I’ve been using Windyty since it’s launch. As a sailor, the visuals were extremely critical in planning passages. Where we could plan down to the minute of when to make course and sailplan changes.
Now we’re on land and I’ve introduced to it to my colleagues. While I can read weatherfaxes, gribs, and navtexes it would take a full for your average layperson to read and interpret that data. Windy makes it very easy for anyone to conceptualize weather models and create their own predictions.
"Where we could plan down to the minute of when to make course and sailplan changes."
As a racing sailor I get that you can PLAN when to do these things, but Windy isn't giving you info from models accurate enough for this to be optimal. It just make you feel good and the picture are pretty.
This clearly is not sufficient for inland racing but I can absolutely see how it would be for sailing long distances.
However it would be really cool to see something like this at a much more detailed resolution. I've been using this model for currents for the last 14 years:
http://hudson.dl.stevens-tech.edu/maritimeforecast/maincontr...
It would be more legible if it used windy's visualizations.
at ~9km resolution they may be accurate but I doubt you can plan things down to the minute or even have any certainty of what weather conditions to expect near shore where terrain will greatly affect the flow of 10m winds. also Windy only works over a strong network connection so during actual passages it isn't really that helpful (compared wx gribs which can typically be downloaded over ham radio)
All that being said, Windy is an amazing product, and definitely a boon for visualizing model data and making that accessible to anyone with a decent internet connection!
source:
thousands of miles of single-handed ocean sailing and I also handle wx model data daily at my job.
As a paragliding pilot, this is one of the best weather resources for me (along with https://meteo-parapente.com/). Fantastic visualizations, fantastic data sources.
Note: Depending on your region, it might be a good idea to compare forecasts of different weather model. GFS with its 22km resolution is not well-suited for forecasts in the mountains, where the model may completely "overlook" an entire (large) valley. Weather phenomena like the Föhn are also not modelled well. ECMWF with 9km resolution is often better. In the alps, I've had good experience with NEMS (by Meteoblue) as well as COSMO by Meteoswiss (which is not (yet?) available on Windy).
My go to weather app, along with Dark Sky. Can't say enough good things about it. Constantly updated with new, useful features.
There's something to be said for a software company not taking a ton of VC money, hiring hundreds of people, and shutting down in 3-4 years. From the last photo they have a ~10 person team.
The project was started (and still being partly coded by) one of the most successful Czech internet entrepreneurs, currently ~16th wealthiest Czech out there, his fortune estimated at ~$.7bn, so this venture seems to be self funded.
I can dig up an interview I read with him (in Czech), but I can't recall him talking about the financial side of things. He rarely talks to the press, so it's hard to come by this sort of information.
If you're on the webpage, under the top left corner hamburger menu the first item is "Donate". Not sure how they've done this year, their goal listed is $550k but for me it shows 0% which I find hard to believe in December. I blame my browser lockdowns.
They also have apps with in-app purchases to donate as well.
My preferred weather widget on Android (Meteogram Pro) links out to Windy if you tap the top center of the widget, it's very handy.
The author is also the founder and owner of a local Google-like company (search, email, maps, media, etc.), that's where he gets the funding for Windy.
And their maps are far superior to Google if you are looking for a map experience. I.e. you want to see a map, understand it, use it. With Google you get a grey blob of nothing where you can see a plotted route and reviews for your destination. It's useful, but very different.
They have not fixed it for almost 3 years - except for a really really tiny attribution only in web that too almost invisible. I challenge you to find it.
They've fixed it in the web, mobile will be fixed in the new release according to the linked comment. Maybe threaten to sue them if this is a priority for you.
Trivial - it's in the bottom right corner. It's easy to find if you're looking for it. The text is very small and has a bit less contrast than the one on Google Maps.
Indeed. Topographic maps with route planning for cross-country skiing, road biking or mountain biking. (in addition to usual car navigation). Offline capabilities, weather conditions along the route, on-line cameras etc.
I thought the forum was running on Discourse, but turns out to be something called NodeBB, first time I heard of it, it is similar in design, and I think it felt slightly faster / snapier than Discourse.
Thought for a second someone had posted this on HN: https://fridababy.com/products/windi - Which is a bit of a hack in itself, and one that I'm sure would have generated some interesting responses.
We use this website in oceanography to understand what kind of weather conditions our buoys are in. Off the coast of greenland this is helpful to shunt the wind turbines in extreme wind - not because they can't handle the wind, but because the waves crash on the spinning blades and shatter them.
Now we’re on land and I’ve introduced to it to my colleagues. While I can read weatherfaxes, gribs, and navtexes it would take a full for your average layperson to read and interpret that data. Windy makes it very easy for anyone to conceptualize weather models and create their own predictions.