Scott Dennstaedt, PhD

Yes, two decades ago, the computing power was the limiting factor. However, with the emerging technology of quantum computing, this is now on a more level playing field. I am writing a piece for FLYING magazine that should be published next year that will discuss this topic a bit more with regard to weather forecasting.

Who remembers neural networks? It wasn’t all that long ago that the topic of neural networks was front and center in the world of weather forecasting. That soon ran into a dead end given the computing resources at the time were not sufficient to solve these difficult problems. Therefore, weather forecasting and AI have a substantial hill to climb.

Yes, and no. The prog chart is a forecast for pressure centers, fronts, surface pressure troughs, isobars, etc. The EZWxBrief progressive web app does not provide a higher temporal resolution for what you can find on the WPC or AWC site. It does provide an hourly weather type forecast that you can find on the station markers layer on the map for the next 72 hours. It does not use AI, but uses an advanced technique to blend the forecasts from 30 different deterministic, statistical and ensemble forecast models. Once a route is defined, it can quantify your personal risk for the next 72 hours based on the forecast weather that is along the route. The result of this assessment is depicted on the EZDeparture Advisor™ using the pilot's personal weather minimums. This is also reflected in the route profile view that has a 10 minute temporal resolution.

Yes, it could be done, but not easily. There are many technical factors that need to be considered to make it scientifically accurate. Much of this has to do with how probabilistic forecasts are presented. I published a blog post some time ago about prog charts that you can read here. It may show you the challenges that would need to be overcome.

If you are interested in hearing about the weather forecasts along the path of totality for The Great North American Eclipse of 2024, then you should check out my YouTube channel. I discuss a pro-tip in the first two videos and I have a playlist here. These will be updated daily through Friday. On Saturday I am headed down to SUN 'n FUN to set up my booth in the Innovation Showcase tent (that is air conditioned!). So if you are going, stop by and say hello in booth IS-21. I'll be doing eight presentations as well.

It's hard to see from the picture exactly where and when this is. Are you using SiriusXM or FIS-B? It could be virga if the air was fairly dry below the cloud base. It could also be ground clutter or anomalous propagation from NEXRAD. Need more info from you in order to help identify what might be going on.

That's correct...and if the code is designed properly, there are generally little issues and you get compatibility across the different platforms. For now, most browsers support PWAs, so it creates the look and feel of a native app without the costs involved.

With my PWA, I don't need any native operations like some of the heavyweight EFBs use. In fact, many apps (probably a majority of them) that you download from the App Store are just regular web apps with a wrapper.

Here's what I wrote up when I decided to launch my site as a PWA instead of a native app. You also have to deal with the orientations of smaller devices like an iPhone in both orientations. When you have a browser in landscape, the address bar takes up valuable space that you may want to utilize for other buttons/selections. https://www.avwxtraining.com/post/the-scoop-on-progressive-web-apps-pwas-ezwxbrief

What complexity are you referring to? You simply install this as a PWA and you are done. It just adds an icon to your desktop or home screen and you can launch it just like any other native app. Again, how complex is that? It's actually quicker than searching and downloading from the App Store. And when there are updates, they become available immediately and there's no need to interact with Apple or Google to get those updates Again, I see that as "less" complex, not more.

Read up about PWAs. You can use the site in the browser, but why not take advantage of the PWA so that the space on the device can be optimized?

The AWC doesn't have a native app that you will find in the Google Play or App Store. It's a progressive web app like I use for my site. PWA or not, their site is horrible on portable devices like the iPhone. It crashes way too often and just is hard to navigate.

The prog charts are expected to remain. However, even if they do, the WPC will have them since they are the organization that generates them. I import the WPC progs into my app since they are updated more frequently then the ones at the AWC.

That’s a progressive web app, like I have with EZWxBrief, not a native app.

With this new site, the AWC will be eliminating (or has eliminated) much of the "static" imagery. Right now, the static imagery being kept for a while is: G-AIRMETs SIGMETs WPC Prog charts SigWx charts Icing (CIP/FIP) Turbulence (GTG) GFA static images (under /gfa/plot on the legacy website) B&W Fax charts Static images going away soon/now: Lowest freezing level from the RAP TCF, eTCF, ECFP RAP/NAM Wind/Temp graphics TAF plots PIREP plots METAR plots Satellite regional plots Vis/Fog satellite images Radar regional plots RCM radar plots Of course, some of this imagery is encapsulated in the interactive map...which on my iPhone crashes every time when doing a pinch to zoom out gesture. The graphics section is really hard to use. Takes many clicks to get to the images you want to see without a lot of scrolling up/down...pretty much unusable. I will keep as many of the static images available on my site until they turn off the production of those...then I will build my own.