NOAA MOS Extended Ceiling and Visibility No More!

[DualRatedFlyer]

One of my favorite WX products is the NOAA MOS Graphics for forecasted cloud coverage and visibility here — https://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/forecast/graphics/MAV/

https://blog.foreflight.com/2015/08/28/gfs-mos-extended-ceiling-and-vis/

These products are also on the ForeFlight imagery tab and provide a greater forecast time than the default aviation forecast — which by the way has now been added to the imagery tab in foreflight and no longer requires you to generate a flight plan and pull a briefing to view. 

Anyway - before my trip this Thursday I was going through my standard WX products as usual.  I noticed that the MOS graphics weren’t in foreflight anymore. So I went to my news.noaa website and noticed that the forecast went from Tuesday to Friday and then stopped.  

I emailed Foreflight support to see what’s up and they informed me that with very little notice, NOAA let them know they were canceling the MOS product starting on December 17th.  

Very disappointed in hearing this because it was one of my favorite “big picture” weather products. 

I wanted to reach out and see who else has been using this MOS Graphic product, and what do you plan on using as a go-to product now?

Thanks!

 

[amillet]

I always checked MOS on the airport page in Foreflight as part of my preflight briefing. Sorry to see it go. I did notice it’s forecast for ceilings was usually more optimistic than the TAF.

http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/launch/code.cgi?state=WA&sta=KCLM is part of my preflight that I have found very helpful 

 

[FLYFST]

I still get MOS on Garmin Pilot. Could it be just a Foreflight change?


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[DualRatedFlyer]

Just now, FLYFST said:

I still get MOS on Garmin Pilot. Could it be just a Foreflight change?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Foreflight customer support told me the individual airport textual MOS is still there, just not the graphical products. 

Can you confirm ur still getting the graphics?

[DanM20C]

12 minutes ago, FLYFST said:

I still get MOS on Garmin Pilot. Could it be just a Foreflight change?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It’s just that graphic that NOAA produced.  Garmin pilot never included that graphic in their tools.  
 

i suspect ForeFlight will either implement their own or another 3rd party soon.  
 

windy.com has some impressive tools/graphics that are based on the MOS.  
 

cheers,

Dan

[ArtVandelay]

Is this the same thing?



Available here: https://aviationweather.gov/gfa/plot



Tom

[DualRatedFlyer]

6 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

Is this the same thing?



Available here: https://aviationweather.gov/gfa/plot



Tom

No, that’s the graphical aviation forecast that only goes to 18hrs.  The MOS graphical forecast was several days worth.  Here’s what it looked like https://blog.foreflight.com/2015/08/28/gfs-mos-extended-ceiling-and-vis/

I really cant find a tool as helpful that gives such a large forecast over so many days.  I am planning a flight from TX to the East Coast and cant find another product that gives that same level of easily digestible information at a glance.  

[DualRatedFlyer]

@Scott Dennstaedt do you have any insight on why the product was discontinued?  What else would be a good alternative?  I always found the Graphical MOS to be fairly accurate.

[PT20J]

1 hour ago, DualRatedFlyer said:

One of my favorite WX products is the NOAA MOS Graphics for forecasted cloud coverage and visibility here — https://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/forecast/graphics/MAV/

If you click on the NOAA link, you’ll find a notice that the product is discontinued. 

 

[CCowboy]

Get the Windy.com app or check out their website.  You can get the "meterogram" at each airfield (set up airfields on the map).  It will give you MOS data in a graphic form-but better.  See cloud bases/tops, temps, precip, wind, etc.  Have used it for about half a year and it is very good product.  There is a lot of Wx data with the website/app.  Play with it for a while and the map version will layer cloud coverage, bases, wind, precip, etc at any point in the US.  The map can be set to use NAM, GFS, ECMWF forecasts.  You can run a forecast time on the lower sliding scare and see the Wx progress.  www.windy.com   

[DualRatedFlyer]

4 hours ago, PT20J said:

If you click on the NOAA link, you’ll find a notice that the product is discontinued. 

 

Correct - that was the purpose of the post. 

[0TreeLemur]

The Localized Aviation MOS Program (LAMP) is a potential replacement going out 24 h.  I like it.

https://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/gfslamp/stnplots.php

and

https://www.weather.gov/mdl/lamp_home

I am affiliated with NOAA, but not with their aviation products division.  PP only.

[SkyTrekker]

I just discovered this discontinuance a few days ago, too. I used the graphical ceiling imagery all the time...sorry to see it go.

As was mentioned above, windy.com (and especially, their ios app) seem to work as a decent replacement for several days-out ceiling forecasts. It did take me a few minutes to figure out how the app works. But seems to work pretty well. 

[Scott Dennstaedt, PhD]

On 12/21/2019 at 10:53 AM, DualRatedFlyer said:

@Scott Dennstaedt do you have any insight on why the product was discontinued?  What else would be a good alternative?  I always found the Graphical MOS to be fairly accurate.

The NWS discontinued the GMOS product.  They are moving toward a more interactive solution that you can find here. Unfortunately, they don't provide a forecast for ceiling and visibility as of yet, but I do know it's on their list.  Check back in a couple years.  The GMOS graphics were not on an operational server and these efforts are always on the budget chopping block these days.

Already mentioned is the GLMP forecast which provides a much higher temporal and spatial resolution and is updated hourly...although it only goes out to 38 hours.  The GMOS forecast for the GFS was only updated every 6 hours and the NAM every 12 hours.  I've had the GLMP on my website for more than a decade.  

Edited December 23, 2019 by Scott Dennstaedt

[Scott Dennstaedt, PhD]

On 12/21/2019 at 5:28 PM, 0TreeLemur said:

The Localized Aviation MOS Program (LAMP) is a potential replacement going out 24 h.  I like it.

https://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/gfslamp/stnplots.php

and

https://www.weather.gov/mdl/lamp_home

I am affiliated with NOAA, but not with their aviation products division.  PP only.

The GLMP was extended from 25 to 38 hours.  See https://sats.nws.noaa.gov/~glmp/glmp_expr.php for ceiling and visibility.  I've been using GLMP for over a decade and preferred this over any other automated ceiling/visibility forecast.  They've really made some significant improvements over the years.  No, it doesn't go out to 72 hours like the GMOS.  Once you get beyond about 36 hours, the accuracy drops off incredibly fast.   In fact, you can also see this also on aviationweather.gov here.  The ceiling and visibility forecast for the GFA is from the GLMP product.  

Edited December 23, 2019 by Scott Dennstaedt

[bradp]

Not to so shamelessly plug Scott’s app but it’s about the most useful thing out there for preflight planning - uses textual MOS out to 36 hrs, but puts it in a timeline and geographical format as well as provides a meteogram for the selected window.  I stopped using the GFS for the most part for that level of granular detail.  >36 hrs I want big picture stuff, <36 hrs I want enough detail to let me know if this is going to work or not. 
 

 

[carusoam]

Thanks Scott, for the great weather support!

Thanks Brad, for showing us how you use it!

Best regards,

-a-

[JimG]

Sorry to see extended ceilings go also.  I often use the Prog surface chart to take a look graphically at fronts and weather .  That goes out several days. No ceilings but let’s you know if it might be trouble.

https://www.aviationweather.gov/progchart/sfc

 

[DXB]

A little late to the game - just discovered this went away.  I used it all the time when I was a VFR only pilot.  Now that I usually file to go long distances the big picture regarding forecast ceiling became less important, and I hadn't looked at it in a while.  But it's getting cold and suddenly I care again...bummer.  Any replacement for it yet??