New site feature - live turbulence explorer

We have just added a new live turbulence explorer.? Powered by Google maps (a turbulence mashup if you will), it shows turbulence incidents worldwide for the last 2 hours.? This is very unique because it’s the first turbulence map that works all over the world.? At any given time, you can observe the Atlantic tracks, Japan activity, Australia, and more.

Written by tb_neg on August 2nd, 2006 with 15 comments.
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15 comments

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Ewald
#1. August 14th, 2006, at 9:25 AM.

Hi,
First of all: Thanks very much for getting your very helpful service online. The live turbulence explorer is really great. I’m watching this site from Europe, btw.

Regarding the live turbulence explorer I’ve got two questions:

1) On the live turbulence explorer - what time/time-zone are the times given on the chart referring to? Is it UTC, PDT,…?? I’ve found out that when looking at the live turbulence explorer at say 11am local time (CET = Central European Time) all turbulence entries for flights across Europe show times like 4am, 5am etc. Given this should be “live” I’d expected entries to be 30mins off the current time at most.

2) For the flights across the US for most flights you get an entry where you could track the corresponding flight. For flights across Europe the turbulence entries popping up when clicking no the bullets show thins like “EU2345″ etc. Is there any way to know what flight these numbers are actually referring to for turbulence entries in Europe?

Again, thanks alot for bringing this very helpful service online!

Ewald

tb_neg
#2. August 14th, 2006, at 6:47 PM.

1) I believe that the times are given as Zulu times, although I’ll have to look into what times are reported. Our data source has been having problems, so you may be seeing a cached version.

2) There isn’t anyway to know, I believe those EU2345 entries are automated reports from aircraft.

Ewald
#3. August 21st, 2006, at 12:36 PM.

Hi,

Thanks much for your reply.

Regarding the times given: Could it be that the times on the live explorer are in EDT? Checked the explorer just a minute ago - all entries are near 12:00pm currently. Local time is around 18:30 (CEDT). So if the entries are +/- live, this would make for about 6hrs difference between local time and time on the live explorer.

In time zones this would make for the entries in the explorer given in EDT time zone (=CEDT - 6hrs = Zulu-4hrs).

Can you confirm this?
Ewald

tb_neg
#4. August 21st, 2006, at 1:45 PM.

I’ve taken a look at the data feed, and the times are returned in Unix time ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time ). The webhost server is in the Eastern Time Zone, (currently EDT), so it appears to me that the reports are given as Eastern Daylight/Standard Time, as that’s where the web host is located. It certainly makes sense this way.

Mary
#5. September 28th, 2006, at 11:13 AM.

I am flying tomorrow from Fort Lauderdale Fl and going to JFK NY do you know if there is any turbulance in the forecast this early

tb_neg
#6. September 28th, 2006, at 2:39 PM.

Mary, I believe that you might have a few bumps on your flight tomorrow. There is activity west of your flight route, and it’s headed your way, but airlines try to avoid as much as possible, so don’t worry too much.

SM
#7. October 19th, 2006, at 3:03 PM.

Hi. I am flying from London to Singapore tomorrow evening. Could you help me with what is the nature of turbulence one can expect? The turbulence explorer is very helpful but it seems to indicate very little turbulence - if I look at the London skies right now, that seems hard to believe.

Thanks

tb_neg
#8. October 19th, 2006, at 3:52 PM.

Looking at the skies is only part of the picture. While there may be some bumps on takeoff, once you are above the clouds, things can be very smooth. Consult this map:

http://www.turbulenceforecast.com/europe.php

SM
#9. October 19th, 2006, at 4:30 PM.

Thanks… this site is great. I am also very impressed with how prompt your response has been. Thank you again.

SM
#10. September 5th, 2007, at 5:30 AM.

Hi. I am flying to Toronto from London on Saturday. What is the typical turbulence activity expected on this flight path?
Thanks

tb_neg
#11. September 5th, 2007, at 8:02 PM.

The website has a forum built in just for this kind of request. Please register and post there, you’ll be in good company with turbulence forecast requests.

http://www.turbulenceforecast.com/forums

If you were flying right now, it’d be fairly decent with only sporadic periods of light-moderate turbulence. It’s still a bit too soon to tell for your individual flight, but this isn’t a bad time of year to fly.

Jess
#12. October 17th, 2007, at 12:59 PM.

Hello, I have been reading this blog for the past few days and I find it very helpful. I will be flying from CVG to CAE tomorrow night 7:50pm, they are calling for the possibility of severe weather and/or scattered thunderstorms for both CVG and CAE but more so for CVG. I am obviously curious as to how “smooth” this flight will be, not that it makes a difference, I still need to fly out, but any early information as premature as it may be would be helpful. My thanks to the founder of this website, it’s informative and entertaining as well.

tb_neg
#13. October 23rd, 2007, at 12:15 AM.

Be sure to check out our forums for personalized turbulence forecasts.

http://www.turbulenceforecast.com/forums

Mohamed
#14. August 24th, 2008, at 3:27 AM.

Im flying to Malysia from Maldives tomorrow, Can I expect turbulance? if so ow severe?

tb_neg
#15. August 25th, 2008, at 9:55 PM.

#14, We have a forum that exists off of the main site. You can request personalized forecasts there and much more. I’m sorry I didn’t see your comment in time.

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