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Weather

X-Plane simulates weather from turbulence through visibility to precipitation — either from real-time data (NOAA) or manually configured. METAR and TAF provide the foundation for flight planning; external tools like Navigraph Charts, Little Navmap, and SimBrief complement the built-in weather display. Weather is platform-independent, so this section is deliberately short and focuses on reading and using the data rather than on Linux specifics.

The Briefing page covers the weather settings in X-Plane (realistic vs. manual, NOAA integration), explains how to read METAR and TAF, introduces the external tools, and closes with a primer on weather radar — tilt, gain, and the limits of what the radar can see, such as dry hail or clear-air turbulence. Weather data on the ground is one input; how it feeds into clearance, departure, and approach is picked up in the ATC chapters, and real-world snow coverage arrives through the plugins in Scenery Plugins.

  • Briefing — Weather system, METAR, turbulence, and flight planning