Inaccurate depiction of Snow in many regions during the summer

[FortNova]

Okay, I get it, Alaska is cold. Even in the summer it can be chilly. Like today, I took off on a flight from Unalaska Airport (PADU) in the Aleutian Islands, an it was a brisk 56F according to the weather report. Decided to do a water takeoff. But…my aircraft was stuck in the ice. In the summer. In the central Aleutians. A quick check of the FAA weather camera for Unalaska shows no snow or ice anyhere to be seen…because it’s late August. It’d be weird for there to be any snow, let alone an iced over harbor. The simulator should know better, too, as it was registering an OAT of 15C.

Is there a way to turn off the snow coverage without disabling the live weather? Does Asobo have any plan of fixing these immersion breaking bugs?

[skypilotYTS]

There’s still a few “skiffs” of it in Northern Ontario (in the sim). Flew from Cochrane to Kapuskasing and there were some white patches / edges despite the 30+ degree weather

[OrigBullethead]

Are you on Steam or Microsoft Store version?

MS

Are you using Developer Mode or made changes in it?

Nope

Brief description of the issue:

Today is 21 December 2021. This is the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere but the Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. But MSFS doesn’t appreciate the latitude difference and has New Zealand buried under snow and glaciers.

Provide Screenshot(s)/video(s) of the issue encountered:

Detail steps to reproduce the issue encountered:

Go fly in New Zealand with “Lie” Weather right now.

Build Version # when you first started experiencing this issue:

1.21.13 or whatever the version du jour is after GOTY and Reno additions.

[StretchMussel60]

Just flew there and no snow or ■■■■■■ all with live weather selected.Flew Cristchurch to Wanaka .Where abouts are you flying?If your in the southern alps there still going to be a bit of snow round Aoraki Mount Cook for sure.

[OrigBullethead]

@StretchMussel60

.Where abouts are you flying?If your in the southern alps there still going to be a bit of snow round Aoraki Mount Cook for sure.

I couldn’t tell you the exact place. There’s a cluster of about 6 POIs in mountain valleys. We flew from an airfield on the west coast through the mountains and out the other side to the airport shown, which was also about at sea level.

I could accept a bit of snow on the mountaintops this time of year, if the mountains are tall enough. Sure. But deep snow on the flat ground near sea level at midsummer seemed a bit odd ;).

On this flight, I was in vox comms with @CuzDawg3 whom you can see in the 1st pic and parked beside me in the last pic. He confirmed he had the same snow I did.

[Shado2k1068]

Yep its the same for me in live weather when I fly out of Milford Sound

[FlyMe2Dunoon]

Live weather today in Milford Sound. This is supposed to be summer in NZ?

[FlyMe2Dunoon]

No, there is snow even at low levels in the Southern Alps. Milford Sound is completely frozen over. This is not summer weather!

[notwanthere]

Correct, the entire Southern Alps region is snow and ice right down to sea level. You’d be lucky to get it that low even in Winter! Only the “tops” should be showing a bit of snow during Summer (maybe above about 8,000 ft). And the margin is quite defined too - coming out of the Alps and onto the Canterbury plains (NZCH region), the line between frosty ground and green paddocks is only a matter of a mile??

[sut101]

I had an issue like this today, but in Santa Monica, California, which was totally covered in snow. After quitting and restarting the sim and setting the weather manually, the snow was no longer present when I loaded in. Then I set it back to live weather and it remained snow-free, as it should be.

[Albatross75160]

Thank you using the Bug section, using templates provided will greatly help the team reproducing the issue and ease the process of fixing it.

Are you on Xbox, Steam or Microsoft Store version?
PC, MS Store Version (DeLuxe)>

Are you using Developer Mode or made changes in it?
Negative>

Brief description of the issue:
I recently raised a post on the General Discussions Forum which Ii associated with weather performance. Having received some really helpful information via that post I now realise that my issue was not with weather at all but seasonal scenery.

Basically, flying VFR in New Zealand from NZNV (Invercargill) to NZMF (Milford Sound) using live weather. On line weather forecast at Invercargill, 18C, Wind NE at 6kph, high level cloud. On line weather forecast at Milford Sound, 20C, wind E at 2kph, clear skies. The forecast conditions at NZIV were mirrored by ATIS. Ideal, with virtually no wind if I have an abort on Rwy 29 at NZMF I am quite happy to fly down the fjord, turn over the sea and make an approach at Rwy 11.

Everything to plan, fly on headings to Manapouri then follow Highway 94 through the mountains to Milford Sound. No ATIS (or any other ATC) at NZMF and am very surprised to make the final turn out of the hills and find that the whole of the airfield area is blanketed in SNOW, the sea is frozen – and I am too high and too fast.

This flight was conducted on 3 March when it is late summer in New Zealand, not a time of sea level snow or frozen sea lochs.

I revisited the NZMF yesterday and the ground level visual conditions were the same with snow on the ground and the sea water frozen. There is no ATC at Milford Sound in the sim but the condition panel at the load up of the departure screen indicated wind at 2kts. The Garmin displayed the OAT as +16C. Again, not met conditions that would see snow and ice.

I took a look at the area on Bing Maps and whilst the condition of the surrounding mountains showed some snow on the tops it did not have the same levels of snow as displayed in the sim. However, it does appear to show that the Milford Sound itself was frozen. I was unable to identify the date of the Bing aerial image. I also took a look (shhh – keep this to yourself) at Google Earth and that was just the same with a very sort of geometric area of frozen sea loch.

On the flight yesterday, from NZMF to NZQN (through not over the mountains) there were other areas of frozen freshwater lakes in an area where, according to the Garmin, the OAT was 1+11C.

Clearly there is a bug here somewhere which would be nice to have investigated/rectified. >

Provide Screenshot(s)/video(s) of the issue encountered:

Detailed steps to reproduce the issue encountered:
Fly NZMF now.>

PC specs and/or peripheral set up if relevant:

Build Version # when you first started experiencing this issue:

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For anyone who wants to contribute on this issue, Click on the button below to use this template:

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?

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[SebTajtaj]

There are several places in Chile where this same problem exists. For example, in SCPU everything appears frozen since it is over 20°C and it is summer.
The snow cover data is supposed to be extracted from meteoblue, but when reviewing the snow cover maps, that area with snow does not appear either. Apparently the coverage data was left without updating for a while until now

[SebTajtaj]

I submitted a bug report and this was the response:

Thanks for bringing this matter to our attention.

We just want to confirm that this issue has been tracked in our internal bug tracker. We’ll come back to you if we have troubleshooting steps to recommend before the issue is patched but in the meantime, we are going to close this report.

Bugs and issues that have been successfully reproduced will be categorized and prioritized—game-breaking bugs will receive the highest priority, while middle-of-the-road and cosmetic bugs are prioritized based on reproduction and the number of times reported.

We cannot provide any ETA as to when a specific bug will be fixed in-game but the Community team produces a “bugs & feedback snapshot” on a weekly basis to keep the community informed of the most voted issues. Additionally, do not miss our Weekly Development Updates to find updates on a few of the most popular bugs currently being discussed in the forums. To know if a bug has been fixed in an update, please refer to the corresponding Release notes

[Albatross75160]

A further comment to my earlier post and I don’t know if this anomaly relates to the visual conditions issue or not but I will mention it anyway.

If you look at the first screen shot in my post above you willl see confirmation there that NZMF is 10’ AMSL. There is no ATC coverage at the airfield (and that is something else that REALLY gets up my nose) so the only way to determine the barometric pressure is to us the ‘B’ key.

AS you can see I have an airfield altitude of 560’. If I correct that altitude:

Significant or not?

[cdv00079374]

Europe has fully entered spring, and the maximum daytime temperature has reached 15 degrees, such as Innsbruck, but the airport is still covered with thick snow, which is very abnormal. Can’t Asobo escape the cold winter?

[ThionAntilles]

I dont know how this can help but do you have any season mods installed like the ones from bijan habishi (i jope this name is right)?
Had the same problem in wintertime with no snow in sertain areas by using the autumn north spring south mod

[thecoronadian]

Known since at least May last year. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for them to fix this.

Thread here: Snow partially at low altitudes at 19°C in LOWI - Bug Reports / Weather - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

[GaiideNinja]

This is likely the data MSFS uses to determine if there is snow on the ground: Weather Maps | Live Satellite & Weather Radar - meteoblue

It is not very accurate when you zoom all the way out. I tested this a little bit in Norway and Sweden and the places that don’t show snow coverage when you zoom in but do show snow coverage when you zoom out had snow in the sim. So it’s likely the sim isn’t using very high-fidelity data to determine snow coverage. They probably have to pay MeteoBlue (more?) money for that

Which is understandable. I think most people have forgotten that the “winter season” was more of a cool feature Asobo could show off in product marketing than an actual season implementation. Seasons aren’t coming until later this year, at the earliest.

It’s good to let them know these issues exist, just don’t expect any resolution until official season support comes - IMO

I will try to ask at the next dev Q&A if they will be using higher-resolution data for snow coverage in their official season support

[CertainSphere60]

Same here in Sion, Switzerland and as far as Laggo Maggiore in Northern Italy. In reality it has been in the early 20s (celcius) here since April with no snow on the ground since late February and yet MSFS live weather shows complete snow coverage throughout the region. The same problem occurred last year. Kind of annoying. Ground level in Sion is around 600m ASL so not sure why their data sets would generate snow.

[TBM9009319]

Its also frustraiting to land in LOWI with a fully covered snow runway and in reality everything is green in the meantime and temp. nearly 15-20 degrees