Story ID: sbwx240119
Wx24 Pilot App Adds Cloud-Cover Feature
By: Sean Broderick
Caption: Data helps fill gap at airports without TAFs.
Word Count: 201
The Wx24 Pilot app has released an updated version adding several features, including cloud-cover information from the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD), the product's developer announced. "With the new cloud-cover feature, a VFR pilot can now determine not only if it’s legal to fly, but whether it’s safe,” said Paxton Calvanese, the app’s developer. “The airports along a given flight path may be reporting VFR conditions, but might in fact be solid overcast at 4,500 feet."

While not developed specifically for aviation, NDFD data provides pilots with an important tool to access cloud information and a more complete picture of weather conditions, Calvanese said. It also augments weather information for smaller airports not covered in by Terminal Area Forecasts. Cloud conditions in the app are depicted using eight shades of color, ranging from blue for clear skies to dark gray for significant cloud cover.

Another new feature in version 4.0 is an icon in the lower navigation panel of the app that toggles between flight categories (VFR, MVFR, and IFR) and NDFD cloud cover. The subscription-based app is available for iOS devices in both U.S. and international versions, with and without flight-planning capabilities.