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Wx on the Vans page

DennisRhodes

Well Known Member
Wx links that are provided on the Vans Wx page are my go to first for GA weather for the day. Aside from the active Radar loop, the next most used for me is the NOAA product CWSU centers WX accessible from a blue link about half way down the page. What happened to the two (one West and one East) graphic above that, that indicated Pnk, Red ,Blue and Green dots for those areas. They were always useful for me, do they no longer exist from the Wx briefing sources? I know the CWSU shows that same info but not at a glance. Are the GOES east and GOES west ( one is loop the other is ? ) as useful for your WX assessments?

Also the current Forecast blocks 12, 24, 36 and 72hrs have become less useful to me from what was originally there. Or is it just me?

I have been using the NOAA forecast interactive link at the top of Vans page and like the results but it requires a lot of button pushing and not really mobile friendly. Your comments?

Thanks to VAF for placing all that in one place.

[ed. Thanks for the kind words, Dennis. Some of the maps stopped working a few months ago and I've been *slowly* trying to find replacement maps. There was a time they all worked <grin>. Thanks for the heads up and nudge to get these broken links fixed. v/r,dr]
 
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Comments were in no way directed toward vans but rather to the usefullness of the product to me as a GA VFR driver. However i will say the quality and detail of the NOAA graphics are great. The new to me graphic on % sky cover is phenomenal. That although requires some hunting, does give great forecast info. Some of fhe wind data is also very good. The 1800wxbrief.com data lacks some of this new tech.

Thanks again DR for putting this up in front of us. Great job of gathering all this up.

[ed. You are most welcome Sir! I love this GEOS East image I found: https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES16/ABI/CONUS/02/2500x1250.jpg , but can't see to find the West equivalent. I think they update this sat image every ten minutes. v/r,dr]
 
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As the OP said, the WX page on VAF is my first go-to when planning a cross country as it puts many resources on a common page. Kudos to DR for putting this on VAF - I just want to assure him that effort expended on maintaining or expanding this resource is appreciated.
 
"GFA" a hidden gem

GFA stands for Graphical Forecasts for Aviation,.. by NOAA AWC

There is a link to ?(TAF) Graphics App? just above the VAF wx section on FREEXING LEVELS

On my tablet is shows an error when you try to follow the link, As the items have moved from a testbed to production. HOWEVER - You can still make use of the link ? if you look across at the header/banner with selections. The selections are Home/ Advisories/ Forecasts/ Observations/ TOOLS / News / etc?..

1 ? select ?TOOLS?

2 ? from the drop down menu which includes Flight path tool/GFA/HEMS tool/text data/?etc
SELECT ?GFA?


The initial screen that shows up looks like a weather map plot that could almost be from the 1950s?. HOWEVER,
there are buttons across the top that include ?CIGS/VIS? and ?CLOUDS?

with each of the displays, you can step through HOUR by HOUR through the TAF period to see what the forecast does, and how the ?colored blobs? change. (rather than point solutions with airport TAFs) I find this useful when sorting through what Plan B or C options, and timing might be good, and where alternative flight path might be.

With CLOUDs you get both TOPS and base, on easy to view display. To begin to answer the question if ?on top? flight is even a consideration.
 
How about these?

https://aviationweather.gov/data/obs/sat/us/sat_visfog_goesw.png
sat_visfog_goesw.png


https://aviationweather.gov/data/obs/sat/us/sat_visfog_goese.png
sat_visfog_goese.png
 
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