![]() ![]() Foreflight and Garmin Pilot have given easy access to radar pictures, satellite pictures, METARs, TAFs, and several other sources of weather information. I believe the Prog charts are underutilized in planning. That covers just about everything, doesn’t it? If you’re looking at the 4 panel view, the Surface Prog chart shows fronts, pressure areas, and areas of expected precipitation. The Prog chart gives the expected flight rules, areas of turbulence, and where the freezing level is located. The Prog chart gives a forecasted 12 and 24 hour picture of what type of weather to expect over the US. When preflight weather planning, one of the best ways to get a picture of what is happening over a broad area is utilizing the Low Level Significant Weather Prog charts. When I teach about weather and weather briefings, I recommend to my students to utilize in the planning stages, but still call the Flight Service Station to get a full fledged weather briefing before takeoff. is the National Weather Service’s source for all aviation related weather products. is the best source for getting all the information a pilot needs for planning a flight. We know that it’ll take some time to become completely comfortable with the new forecast depiction of precipitation, but give them a try now so you’ll be way ahead of other pilots come September.There are a multitude of weather products out there today to assist pilots in preparing for a flight. Definitions for the various weather types depicted on the NDFD Progs. Using a color-coding, the legend in the lower left corner of the image describes the precipitation type or weather expected (rain, snow, mixed, ice and thunderstorm) as well as the likelihood (chance versus likely) that the precipitation will occur. So it is valid at the time posted on the chart and not over a period of time. The precipitation presented on the new NDFD Progs is forecast coverage just like its legacy counterpart. ![]() The forecasts depicted combine the familiar WPC forecasts of fronts, isobars and high and low pressure centers with the NDFD depiction of expected weather type and likelihood. The new NDFD Prog Charts contain a mosaic of digital precipitation forecasts issued from all of the local NWS weather forecast offices (WFOs) throughout the United States working in collaboration with the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and WPC. Instead of the green contours, you’ll see the new precipitation forecast as shaded and outlined regions like the ones shown below. The new instantaneous precipitation forecast is now being extracted from the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD). The new implementation will still use the fronts and sea level pressure (SLP) forecast issued by those same meteorologists at the WPC, however, the precipitation forecast represented by those pale green lines is being replaced. ![]() The current Prog Charts are issued by highly experienced meteorologists at the Weather Prediction Center (WPC) in College Park, Maryland that won’t change. We’ve added these forecasts to our USA Ensemble Imagery and you can find them under the NDFD Progs collection as shown below. So at ForeFlight we’re giving you the opportunity to test drive the new charts before they become operational and are officially released by the National Weather Service (NWS). The Prog Charts that pilots have been using for the last decade or two (pictured below) will be undergoing a facelift sometime in September 2015. ![]()
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