Update! Flight Simulator 2020 Unreal Weather - Live METAR V.1.7.a (1.14.5.0)

WHAT IS IT?

Unreal Weather - Live METAR is a mod for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 that adds live dynamic weather to the game, using METAR - current METeorological Aerodrome Reports from around the world. METAR reports are retrieved in real time, based on the current location of the player and the in-game weather is updated accordingly.

In addition, the current METAR report and monitoring station information is displayed in the Weather Settings menu within the game. The mod is highly configurable, which allows users to adjust it to their liking and gaming hardware capabilities.

It also supports smooth, user-configurable transitions between different weather states to provide the best experience.

For game versions 1.7.12.0, 1.7.14.0, 1.8.3.0, 1.9.3.0, 1.9.5.0, 1.10.7.0, 1.10.11.0, 1.11.5.0. To be installed into your Community folder as an add-on.

1.7

• Added snow cover generation based on precipitation level
• Additional snow cover indicators support
• Aerosol density transition can now be instant (disabled by default)

1.6.1

• For game version 1.7.12.0, 1.7.14.0, 1.8.3.0, 1.9.3.0, 1.9.5.0, 1.10.7.0. 

1.6 (20-Oct-2020)

• Improved cloud layer transitions
• Improved winds gusts
• Cached METAR reports can now be disabled
• Other minor improvements

1.5 (12-Oct-2020)

• Altimeter indicator in METAR now takes priority when calculating MSL pressure
• Weather Settings panel now refreshes itself properly
• High-elevation winds can be disabled in the mod settings
• Other minor improvements

1.4 (07-Oct-2020)

• Resolved the issue that prevented the mod from running in some situations
• MSL temperature is now set correctly
• METAR station elevation is now displayed along with its name
• Added support for variable winds
• Added support for high-elevation winds (experimental)
• Added support for wind gusts
• Altimeter indicator is now honored, when MSL pressure information is missing
• Improved handling of SLP indicator
• Added diagnostics log panel to Weather Settings

V.1.3 (01-Oct-2020)

• Added "re-roll weather" button to METAR panel. (See details below.)
• Switching between weather presets while in-flight is now much faster
• The mod is now available as a Community package add-on

This mod is intended as an alternative to the built-in "live" weather system in MSFS 2020, which uses MeteoBlue weather information instead of METAR.

In order to use this mod, you will need to do the folowing:

1) Obtain an API token from AVWX, https://account.avwx.rest/ . Their "Hobby" tier is free and is good, as of now, for 4000 report retrievals per day, which is more than sufficient for any MSFS 2020 user.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with AVWX in any way, yet I like their API.

2) Add a custom weather preset template to your MSFS installation, and, finally...

3) Replace a couple of files in the MSFS installation folder to enable the weather preset.

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

1. Obtain API Token

First, you must obtain your own API token from AVWX. You will only need to do that once.

Go to  https://account.avwx.rest/, create an account and sign up for their free "Hobby" tier.

After you have logged in, generate an API token, by hitting the "+" sign in the toolbar at the top. Copy the generated token value, as you will need it to use the mod:

Note that you can add, update and delete these API tokens as needed. You are NOT limited to just one token!

2. Add Custom Weather Preset to MSFS 2020

Now, add a custom weather preset to MSFS. In the Steam version of the game custom weather presets are stored at the following folder:

C:\Users\<YourUserName>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Weather\Presets\

Note that AppData folder is hidden in Windows 10 by default. This post describes how to get there.

Alternatively, you can just open the Run window by hitting Win+R on your keyboard and entering %APPDATA% as a command which will take you to your AppData\Roaming folder. Then navigate to your Presets folder from there.

Once you have found your Presets folder, place UnrealWeatherMetar.WPR file (included in this mod) in there. This shows an example for a Steam-based installation:

In order to confirm that the weather preset is at the correct location, start Flight Simulator, open the World Map and go the Flight Conditions menu in the upper right corner. At the bottom of the weather presets list you should see "UNREAL WEATHER - LIVE METAR":

This custom preset by itself does nothing, as it is static and similar to the others on that list. If you try to use it now, you will see clear, calm weather and not much else.

3. Add Custom Preset Code to MSFS 2020

Finally, you will need to replace a couple of files in your Microsoft Flight Simulator installation folder using the files included in this mod.

Locate your MSFS 2020 game installation folder and go the following location inside it:

Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages\fs-base-ui\html_ui\Templates\WeatherEditionMenu\

You should see the following 3 files in that folder:

WeatherEditionMenu.css

WeatherEditionMenu.html

WeatherEditionMenu.js

NOTE: Windows 10 hides certain well-known file extensions in Windows Explorer by default. That fact alone may confuse the heck out of you when looking for particular files like the ones listed above. I strongly suggest that you globally disable that "feature" in your Windows Explorer by following the instructions in this post. Trust me, that is going to make your life much, much easier!

You are going to replace WeatherEditionMenu.html and WeatherEditionMenu.js in that folder, using the files included in the mod.

WARNING: First and foremost (and I cannot stress that enough!) you will need to backup these 2 files, by either renaming them or, preferably, by copying them to a separate location on your disk. That will save you much effort and time should some things go wrong. Also, to uninstall the mod, you will want to put the original files back into this folder, replacing the modified ones.

I chose to rename the original files by adding ".bak" extension to the end of each file's name.

After you have renamed/saved the originals, place the modified files in the same folder. In my case, the folder has the following:

The last thing you need to do is to open the new WeatherEditionMenu.js file in any plain text editor, such as Notepad or Notepad++, and add your API token to it. The API token is going to be used by the custom code to obtain METAR reports while you're playing the game.

At the top of the file, locate the line that references the metar_api_key variable and insert you API token between the two single quotes as shown below:

(Naturally, you API token is going to look somewhat different from the one shown in the above picture.)

That completes the installation process. You should be ready to go!

Start MSFS 2020, select "UNREAL WEATHER - LIVE METAR" as your weather preset and enjoy. If everything is working correctly, you should see the current METAR data in your Weather Settings panel (see the example picture at the top of this post) and you weather should adjust dynamically according to the current METAR report from a monitoring station, closest your currect location. (Typically, an airfield.) As you move around the world, you will see the weather change.

V.1.7.a