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Have you checked where Garmin gets the weather data from for your location?

Bernd
over 5 years ago

You need to check out an activity on the Garmin Connect webside (mobile doesn't give away the source). 

Expand the weather icon on the top right of the map. There you find the ICAO code of the airport Garmin gets the weather data from. It is always a combination of four letters. Google the code or put it in here:

https://www.icao.int/safety/iStars/Pages/Weather-Conditions.aspx

These airports are the only source and how frequent the weather widget updates depends on the airports and some fancy algorithm. Garmin has no influence on this.

Point is the weather data is only useful for pilots and other aviation purposes. The fact that Garmin uses this data for gadgets like sports trackers is a total joke in my opinion.

By the way the airport Garmin thinks is "my airport" is located more than 120km away from my hometown. I wonder how reliable that weather data is ThinkingThinkingThinking  

How far off is your location? Maybe we can have a little competition Laughing

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  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Evidence of weather numbers being wrong?

  • 0 over 5 years ago
    Bernd said:
    By the way the airport Garmin thinks is "my airport" is located more than 120km away from my hometown

    Is this the closest weather station/airport to your location and is it the fixed weather data for all your activities regardless of where you do them?  120km/74.5 miles is quite excessive.   I just took a look at my previous activities and when doing activities "at home", my weather data came from a small single engine airfield 1.5 miles from my house even though I'm 10 miles from a major airport.  When doing activities outside of my home area (hiking in the Cascade mountain range for example) I received data from a Ranger station rather than an airport/airfield.  My weather data has always been pretty accurate.

    Bernd said:
    Garmin has no influence on this.
    Bernd said:
    the airport Garmin gets the weather data from.

    Garmin isn't getting the weather data.  It's requesting weather data from your phone.  I think it depends on your phone/carrier on where it's getting the data.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Not always a combination of four letters....

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    i am from Slovenia and i have code 14219 and i cant find any information on this.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to tess

    This was posted by Garmin Chris in the sticky post about the weather widget. So even Garmin admits the data is pretty much useless unless you are lucky enough to live very close to one of these airports. If the next airport is crazy far away or there are mountains I guess for safety reasons they fill some gaps with additional stations.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Bernd
    Bernd said:
    If the next airport is crazy far away or there are mountains I guess for safety reasons they fill some gaps with additional stations.

    I see what Chris wrote about regional airports, but this obviously isn't the only source of data as my ranger station data shows and I was still within 120km from an airport.  It must request the weather data from a specific source type that's normally found at airports, but not airports exclusively.  Am I to assume correctly that you're phone weather app which uses cell towers for your location differs from your watch weather?  I'm interested to know if the 5 numeric codes others have is for airports or other sources.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to RandoCro

    Yeah sometimes they use WMO stations. I forgot that. Your number represents a small military airport about 30km away.

    See here: http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/surface/stations.txt

  • 0 over 5 years ago
    Bernd said:
    The fact that Garmin uses this data for gadgets like sports trackers is a total joke in my opinion.

    Another problem you'll face if your data is coming from weather station is 120km away is your FirstBeat  'heat and altitude acclimatization" data if there's a significate difference between the two.  This is something Garmin should look into changing for people in your situation.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to tess

    The phone is only used for internet connection. Otherwise the connect app couldn't pull the data from the internet. It has nothing to do with the phone carrier or some weather app on the phone. 

    Yeah I checked some activities in my history and sometimes I also find the 5 digit code. Those are WMO numbers. Here is a list which is probably not complete but maybe you find yours. 

    http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/surface/stations.txt 

    I just wished the locations would not be so encrypted. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to matej787

    Looks like a WBAN (Weather Bureau Army Navy) identifier. It's located in Croatia close to Slovenia. 

    Does this location make sense to you?