Flying Through the Storm: Adding Live Global Weather Radar to Flightboard
If you’ve ever tracked a flight and wondered why it suddenly diverted or entered a holding pattern, the answer is usually staring right at the pilot's windshield: weather.
A flight tracking map without weather only tells half the story. That’s why I’m incredibly excited to announce the newest feature on the flight board: Live Global Weather Radar. You can now toggle real-time precipitation overlays directly on the live map and watch aircraft navigate around thunderstorms, snow, and heavy rain as it happens.
Powered by RainViewer (and Your Device!)
Finding a weather source for Flightboard was a unique challenge. The data needed to be truly global (since VATSIM flights happen all over the world) and it needed to update constantly.
To make this happen, we integrated the public data feed from RainViewer, a platform that stitches together ground-based radar from around the world into one seamless global map that updates every 10 minutes.
The coolest part? Because Flightboard runs on a very humble, lightweight server, we designed this feature to be completely decentralised. When you turn the weather toggle on, your own web browser connects directly to RainViewer's global network to stream the weather straight to your screen. This means whether we have 5 people or 5,000 people tracking flights, the map stays lightning fast and our server doesn't break a sweat.
Try It Out!
The next time you are tracking a VATSIM flight, open up the legend menu in the bottom right corner of the map and click Weather -> ON (or OFF)
It adds an entirely new dimension to flight tracking. There is nothing quite like watching an entire line of arrivals weave their way through a heavy squall line to get to the runway!
Happy tracking, and blue skies (or red radar blobs)!
