The end of XC Skies?

[Scott Harding]

With the XC season coming on for the US, I've started using XC Skies again and notice that forecasts are infrequently updated, missing forecast hours, pages are super slow to load and there doesn't seem to be traffic on this forum.

Is this the end of XC Skies? I sure hope not--it has made picking the best days a lot easier than it used to be.

Anyone else having these same experiences? Any word on the future of XC Skies?

Scott

[Randy]

Scott
It works fine for me. I have not seen any of the issues you mention. I just checked with my Iphone.
My only suggestion is to Log out, delete your cookies and log back in.
My renewal comes up in a few days and I would be very upset if XC Skies came to an end. I find it an invaluable tool.
I would guess that the Forum is quiet because most users are not having any majors issues.
Just my 0.02 cents

Cheers
Randy

[Scott Harding]

I still get spotty functionality, sometimes better than other times. 

The GFS forecast updates once, perhaps twice daily--look at the forecast hour (not shown in the mobile version but shown on desktop). This means that in the morning, I'm looking at a forecast made 21 hours out for that afternoon. That's yesterday's forecast, not today's. XC Skies used to update the GFS forecast 4 times/day and provide much more current data (therefore more accurate). It also has missing forecast hours if I look a few days out. Sometimes these gaps are filled in with data but other times there may be data for morning and evening but not afternoon. RAP forecasts seem to be similarly dated and not updated as frequently as in the past. I don't use NAM much so can't comment on that model. Forecasts are sometimes slow to load or non-responsive.

Nobody else is seeing any of this? Happens on all my browsers, all connections...not related to computer or software on my side.

 Scott

[EduardoSG]

Hi Scott,

From what I see, it seems GFS is updated twice a day: 00 and 12 UTC.

I think it used to be updated 4 times a day, also using GFS runs of 06 and 18 UTC.

It is not a major problem from my viewpoint, because usually those runs are considered a bit less accurate.

This is because soundings are done at 00 and 12 UTC, and soundings are an important part of the initialization process of numerical weather forecast models.

So not always more current data is more accurate.

Of course it would be great to have those missing runs also, or even better, to be able to choose the model run we want to see (having as default the last one)

This is nice feature in the NOAA Ready page.

The missing forecast hours a few days out are not a big problem I think, because there you are in the border of when you can consider useful to see a detailed forecast. Usually you see those gaps no less than +96 hrs in the future, so no big worry there.

I am more concerned on the accuracy of GFS itself after the last january update (nothing XCSkies can do here ...)

And I am also concerned with XCSkies team not stepping in to answer some questions in this forum (such as the one I made on XCScience some time ago)

I read all the documentation we have on the site, there is some documentation that is promised for the future since a long time ago.

I am an informed meteo pilot that likes to understand how it works so I can take full advantage of the tool.

I just hope the XCSkies team can have some time to interact more after the updates Chris announced in another thread.

Best

Eduardo