Hello again and thanks for reading the 12th edition of EZNews!
EZWxBrief is turning one year old on April 7th! It's hard to believe it has been a full year since this progressive web app went live. Since its inception, we appreciate those that have joined, renewed their membership or signed up for auto-renewal. A special thanks to a few members that renewed their membership for more than $69 over the last year. We truly appreciate your generosity and effort to support our continued innovation. We look forward to another year for all members to enjoy the simplicity of EZWxBrief. EZWxBrief version 1.1.0 was released in the middle of March. More details of the changes are provided below.
For members new to EZWxBrief, you won't find EZWxBrief in the Apple App Store or Google Play store. For the best user experience, EZWxBrief is optimized to run as a progressive web app (PWA) and must be installed on your device which takes just a few seconds for each device. Please see the Pilots Guide for more information on how to install EZWxBrief as a PWA. Below is an excerpt of the section for those installing the PWA on an iPad or iPhone.
The Daily EZ Weather Brief is gaining significant popularity
Have you had a chance to view the new Daily EZ Weather Brief? It's been very gratifying to hear all of the positive feedback received since we rolled out The Daily EZ Weather Brief on March 1st. Here's the exciting part. We are still hammering out the details, but AVweb has expressed an interest in picking this up for their subscribers each and every day including their AVweb Flash email. We hope through AVweb The Daily EZ Weather Brief will reach a wider audience, but we still need your help to promote the program. It has also been featured in General Aviation News and Flying magazine.
How can you watch? If you get up early, the actual broadcast will be live on the EZWxBrief YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/avwxworkshops) beginning at a new time of 7:15 a.m. eastern time (assuming there are no technical or personal glitches). If you have not done so already, please take a moment today to subscribe to the EZWxBrief YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/avwxworkshops and turn on this channel's notifications to be reminded of the live event when it happens. With a few exceptions for illness, holidays and travel, there will be a live broadcast every weekday (Monday through Friday) morning with Friday's broadcast offering a brief weather outlook for the weekend. If you miss the live broadcast, the video will be published on the EZWxBrief YouTube channel shortly thereafter. Any changes to the daily schedule will be posted on the EZWxBrief social media sites including the EZWxBrief Facebook page.
For now, there's no fee to view this broadcast or watch any of the recorded videos. It would be awesome to see hundreds if not thousands of pilots tuning in every day. Having said that, we are also looking for a sponsor for these daily videos. Please understand that this daily weather overview is being offered for educational and entertainment purposes only and does not substitute as a formal weather briefing as required by 14 CFR § 91.103.
TBM AVEX Aviation Safety Seminar
It was great seeing those TBM owners at the AVEX Aviation Safety Seminar at the Camarillo, CA airport (KCMA). Great weather throughout the weekend created a non-event for those flying in on Friday. Dr. Dennstaedt had an opportunity to give an overview of how to Decipher Flight Level Weather Like A Pro to those that attended. Looking forward to the next TBMOPA Foundation Safety Seminar in Louisville in early June.
It's a Critical Weather Day, what's that?
There are days where the weather is challenging and the NWS declares it a Critical Weather Day (CWD). A CWD is triggered by significant weather or events within the United States, on/near the coast of the United States and its inhabited territories or possessions (including Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and Guam).
Examples include:
A widespread or intense severe weather outbreak;
A storm system causing heavy precipitation and/or significant flooding;
A highly impactful snow, freezing rain, or blizzard event;
A tropical cyclone threatening the United States and its inhabited territories or possessions (including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam) or producing excessive rainfall after moving inland;
A highly impactful space weather event;
A high-profile event with a large number of attendees and participants;
Other NWS impact-based decision support service events, e.g., wildfire, large-scale disaster, tsunamis, volcanoes, a major event requiring substantial impact-based decision support services, a National Special Security Event (NSSE), Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR), or an event expected to garner significant media attention and/or overwhelm first responders.
This is to ensure all NWS resources are directed toward production and delivery of essential NWS products (e.g., computer resources, forecasts, observations and other technology resources) when there is an actual or threatened occurrence of a critical event, weather or non-weather related (such as a National Special Security Event) near or within the United States, its inhabited territories, possessions, or their coastlines; or, when there is a significant event requiring an increased awareness or availability of meteorological information.
Here's the way it works. The NWS Assistant Administrator (NWS AA), Deputy Assistant Administrator (DAA), Chief Operating Officer (COO), Regional Directors, NCEP Director, Directors of National Centers, National Water Center (NWC) Director, National Weather Service Operations Center (NWSOC), Regional Operations Centers (ROCs), NCEP Lead Forecasters and/or their designee(s) will request the declaration of a CWD. The Senior Duty Meteorologist (SDM) will coordinate CWD requests and ultimately make a decision which is posted here. Therefore, it one of the NWS forecast offices was planning to update a server or do routine maintenance, they would be required to wait until a non-critical weather day.
Going to SUN 'n FUN in April?
Beginning Wednesday, March 30th, Dr. Scott Dennstaedt will be providing a Getting to SUN 'n FUN daily weather overview for pilots flying to the Lakeland area. This will be broadcast live on the EZWxBrief YouTube channel each day at 3 p.m. EDT through April 4th. The live broadcast will be recorded and become available on the channel shortly after the live broadcast ends.
EZWxBrief won't have a booth at SUN 'n FUN this year, however, Dr. Scott Dennstaedt will be holding four presentations with topics shown in the table below. In previous years these presentations have been very cramped with standing room only in the smaller rooms of the CFAA school building. So this year we were able to secure the large room (CFAA-01) on the first floor which is also used as the school's cafeteria. There should be plenty of room available if you want to attend. While we do not expect changes to this schedule, you can view the forums schedule here for the latest and greatest updates.
Feel free to stop by the SiriusXM tent. Scott will be hanging out there from time to time to answer any questions you may have. He will also be at the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) booth in Hangar A on Wednesday 3 - 4 pm, Thursday 3 - 4 pm and Friday 9 - 10 am.
What's new in EZWxBrief?
There were only minor changes to the progressive web app this past month. The most significant change was the EZRoute Profile nearest airport. When you click or tap on any segment point (station circle) or weather icon, the nearest airport visited will always be a public-use airport. Previously, it would sometimes return a privately-owned airport which was likely unfamiliar. Moreover, non-airport waypoints (e.g., VORs, intersections, etc.) defined in the active route will now return the nearest public-use airport instead of an empty view.
The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) EZImagery collection was reorganized to now require fewer clicks to view the pertinent static imagery within the collection. The SPC imagery is now separated into (1) Current Activity and (2) Convective Outlooks sections. The Current Activity includes three images, namely, the latest activity summary, current mesoscale discussions and active severe weather watches. Convective Outlooks now are organized in order based on lead time. All Day 1 outlooks are shown first, Day 2 outlooks second, etc.
One downside to this change is that any favorites from the previous organization of the SPC collection will be orphaned. When choosing such a favorite, you will be instructed that the favorite for this collection is no longer available and asked to delete it. It is recommended that you delete the favorite when asked.
Lastly, the Localized Aviation MOS Program (LAMP) gridded forecasts in the EZImagery were temporarily suspended earlier this month due to an issue with the NWS servers that provide them. Those servers have been having difficulty for the last few years and still tend to provide EZWxBrief with stale or incomplete static imagery. At this point, the imagery is flowing after the NWS applied a fix to their server; however, from time to time you may see a stale image or two in the various LAMP collections so be sure to always double-check the valid date-time on the imagery and don't rely on the loop date-time stamps that EZWxBrief adds. It's amazing how things happen quickly when you reach out to the Chief Operating Officer of the NWS to complain. It's nice to know those people personally.
Most pilots are weatherwise, but some are otherwise™
Dr. Scott Dennstaedt
Weather Systems Engineer
Founder, EZWxBrief
CFI & former NWS meteorologist
