After our last weather map news and our latest updates, we have received more feedback and suggestions from several users. This valuable feedback was appreciated and helpful in further enhancing our weather maps.
We have worked on our unique weather radar with global coverage in the highest resolution. The latest update increases the quality of radar information and coverage for Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Saudi Arabia and Hawaii. Besides our Sea & Surf meteogram, our radar has now become a perfect tool to plan surf activities in Hawai.
Lately, we announced that our satellite maps are also available backwards until 2019. With the usability improvements of the last weeks, it is now even handier, and you can easily select a date from the past and analyse historical satellite maps. The current 3 hours for the past 7 days are free of charge. With a point+ subscription, you can step back seamlessly in quarter-hourly steps until 2019.
Besides these usability improvements, we have also further extended our large variety of weather maps with new maps for our advanced and weather-experienced users:
Convective inhibition map
Convective inhibition (CIN) represents the energy an air parcel needs to reach the level of free convection. This is a helpful indicator for thunderstorms since heavy thunderstorms are unlikely if the convective inhibition is high.
This variable is especially interesting for aviation purposes. Imagine an air parcel as a balloon filled with air: The balloon ascends as long as the temperature is higher than the surrounding. When the surrounding temperature is the same, ascension ceases. Therefore, the balloon is taken to a level where it can rise freely, which is the level of free convection. This ascension requires a certain amount of energy that is expressed with convective inhibition.
Equivalent Potential map (thetaE)
The equivalent potential temperature is a measure of temperature and moisture. It corresponds to the temperature that an air parcel would assume if the containing water vapour were to condense completely under constant pressure and the released heat of condensation were to be supplied to the air parcel. The air parcel is then brought to a pressure level of 1000 hPa along the dry adiabat.
High values represent a warm and humid air mass, while low values are a sign of cold and dry air masses.
SIGMET map
The SIGMET map is an aviation-specific map, and it shows warnings for "significant meteorological phenomena" for a particular area. These SIGMETs are provided by the German meteorological service DWD and are internationally distributed. The SIGMET map shows different warning categories listed in the map legend on the right. These warnings are explained here.
We hope our map enhancement further supports you in making weather-dependent decisions.
