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Show HN: The new Windria – 2-5km precision wind forecasts

windria.net

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Re: Show HN: The new Windria – 2-5km precision wind forecasts

#11

Post by timedivers »

Dangeranger wrote: post #7

When I was working for electrical utilities and tracking climate data over a service territory a service like this with an API would have been invaluable. I would have thrown money hand over fist at them. Particularly if I could predict accurately micro-conditions within the next 12-24 hours.

The microconditions are tricky, but yes there is business there. We've done a few proof of concepts using CV + ML/statistics in the area of storm tracking.

Do you have any insight into what the electrical utilities companies are doing these days in terms of weather forecasting?

Re: Show HN: The new Windria – 2-5km precision wind forecasts

#14

Post by timedivers »

bbayer wrote: post #13

I am wondering how wind directions are calculated? Is there a realistic model that uses height maps and fluid dynamics or just a simple one for visual purposes?

There are many different models, all of them taking into account terrain data, laws of physics and much more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_weather_prediction

Re: Show HN: The new Windria – 2-5km precision wind forecasts

#15

Post by josephhardin »

timedivers wrote: post #12
anc84 wrote: post #8

You might want to use some color scales that are perceptually uniform. Right now you are using the bad kind of rainbow for many.

Any pointers where we could look? (we are not designers..)

If you google matplotlib viridis there is a discussion of the issue. Using perceptually uniform colormaps(not to mention ones that translate to gray scale correctly) is normally the correct thing to do, but not always. Sometimes you want to highlight particular conditions. For instance, jet with radar data tends to nicely separate different atmospheric conditions if set up right. The same perceptual colormap version feels somehow lacking.

Re: Show HN: The new Windria – 2-5km precision wind forecasts

#16

Post by crabl »

timedivers wrote: post #3
willmacdonald wrote: post #2

Awesome site. Is there any sort of API ? I'd love to build a surf predictor/alert for Stockholm, which is very dependent on wind. I noticed a UX bug here: http://snpy.in/E34hR9

Hi William Thanks for reporting the bug. Yes there is an API, let's talk via email: info AT windria DOT net

Phenomenal work! I live in a city known for its sporadic gusts and high wind speeds (no surfing around here, unfortunately!), so this will be quite useful! I'm also interested in an API, so I'd like to get in touch with you as well.

Re: Show HN: The new Windria – 2-5km precision wind forecasts

#17

Post by timedivers »

crabl wrote: post #16
timedivers wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi William Thanks for reporting the bug. Yes there is an API, let's talk via email: info AT windria DOT net

Phenomenal work! I live in a city known for its sporadic gusts and high wind speeds (no surfing around here, unfortunately!), so this will be quite useful! I'm also interested in an API, so I'd like to get in touch with you as well.

Certainly, just shoot us an email to info at :)

Re: Show HN: The new Windria – 2-5km precision wind forecasts

#19

Post by timedivers »

zoner wrote: post #18

Interesting. WRF is the model that RASP uses - so surface winds should be similar. It would be nice to have higher level winds there, too, although since that's a sailing site this is probably not a priority for the people behind the site.

We use the WRF-ARW core for some regions, it's a solid model. Haven't considered higher level winds, are you a pilot/paraglider? :)

Re: Show HN: The new Windria – 2-5km precision wind forecasts

#20

Post by Dangeranger »

timedivers wrote: post #11
Dangeranger wrote: post #7

When I was working for electrical utilities and tracking climate data over a service territory a service like this with an API would have been invaluable. I would have thrown money hand over fist at them. Particularly if I could predict accurately micro-conditions within the next 12-24 hours.

The microconditions are tricky, but yes there is business there. We've done a few proof of concepts using CV + ML/statistics in the area of storm tracking. Do you have any insight into what the electrical utilities companies are doing these days in terms of weather forecasting?

At the time I was using the National Climatic Data Center's datasets from AWOS and ASOS and combining that with locally sourced airport weather stations, mobile micro-climate stations, and helicopter mounted climate collection systems. It was a lot of fun... :(

We were evaluating using a service provider such as Weather Underground or AWS Truepower. But those providers couldn't deliver the granularity or locality of collection that we needed for our obligations.

The utility industry required aerial LiDAR collection to be partnered with same time collection of local climate conditions for use in modeling the impact of wind/solar/temp on conductor line sag. We did a bunch of pioneering work in that area back in 2012.

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