Frequently Asked Questions

Our airport database is sourced from ourairports.com. Any corrections or updates made to their open-data platform are automatically pulled into simWX during our periodic data syncs.

Our algorithm analyzes current METAR reports for specific criteria: Sustained winds over 20kts, significant gust factors, low visibility (IFR/LIFR conditions), and extreme temperatures.

While we don't currently publish historical logs directly on the website, we do archive significant weather events. You can view snapshots and summaries of past conditions on our BlueSky profile, where automated weather challenge airports are regularly posted.

Currently, simWX is a reference tool. To fly these conditions, simply set your simulator to 'Live Weather' and fly to the ICAO code provided on our dashboard.

Aviation weather is always reported in UTC (Zulu) time to ensure global consistency. We display the UTC time in the header to help you compare reports accurately.

The data is presented based on the processed metar data downloaded from aviationweather.gov. There are occasional errors that appear in the source data. Sometimes the METAR is published with a trailing $ symbol, which indicates that maintenance is required on some piece of equipment. There has been an uptick in late 2025 of parsing errors in that data set, that has resulted in wind direction being presented as windspeed. These errors are in the source data published by the US Government. Some additional parsing and validation code has being written to try catch these errors.

Many airport runways are not perfectly flat along the length. Some are on the side of hills and are sloped. Some have raised sections, or depressions along the length. The large airport/runway datasets that are available often do not include specific runway elevation information. Where it is provided, it is sometimes a single elevation - which must be assumed to be the middle of the runway. Where two elevations are provided they can be interpreted as the elevations for both ends of the runway. There does not appear to be consistent application of measurements to factor in offset thresholds. Even when the data is available and accurate - there is no guarantee that the terrain mesh in the flightsim accurately represents the data. Airport data in flight simulators predominantly generates runways as straight surfaces between two points.