A Look Inside WSI Weather

Youve seen and almost certainly used a WSI Pilotbrief weather station in your travels. Its almost a required ritual of flight: Stop by the screen and make a last check of the radar or TFRs while you finish your lukewarm coffee. As a pilot, do you care whos behind the weather information you see at the FBO or in the cockpit? The answer is largely, No. But there are some differences between what you get from a briefer, on the web or from the competing XM weather provided by Baron Services. What we found more interesting was what a weather service must do in collecting, distilling and delivering the weather in a format on which pilots can depend.

Key Takeaways:

• WSI is a major and long-standing weather data provider, with 40% of its business in aviation, serving FBOs, major airlines with custom forecasts, and holding the contract for ADS-B weather.
• They offer specialized and enhanced weather products for pilots, such as their NOWrad NEXRAD (focused on low-level storm structure) and lightning detection that includes cloud-to-cloud strikes.
• WSI utilizes advanced, proprietary atmospheric models (Rapid Update Cycle and Weather Research and Forecasting) to generate highly detailed forecasts, including custom TAFs for airlines and precise precipitation type analysis.
• Their sophisticated modeling enables future capabilities like "forecast NEXRAD," which can predict thunderstorm activity days in advance with high resolution, though it's not yet available to general aviation.

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