We get a fair number of questions about the forecast freezing level line you’ll find on the Route Profile view in WeatherSpork. When there’s only a single freezing level (more specifically the melting level) forecast, you’ll see just a single dotted line as is depicted in the image below. This identifies the expected freezing...
Category: Weather
Winter precipitation types
The big freeze is coming! So it’s that time of the year to review one important aspect of airframe icing, namely, precipitation type. The three basic wintry precipitation types include freezing rain (and freezing drizzle), snow and ice pellets (colloquially known as sleet). It’s important to understand that METARs and TAFs typically report or...
What lake effect looks like in WeatherSpork
With the winter just around the corner, you can bet the Great Lakes ice machine is starting to warm up its rusty engine. This will be the first opportunity since WeatherSpork was released in March for fellow Sporkies to see how well it handles the great ice maker this coming winter. Here’s a sneak...
What the SLD potential analysis won’t tell you
Supercooled LARGE drop (SLD) icing is a hazard for all aircraft. But is all SLD created equally? Not necessarily. It also helps to understand what’s triggering the SLD event in the first place. A little sleuthing and some basic education goes a long way to understand the analyses and forecasts we use every day....
Twice as fast updates of radar and lightning with SiriusXM
A number of Sporkies couldn’t attend my presentation at AirVenture this year and were wondering if my presentation had been recorded in some way…unfortunately, it was not. But I wanted to pass along some information about changes to the SiriusXM (SXM) lightning and radar products you get via the satellite datalink broadcast. You may...
Using the Skew-T diagram in the WeatherSpork app
The Skew-T diagram is an excellent resource for pilots to use as a drill down tool to discover the potential of adverse weather at a particular location. Keep in mind that the big weather picture is still more important and the Skew-T is just a supplementary tool to fill in some of the details...
Convective outflow boundaries
When thunderstorms develop and evolve, their “exhaust” is cold dense air flowing down through the storm, striking the ground and moving outward away from the storm. To better understand this, imagine pouring pancake batter onto a griddle. The edge of that pancake is the outflow boundary which is essentially a gust front of sorts. ...
July 2018 SporkNews
If you are new to WeatherSpork, welcome to the family! This e-Newsletter will be sent out at the beginning of each month to keep you updated on the new features and content provided by WeatherSpork. We hope the app has made finding the most opportune time to depart a simple and easy process. The month...
What the hail? They are messing with the METAR code!
One of my pet peeves has always been the reporting of hail in a routine surface observation (METAR) or special observation (SPECI). If you look at the Federal Meteorological Handbook it provides two codes for hail, GS and GR. GS was reserved for small hail and snow pellets. Following a safety risk assessment, the...
Why you might get mid-morning bumps
Every once in a while you will see a pilot weather report of moderate or even severe turbulence one to two thousand feet above the ground with no obvious explanation of why. It’s in the mid-morning hours, the winds aloft are not all that remarkable, there are no mountains or convection nearby and not...
Using WeatherSpork to find that perfect time to depart
It’s the mid afternoon on Friday and you are planning to depart Bentonville, Arkansas (KVBT) sometime tomorrow (Saturday) headed to Panama City, Florida (KECP) to spend a week at the beach. You have the flexibility to leave anytime tomorrow, but most importantly, you want to minimize your exposure to adverse weather. Watch the 30...
Expanded airport database, METARs and more with WeatherSpork release 4.4.0
WeatherSpork release 4.4.0 is now available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store! Here are some of the new features and enhancements you’ll find in this release. Keep those referrals going! First, thanks a bunch to those Sporkies that are spreading the word about the WeatherSpork app to their fellow pilots. We’ve...
WeatherSpork’s station list has expanded plus METARs!
With the release of WeatherSpork version 4.4.0, you can enter any public-use airport as a waypoint on the route. That includes your departure and destination airports. Be sure to use the four-character ICAO identifier. For example, if you are departing out of Wilgrove Air Park in Charlotte, North Carolina (8A6), be sure to include...
A preview of WeatherSpork version 4.4.0…
As we’re putting the finishing touches on WeatherSpork version 4.4.0 here’s a 5 minute video preview of several new features that will be part of this release. If you haven’t done so already, please take a minute subscribe to our YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/weatherspork) as we release new WeatherSpork videos. “Most pilots are weatherwise, but...
What’s an MCS? This is…
If you read any of the NWS discussions (such as the Area Forecast Discussion contained in Airports view of WeatherSpork), there’s no doubt that the acronym MCS is tossed around quite a bit during the warm season. MCS stands for mesoscale convective system. These are not just a complex of thunderstorms as they are...