Testing Live Weather and Winter Wonders Along the Way

In Microsoft Flight Simulator you can work your way through all kinds of icy scenarios.

Friday, February 09, 2024 at 07:39 PM ET

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This could be an ad for Air Canada. What a scenery feast. Partially frozen waters with glaciers and snow-covered cliffs. Unbelievably beautiful. [Courtesy: Peter James]

Key Takeaways:

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS2020) is highly praised for its "startlingly accurate" live weather depiction, closely matching real-world data from ForeFlight, outperforming X-Plane 12 in this regard.
The author demonstrates MSFS2020's realism through multiple challenging winter flights across North America, showcasing accurate portrayals of lake-effect snow, strong crosswinds, wind shear, turbulence, and icing in diverse environments like Cleveland, the Dakotas, Revelstoke, and Juneau.
The simulator provides an immersive experience with realistic weather dynamics and allows for adventurous virtual flights, including challenging approaches in mountainous terrain using modern avionics like enhanced vision systems.

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With winter gripping most of the country, it’s one of my most favorite times to sim fly. Actually, that’s a lie. All seasons are fun. However, winter does hold that special, adventurous spirit the other seasons sometimes seem to lack.

I am often inspired by the real locations and weather I experience when I am on a real work trip. With ForeFlight by my side, it’s fun to test the realism of the sims and how they’re interpreting live weather worldwide. Both X-Plane 12 (XP12) and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS2020) do a pretty good job of keeping up with it and both have shown continual improvements. It seems each month the message forums are showcasing live weather questions, observations, frustrations, and praise.