Wind erroneously read from malformed METAR

[ResetXPDR]

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Are you using Developer Mode or made changes in it?

No

Brief description of the issue:

Loaded in to a flight at TTPP with live weather and my, and others in my group’s, aircraft was flipped like a leaf in a strong breeze. Winds were 250-300 kts! Had to switch to a weather preset to return things to normal

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

Video from one of my group flight’s participants. Winds clearly showing 140 @ 300kts.

Provide coordinates (DevMode > Options > Display position)

TTPP

Provide time & date of the observed Weather issue

0400Z 14Jul22

Detailed steps to reproduce the issue encountered:

METAR was: TTPP 140300Z 140300Z 13005KT 9999 VCSH FEW016 26/22 Q1015 NOSIG. Note the duplicate time string. My suspicion is that the MSFS weather parser is reading the second weather string as the winds and is producing winds 140 @ 300kts! This issue also happened a month or so ago on a group flight when landing at an airport in the USA where we all encountered aircraft-flipping wind on final approach. Unfortunately, I don’t have the metar from that one.

PC specs and/or peripheral set up if relevant:

Build Version # when you first started experiencing this issue:

SU10 beta, but it was also happening for others in our group on SU9 still.

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

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:

[HethrMasn]

@ResetXPDR

My suspicion is that the MSFS weather parser is reading the second weather string as the winds and is producing winds 140 @ 300kts!

I think it’s probably fair to say the simulator should’ve detected something wrong with 300kt winds, since I don’t believe tornadoes are implemented yet

[ResetXPDR]

Post updated with a video one of our group fliers captured of the wild wind. Winds are shown a 0:11

[hobanagerik]

I wonder if that is the root cause behind what I saw once at Princess Juliana (TNCM) airport. some time ago.

What is going on with live weather?

I just bought the scenery pack for St. Martin, and Grand Case, and wanted to try out the M20R here. I have Live players only, Live weather turned on. The 530 is showing 2-4kts: [image] The windsock would seem to reflect this: [image] What is not clear in this shot are the trees behind the still, and upright, palm trees, which are being blown around like a hurricane is hitting them. The sea is equally perturbed: [image] [image] [image] Some of the trees are moving so much they are…

1350kt winds at Grand Case.

[ResetXPDR]

Wow, 1350kts! Yes, it’s rare but something Asobo could easily fix by tightening up their parsing logic on the METAR. eg. if the the METAR substring doesn’t contain KT at the end, then it isn’t the wind substring.

[hobanagerik]

Yes, it was like flying on Neptune.

[BungieBanHammer]

So its not just me lol. I goggled this question, I was trying to get the prop over 300 mile trophy part for Xbox, so flew Edinburg to Bembridge (EGHJ) in Diamond. Everything was fine 12 knot winds 160 degrees, 30.13 pressure. Then past London in final leg of 350 NM or so journey, pressure from ATC came in at 27.99. I said ■■■, huge hurricane forming? But clouds and night were calm, wind didn’t change. It wasn’t until I went over water doing final approach of teardrop pattern to land, that BOOM! My plane speeds went insane, thought I sped up sim or something! In panic before crash I checked my wind on Gavin I keep up, saw 170 KNOTS TO 270 KNOTS! I fought valiantly a good 12 seconds before spun into oblivion and black screen of death, once again- a different yet fatal glitch ending another of my hours plus 99% complete legs! Live weather and all that, true to life. Only thing of note, azure online capability came on and off twice during middle of flight, but those connectivity issues occur quite often in this game also, never to any bizarre weather effect!

[ResetXPDR]

As much as I appreciate support for the issue I reported in this thread relating to crazy winds from malformed METARs, the wind issue being experienced by many today is not related and is happening with correctly formatted METAR. Thank you for your input in any case.

[UnheardAmoeba55]

Has anything been mentioned by Asobo/MS about yesterday’s wind issues? I can’t decide whether or not to do a flight for fear that it will end in disappointment…again.

[hobanagerik]

Crazy high winds at TNCM again this evening.

Takeoff was very smooth though, which was odd. The windsock shows otherwise, but this was not felt on the ground.

Previous example.

What is going on with live weather?

I just bought the scenery pack for St. Martin, and Grand Case, and wanted to try out the M20R here. I have Live players only, Live weather turned on. The 530 is showing 2-4kts: [image] The windsock would seem to reflect this: [image] What is not clear in this shot are the trees behind the still, and upright, palm trees, which are being blown around like a hurricane is hitting them. The sea is equally perturbed: [image] [image] [image] Some of the trees are moving so much they are…

[Bam890]

i guess this bug happend tonight for me aswell in CYVR… blew my poor BAE146 right away before the Runway, ■■■… please fix

[hobanagerik]

I just found the perimeter, to the NE. I would guess its a giant circle. You can see TNCM far to the SW.

Pull the plane back a few feet and the waves instantly change.

[Pacific181]

@hobanagerik

Crazy high winds at TNCM again this evening

Made a similar funny experience just a few minutes ago flying (backwards !) over Seattle in real weather :
350 kts ++ storm, a few hundred feet above ground.
bye walter. Good landings !!!

[hobanagerik]

Looks like its all back to normal again.

[MrAnnihilat0r]

They need to fix the way the METARS are broadcasted over the radios. Whenever I tune it to a ATIS, they are always broadcasting winds in lets say 356@7 or 213@15, etc. The winds on METARS in the real world are always broadcasted by 10s. So it should be “wind at 240@12 or 020@15G25”. Hopefully they can correct this, I do not see this being a big deal to do.

[Speed1994]

This makes sense! Finally a possible explanation for the unbelievable weather in some places.

@ResetXPDR

eg. if the the METAR substring doesn’t contain KT at the end, then it isn’t the wind substring.

Not quite, you forgot about calm winds which are represented as ‘00000’! And some METARs aren’t in KTS!

I propose Asobo implement a check for METARs that does the following:

• A substring ending with ‘Z’ can only be used as date/time.

• That checks for the wind substring e.g. Ending with ‘KT’ OR 'MPS OR ‘KPH’ OR is equal to ‘00000’, both while following a ‘Z’.

• If it can’t read the METAR and satisfy those requirements, throw the METAR away and don’t use it.

That way the reading of date/time and winds should be bulletproof.

Edit: Some METARs use MPS (Metres Per Second) or KPH (Kilometres Per Hour)!

[HAWKY0075076]

Anno 2022 14-december : Tried to land on SAZN wind was ( /would be )250 13 kts …Fenix A320 was completely unstearable… feeled as if there was side wind and gusts of 30-160 kts from left. !!! could NOTkeep the plane …at last managed to slamm the plane into the runway… unbelievable → what a idiotic experience with that weather engine in msfs2020 somethimes .

[lwallace79]

This happened tonight at KPRB - the wind was pushing my plane (A2A Comanche) sideways and then backward. The ASOS report was reporting ridiculously high winds of something like 259 knots.

Tablet screenshot from the Comanche.

[HXArdito]

Yes, there are liveweather issues right now. Its reported, we need some patience

[ColoPrep]

Recently experienced the same butt-kicking hurricane winds from non-standard METAR formats, specifically KMKY and KSUA airports in Florida. If the METAR string is messed up, then maybe the sim should just reject and go with MeteoBlue?

Interestingly, when an airport is glitched like this, it becomes very obvious when you cross over from the MeteoBlue environment into the METAR bubble…not a subtle transition but also gives you a clear sense of how far out the bubble extends.