The popular weather app PredictWind has introduced a new lightning-tracking feature. It will provide real-time lightning data with forecasts so a captain and crew can make better decisions when dealing with weather during a passage.
In an announcement, the creator of the app said it is now providing satellite imagery combined with rain radar and GMDSS weather warnings. These three sources can be cross-referenced so a user can locate and track extreme weather events like cyclones, thunderstorms, fronts and more.
PredictWind’s forecast tables and daily briefing pages have built-in extreme weather alerts to warn of the following conditions:
• Lightning index
• Cape index for thunderstorms
• Rain squalls
• Wind gusts
• Fog
• Wind chill
• Wind against current
The wind against current alert in the weather routing and departure planning features now includes tidal currents and ocean currents. Alerts provide the time and location of potentially dangerous wave conditions that wind against tides can cause.
Using artificial intelligence, PredictWind says it can translate GMDSS text forecasts into a map to display thunderstorms, high- and low-pressure systems, troughs, ridges and fronts, ice and tropical storms and hurricanes.