Cumulus - Stratus ratio?

[Meese 5]

Hello folks. I'm very satisfied with my purchase of the OpusFSX software, it is by far the best WX generator I've touched. However, I do most of my flights in Norway, my home country, were stratus clouds dominates the skies. Cumulus and cumulunimbus are far less common. I know other WX generators have/had options to shift the ratio towards the one or the other, but can this be easily done with Opus? I'm not entirely sure what dictates the type of cloud that will appear, neither am I fully aware how Opus will cooperate with other WX-add-ons with this capability.

 

All I want is some good 'ol flat stratus cloud bases, instead of the cotton balls I'll be very thankfull for all and any help!

[Opus Software 84]

The cloud types depend on the local met conditions and you will get Cumulus when the weather is warm enough to produce them. If the conditions favour convective clouds then the LWE will generate those. You can't change the cloud type ratio.

 

Looking at webcams in Norway there does seem to be a lot of Cumulus at the moment, are you thinking about winter conditions?

[Opus Software 84]

I will have a check of the conditions and see if they can be adjusted slightly based on latitude.

 

Stephen

[Meese 5]

Yes, from late may till august we do have an increased rate of convective weather, at least around the capitol area (Oslo) and the rest of the inlands. A little less so along the coast (low-pressure systems floating steadily in from the Atlantic). From August till May, there's rarely any convectivity at all, and all weather is either low pressure systems (bad weather) and high pressure (the few days of nice weather we have during autumn/winter). But the temps fluctuate a lot during summer as well, and we rarely see cumulus clouds on days with bad weather.

 

So if you check back on those webcams at a rainy day, you'll see the type of weather we're accustomed to. Low stratus layers at 3-6thou feet.