Weather station
Rain closes grass strips and wind grounds the gliders. The weather station tells you what today brings, and with a little research it looks three days ahead.
The weather
Weather alternates between dry spells of 6 to 30 hours and showers of 1 to 4 hours; about a quarter of the showers are heavy rain. On average it rains roughly a tenth of the time. Wind is light to moderate in dry weather and picks up in rain, with gusts on top.
What weather means for your airport:
- Grass strips close in rain and stay closed for about three hours afterwards while they dry – one hour with the research Drainage.
- Gliders only launch in dry weather with wind up to 20 knots.
- Visitors mostly stay home when it rains.
- Paved runways stay open; Instrument landing later removes the rain penalty for approaches entirely.
Weather station
The research Weather station (Air traffic control, tier 1) is cheap – 4 research points – and the station itself costs 9,000 €. Once built:
- the weather chip in the top bar shows the current wind, for example dry 12 kn,
- its tooltip and the station's info panel show today's weather report: wind now with direction and gusts, the weather phases until midnight with times and wind, and how long grass strips will stay closed.
Forecast
The follow-up research Weather forecast adds a three-day forecast: rain periods and the strongest daytime wind for each day. The forecast is reliable – what the station predicts actually happens.
That makes it a planning tool: move grass-strip traffic away from a rainy afternoon, expect a quiet glider club on a windy day, or schedule work around the dry spells.