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Show HN: The new Windria – 2-5km precision wind forecasts
- willmacdonald 11y agoAwesome site. Is there any sort of API ? I'd love to build a surf predictor/alert for Stockholm, which is very dependent on wind. I noticed a UX bug here: http://snpy.in/E34hR9 http://snpy.in/E34hR9
- timedivers 11y agoHi William Thanks for reporting the bug. Yes there is an API, let's talk via email: info AT windria DOT net
- crabl 11y agoPhenomenal work! I live in a city known for its sporadic gusts and high wind speeds (no surfing around here, unfortunately!), so this will be quite useful! I'm also interested in an API, so I'd like to get in touch with you as well.
- timedivers 11y agoCertainly, just shoot us an email to info at :)
- disposition2 11y agoNoticed the same bug using Chrome and MS Edge
- wstrange 11y agoAs a kitesurfer - this is awesome! Really well done.
- billybofh 11y agoIt's giving me what look like quite unlikely wind conditions (FF42/Linux) : https://imgur.com/QejZqTY https://imgur.com/QejZqTY
- timedivers 11y agoThat looks like a rendering problem, we will look into it!
- billybofh 11y agoNo worries - the only thing I did was slide the time forward by a couple of hours - it was rendering ok before that :-)
- Dangeranger 11y agoWhen I was working for electrical utilities and tracking climate data over a service territory a service like this with an API would have been invaluable. I would have thrown money hand over fist at them. Particularly if I could predict accurately micro-conditions within the next 12-24 hours.
- timedivers 11y agoThe microconditions are tricky, but yes there is business there. We've done a few proof of concepts using CV + ML/statistics in the area of storm tracking. Do you have any insight into what the electrical utilities companies are doing these days in terms of weather forecasting?
- Dangeranger 11y agoAt the time I was using the National Climatic Data Center's datasets from AWOS and ASOS and combining that with locally sourced airport weather stations, mobile micro-climate stations, and helicopter mounted climate collection systems. It was a lot of fun... :( We were evaluating using a service provider such as Weather Underground or AWS Truepower. But those providers couldn't deliver the granularity or locality of collection that we needed for our obligations. The utility industry required aerial LiDAR collection to be partnered with same time collection of local climate conditions for use in modeling the impact of wind/solar/temp on conductor line sag. We did a bunch of pioneering work in that area back in 2012.
- anc84 11y agoYou might want to use some color scales that are perceptually uniform. Right now you are using the bad kind of rainbow for many.
- timedivers 11y agoAny pointers where we could look? (we are not designers..)
- josephhardin 11y agoIf you google matplotlib viridis there is a discussion of the issue. Using perceptually uniform colormaps(not to mention ones that translate to gray scale correctly) is normally the correct thing to do, but not always. Sometimes you want to highlight particular conditions. For instance, jet with radar data tends to nicely separate different atmospheric conditions if set up right. The same perceptual colormap version feels somehow lacking.
- imaginenore 11y agohttp://www.windguru.cz/int/help_index.php http://www.windguru.cz/int/help_index.php Use the standard implemented on WindFinder and WindGuru.
- bbayer 11y agoI am wondering how wind directions are calculated? Is there a realistic model that uses height maps and fluid dynamics or just a simple one for visual purposes?
- timedivers 11y agoThere are many different models, all of them taking into account terrain data, laws of physics and much more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_weather_prediction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_weather_prediction
- Brakenshire 11y agoDoes that mean you can possibly also get indications of gusting in direction as well as speed from the terrain? That would be really useful for sailing, particularly inland. Or maybe that's a more local effect, and beyond the resolution of these models?
- zoner 11y agoInteresting. WRF is the model that RASP uses - so surface winds should be similar. It would be nice to have higher level winds there, too, although since that's a sailing site this is probably not a priority for the people behind the site.
- timedivers 11y agoWe use the WRF-ARW core for some regions, it's a solid model. Haven't considered higher level winds, are you a pilot/paraglider? :)
- zoner 11y agoYes, would be useful for paragliding.
- vividmind 11y agoGlider pilot here. The website looks awesome! Thank you for it! If you guys could add winds at higher levels, it would really be useful for all kinds of sky sailors as well.
- brey 11y agolove the design, shall be recommending it to my gliding club. RASP is the gold standard of guessing in which direction you're going to land out today, but my god it is ugly. yes please, high level winds also!
- imaginenore 11y agoWhat's the source of your data? I get quite different predictions on WindFinder and WindGuru.
- timedivers 11y agoDepends on the area. Windfinder and Windguru are using the GFS model which has a resolution of only 50/100km. For example for winds, in the US we are using NOAAs HIRESW with a resolution of 5km and in Europe we are using mostly WRF models from national agencies with 2-10km resolution depending on area.
- foofoo55 11y agoWindfinder's Superforecast has a 12km resolution: http://www.windfinder.com/help#superforecast http://www.windfinder.com/help#superforecast
- xyclos 11y agoI didn't get a prompt asking for permission to use my location, yet the map was already focused over my location (though the loaded city text was wrong). Any idea what is going on here?
- timedivers 11y agoWe use your IP to determine your approximate location. Not very precise, but useful because it puts at least in the right country/state, so you don't have to search for it :)
- btbuildem 11y ago"Please signup"? No thanks.. There's very impressive alternatives that don't want my email. eg: https://www.windyty.com/ https://www.windyty.com/
- fnberlin 11y agogreat!
- mecer 11y agoVery impressive. Temperature seems a bit broken for extreme cold weathers though http://imgur.com/dRPFgs4 http://imgur.com/dRPFgs4
- simcop2387 11y agoYikes, 502C? I think most things we use would burst into flames by then.
- markbnj 11y agoExtremely well done. Good job guys.
- seanp2k2 11y agoI currently pay for iKiteSurf and this could be a viable alternative if it's accurate. iKSurf does actually place miniature weather stations at kite beaches though, so it might be hard to match that accuracy.