Hello again and thanks for reading the 13th edition of EZNews!
EZWxBrief turned one year old on April 7th! We appreciate those that have joined, renewed their membership or signed up for auto-renewal. A special thanks to John O. who renewed his membership for $300 and Paul S. who renewed for $150. We truly appreciate your generosity and effort to support our continued innovation to allow pilots to make the best decisions prior to departure. We look forward to another year of growth and for all members to enjoy the simplicity of EZWxBrief. There have not been any new releases this past month as we are working on changes to the underlying data infrastructure to improve precipitation forecasts beyond 24 hours.
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. This only takes a few seconds of your time for each device. Please see the Pilots Guide for more information on how to install EZWxBrief as a PWA on your devices. Below is an excerpt of the Pilots Guide if you use an iPad or iPhone using the Safari browser.
The EZWxBrief YouTube channel has over 2,000 subscribers!
We like to thank those that have subscribed to the EZWxBrief YouTube channel and are watching The Daily EZ Weather Brief on a regular basis. If you haven't subscribed or viewed any of these videos, what are you waiting for? The goal of this daily program is to provide general aviation pilots with a brief overview of today's aviation weather impacts across the conterminous U.S. and southern Canada. It's been very gratifying to hear all of the positive feedback we received since it rolled out on March 1st. It has also been featured in General Aviation News and Flying magazine.
How can you watch? If you get up early, the actual live broadcast will be 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). 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, no worries, the program is being recorded and the video will be published on the EZWxBrief YouTube channel shortly thereafter. Any changes to the daily schedule will be posted on the EZWxBrief Instagram and EZWxBrief Facebook pages.
SUN 'n FUN 2022
It was great seeing EZWxBrief members at the SUN 'n FUN event in Lakeland, Florida in early April. The weather was pretty nice throughout the week except for a round of severe thunderstorms that put a damper on the events Thursday afternoon and evening.
During his time at the event, Dr. Scott Dennstaedt held four presentations including this one on Advanced Skew-T Concepts on Friday morning. It was a bit challenging dialog, but well worth the time for those interested in learning how to unlock the secrets of the Skew-T log (p) Diagram. If you did not go to SUN 'n FUN this year or were not able to attend any of his presentations while you were there, mark your calendars for AirVenture at the end of July where he will be presenting this and other aviation weather topics.
The Skew-T and Me
Scott is a co-author of Pilot Weather: From Solo to the Airlines and is placing the finishing touches on his next creation. He will be releasing his second book entitled, The Skew-T and Me: A primer for pilots. It will be formally announced at AirVenture on Monday, July 25th and will go on sale in eBook format during the week of the event. Stay tuned for a one-time special offer when it is released. Current EZWxBrief subscribers will receive a promotion code so they can get the eBook at the lowest price.
Here's a little excerpt from the new book to whet your appetite...
Another example of a severe turbulence signature often occurs when you see significant changes in wind direction and speed with height. In the 15-hour forecast sounding (F15) below valid at 08Z near the Rocky Mountain Metro Airport (KBJC) in Denver, Colorado notice that westerly winds rapidly increase in velocity from 5 knots at the surface to 55 knots at 4,000 feet above the airport’s elevation. Then winds decrease to less than 5 knots where they shift to the northwest and above 20,000 feet shift to a south-southwesterly flow. This is all in a rather unstable atmosphere. Given the unstable lapse rate and wind shear, this creates a favorable condition for the air to mix and produce significant turbulence.
Just after sunrise, five urgent PIREPs were documented this severe turbulence event. These urgent reports prompted the AWC to issue a SIGMET for severe turbulence from the surface to 24,000 feet due to strong low-level winds and mountain wave activity. Shown below is one of those urgent reports from a TBM900 that reported severe turbulence at 19,000 feet shown in EZWxBrief.
This was captured quite well by the EZWxBrief EZRoute Profile the night before with mid- and low-level severe turbulence (red) forecasting eddy dissipation rate (EDR) values approaching 0.6 m2/s3 at 20,000 feet. A value of 0.64 m2/s3 is considered extreme turbulence for light aircraft. In EZWxBrief, the EDR value is multiplied by 100 for each of use.
AOPA's Aviator Showcase in Fort Worth, Texas
Dr. Scott Dennstaedt will be doing a presentation at the AOPA Aviator Showcase being held at the Fort Worth Alliance Airport (KAFW) in June. He will be speaking on Friday, June 17th about using datalink weather in the cockpit. The time of the presentation is still to be determined and will be posted in the next month's EZNews. Hope to see you there!
What's new in EZWxBrief?
There were only minor "under the hood" changes to the progressive web app this past month to make way for some improvements in forecasting convective cloud coverage for the EZRoute Profile. Note that the forecasts for clouds, winds, icing and turbulence employed in EZWxBrief are scientifically valid and have been peer reviewed by five other experts in the industry. EZWxBrief uses a cloud fraction methodology by blending multiple forecast models which is much more advanced and scientifically accurate than a simple relative humidity scheme used by the predecessor to EZWxBrief. Moreover, it will provide consistency between clouds and icing that other apps do not always provide.
Most pilots are weatherwise, but some are otherwiseâ„¢
Dr. Scott Dennstaedt
Weather Systems Engineer
Founder, EZWxBriefâ„¢
CFI & former NWS meteorologist
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