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Weather Forecast Position

Nick
over 3 years ago

Hello, 

Is there any way to know where the Garmin Hourly weather forecast is being taken from?

I understand it is based on the position set in GCM, but does anyone know if the forecast it produces is a forecast for that exact position ( using computer weather modeling) , or does it use something else like nearby airports  or weather station forecasts?

I think computer weather modeling would really be the only acceptable method for most people since most don't live near airports  etc, and weather can vary a lot over 20 - 50 km.  

  • over 3 years ago

    Weather data comes from a weather station and not from modeling:

    https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/f/discussion/247461/garmin-weather-i-need-more-infos

    garminfanki said:

    The Toybox gives me like in the currentcondition

    • observationLocationName

      Textual description of the observation location.

    • observationLocationPosition

      Location where the conditions were observed.

    • observationTime

      UTC time the conditions were observed.

    Travis.ConnectIQ said:
    garminfanki said:
    How can I get the coordinates behind the observation?

    You can't. The system fetches the weather data periodically and uses the GPS data available to it at the time to request the weather.

    garminfanki said:
    What does observationLocation exactly means?

    It means exactly what it says. It is the location where the weather conditions were observed. The observationLocationName is the name of that location.

    You may also find this thread useful:

    forums.garmin.com/.../weather-data-3-2

  • over 3 years ago

    observationLocationName and obervationLocationPosition are not where the current conditions are actually recorded, but are your phones current location (unless something has changed in the last month or so).  I put together a test app a while back for devices with maps, where I pin the observationLocationPosition and fire up GPS to pin my actual location,  When I'm at home the two are very close, like a matter of feet.  If I'm out and about, pretty much the same, but with Android, it only requests data about every 20 minutes, so the difference could be where I was 20 minutes ago.  With iOS I think it's every hour instead of every 20 minutes.

    observationLocationName seems to always be the city I'm in, and if I drive a few miles to a suburb, the city changes but the data is the same.  And along with that, the data is often off based on where I am - the temperature can be off by 10f if I'm at a higher elevation, for example.

    Here's a watchface that shows a number of things.  It's got on-device settings, and with that you can set what info will be displayed.

    https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/c051f37a-8fad-4907-b124-0112fe010c91

    This can vary based on where you are, but I find that OWM is more accurate.  There you can see the actual location (for me, It's one of two, both within maybe 10 miles).

    The benchmark for this all is weather underground.  I have a weather station, can compare it to other WU stations within 1 mile (there are about 5) and then compare that to Garmin Weather and OWM

  • over 3 years ago in reply to FlowState

    Thanks, but the question was not about weather observations, it was about weather forecasts..... which typically do not come from observation towers... I remember someone mentioning that they thought the forecast comes from nearby airfields TAFs..... which also sounds silly because plenty of people live nowhere near an airfield.    So does anyone know if I'm in location X ( the middle of no-where" and I ask for an hourly forecast array ( not observations ) ... where does that come from?  specifically I'm interested in the wind bearing and strength 

  • over 3 years ago in reply to Nick

    I'd expect the forecast to come from the nearest location with a forecast.  I'd also expect the forecast to get less accurate over the time span.

  • over 3 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    That was what I was wondering about, with most models today you can plug in a lat / long and you will get an actual forecast for that particular lat / long, not for the nearest town etc....

  • over 3 years ago in reply to Nick

    Not really sure about that.  forecasts are generally for an area, and not for a specific location.