NZ weather missing

[ZKd0s]

Normally we get live weather in New Zealand derived from the METARs at NZAA, NZWN and NZCH- however, all three of these ports have been showing empty skies over the last two days that I have been trying to load live weather, which hasn’t been the case with heavy rain and low cloud.

It appears the wind and barometric pressure remains correct, and the in sim METAR’s are able to be loaded to verify this- but just now cloud/visibility/precipitation.

Interestingly enough, live weather functions correctly at other locations tested- Europe/USA/Australia. The problem seems to be linked directly to NZ as of mid July 2023.

[Sim4good]

I have noticed the same issue with missing weather in NZ. Hopefully, MS/Asobo can resolve it considering it has had a country update, great thrid party airports and a great landscape to fly in. Just voted.

[ZKd0s]

Well disregard my post from yesterday- all appears to be working now at the big 3 in NZ!

[ady7970]

There seems to be some intermittent issues with weather in NZ. I’ve been having the same ‘clear skies’ problems myself. Then, without reason, everything works again for a while. Until it doesn’t. Hopefully Asobo can work with Meteoblue and MetService to come to an arrangement.

[JeremyBeramy]

Thank goodness it’s not just me! Voted.

[JeremyBeramy]

Has anyone here tried either Weather Force or xEnviro to see if they fix this issue?

[TrevKiwi]

I have Rex Weather Force and haven’t had any issues with NZ weather mind you I don’t play the sim all that often. I wore myself out on FSX sometimes playing all day.

[JeremyBeramy]

Interestingly, I’m getting weather just fine today incl. at a smaller airport like NZNP. (No METAR there but there are clouds at least).

A support person from REX mentioned the issue with METAR data in NZ, but said they get “regular” METARs from certain airports. So then I wonder why it still breaks periodically in MSFS even in those larger airports like NZAA, NZWN, and NZCH?

I also wonder why they’re able to show full global cloud/weather systems in map view, but not at least use that data when loading into an airport? Is it because once loaded into a flight it only uses METAR which may be too old?

[TheOneDudek]

I am finding the clouds and all weather is there when playing during the day but as soon as 5pm NZ time all the clouds stop injecting and it becomes ‘clear sky’s’ for the rest of the night but the rest of the globe is working fine.

[JeremyBeramy]

I wondered if that might be the case too, and is consistent with most of my flying (usually between 10pm-12am NZT) - However last night weather was loading fine

Definitely an intermittent issue that needs a permanent fix.

[ady7970]

Yeah - I’m just flying in NZ now. Some clouds on the distant horizon, but nowhere else. Just left NZWN where the METAR says BKN018 and yet there’s not a cloud in sight on FS2020. Needs to be fixed ASAP - it was all working at one stage. No problems anywhere else I fly.

[flybeast691]

Yep I’ve noticed it seems to be an issue later in the day. I wonder if it’s got anything to do with the fact NZ is so far ahead (time zone wise) than Europe/USA where weather data is generated.

[Hardbotj]

Same here. New Zealand clouds reliably disappear at 5pm NZT (metar winds and pressure all remain OK). Distant clouds in the east, sometimes OK on the east cape of the North Island.

I haven’t had an evening flight in NZ with real weather clouds in months now.

Started flying more around the world and have come across the same thing in other places but no idea if it is as consistent as the NZ issue.

[TheOneDudek]

Weather is working for me now after 5pm NZ time…not sure if its working for other ppl but I did do a registry clean up on my computer.

[Hardbotj]

I have had clouds after 5pm ever since they fixed the global weather server issue a few weeks back (the one when no-one had weather). But I have had instances of clouds disappearing at 9pm NZT since then, more often than not!?

Better 9pm than 5pm I suppose

[ssqirril]

I did my PPL & CPL in ZK-DOS

Aside from that just wondering are you able to use custom presets for the weather in NZ as even with live weather turned off I cant change anything weatherwise other than the time of day.

[ady7970]

This is still an issue, and it’s annoying that MS/Asobo haven’t acknowledged it. Hopefully they move to a new weather provider for FS2024, as Meteoblue aren’t very reliable it would seem.

[ZKd0s]

Just wanted to reraise the issue of inaccurate live weather in NZ ahead of the end of the month live developer stream.

4 months ago, Jorg addressed the live weather inaccuracy in New Zealand specifically in a TechRaptor interview (https://youtu.be/qVxbwHRrqU0?si=mV0hwjmSKG2QWVkD&t=1308), yet as of today, the 20th January 2024, we do not seem to have any improvements implemented in the sim.

Using this morning’s current conditions as an example. The South Island currently has a typical summer westerly flow over it, with a state of emergency declared on the west coast due to flooding, and wildfires burning on the east coast due to the hot dry fohn wind that comes down from the Southern Alps that divide the two regions.

However, with live weather in MSFS, we see the following this morning:

Milford Sound (south Westland) with snow on the palm trees at the airport, the fiord itself frozen solid, and the ATIS reporting a temperature of 11 degrees centigrate. The matching time real world METAR for NZMF is:

METAR NZMF 192000Z 32007G18KT 230V140 2000 +RA FEW015 SCT025 OVC035 16/14 Q1005
(No snow! 16 degrees centigrade. Certainly no frozen sea water, ever!)

Mount Cook- also snow on the ground, in the middle of summer:

Current real world METAR for NZMC is a very strong wind and temperature of 17 degrees centigrade.

METAR NZMC 192030Z AUTO 36022G45KT -RA 17/09 Q1007

Even Christchurch, which is one of three METAR sources MSFS pulls weather data from has clear skies as shown on the METAR tab (NCD = No Cloud Detected) but has some low level cloud depicted.

I realise there are several issues here- restricted METAR data sources that MSFS has access to, and also the snow coverage data provided to MSFS rendering incorrectly to the end user. I wonder if it would be as simple as adding a code condition where if OAT > 2 or 3 degrees centigrade = remove any snow/ice from surface textures?

I think I have missed the window to submit this as a direct line of questioning for the upcoming January 24 dev stream, but I will try bring it to Jorg’s attention via email. It would make a world of difference for us Kiwi simmers to see the different microclimates of the country depicted as other countries are, creating vastly different flight environments during different segments of cross country flying. Cheers!

[tubkal19]

Not trying to go off-topic, but weather depiction is horrible worldwide. They seem to just base their weather injection on METARS (which as you have proven, they are not even getting that right…), and METARs are just a slim view into the weather patterns over an area. A snapshot of weather shouldn’t be the only data to provide accurate weather, especially in places where airports are reasonable distanced from each other.

[ZKd0s]

The enroute weather seems to match up close enough with forecast and reported conditions, especially when cruising at high altitude and comparing with Simbrief OFP forecasts and the Navigraph Charts weather overlays. I guess that’s the meteoblue 250.000.000 square boxes/60 vertical layers part of it- but certainly the interpolation with the METAR station data, which as you quite rightly have pointed out are a once a 30 min or 60 min snapshort, certainly leave a lot to be desired!