to recreate with historic weather.
Please provide historic weather. It would give so many more possibilities to the sim and bring an already great flight simulator to another level.