Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) - how to get the most out of it for planning a VFR trip

Hello Arun!

You are not the only one encountering problems with the DWD site. Most pilots at my airfield have given up on that and simply look at the nice colorful GAFOR area map and go flying if the area is blue, and don’t if it is not.

While this is undoubtedly safe and will guarantee good VMC if flying, it is also very very limiting for real cross-county trips.

I can only tell you about my personal approach and experience:

I found the three-day textual area forecast to be quite reliable for a general idea of flyability.

For the same purpose I use the Meteograms which give more detailed information about isothermals, cloudbase, wind and precipitation.
Again, these are approximately three days in advance and accurate on the crucial items.

Do you already know the companion app “DWD Flugwetter” that works with your PCMet login?
It’s available for Apple and Android and gives quick access to the GAFOR map, radar and satellite images, textual forecasts, TAF&METAR reader, low level significant weather chat and the “current vis/wind/cloudbase” chart.

It’s a nice and useful selection, and the app design is much better than the web page.

Isn’t there any FI or experienced pilot at your field, club or rental company who could show you the different products?

If you are reasonably close by, I hereby offer to do so!

Hi Arun,

typically I would look at the Bodenvorhersage mit Wetter / Bewölkung to give me a view of up to 7 days out. Leave the selector on Boden. This should indicate whether you will have any chance of flying on the day in question (prerequisites: no Thunderstorms, no fronts advancing down my direction of travel, no extremely closly spaced isobars, no Fog).

As I get to 3 days out, I would be looking at the Drei Tages Prognose – this will give you a fairly good indication of what the weather will be that you can expect, then compare this with the Meteogram which should give you a good idea of expected visibility, cloud height and chances of rain at airports close to your route. Don’t check just departure and destination, check all in between to avoid surprises…..

On the day of the flight, I would check the GAFOR and also the METARs and TAFs for airfields close to my departure, destination and any nearby en-route. That data should be sufficient for a VFR flight. One instructor used to tell me I had to review the Low Level SWC if I am flying more than 300NM but I’ve never seen any real noticeable difference between the info gained on the Meteogram and the Low Level SWC.

Others state you should use the cross sections but I prefer looking at the Meteogram to check the conditions en route. Any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

I mostly use the DWD Android app described by CR above. The three day forecasts are very useful even for non-aviation use, they give a good idea of the general weather situation one has to expect.
On the day of departure the “Übersicht Nord” (etc.) give an even more accurate picture of the expected weather and can very well be complemented with the radar films (Radar/Blitz/Satellit) för visualisation.
Then I use “Flugstrecke” to get the METARs and TAFs for the planned route. The METAR/TAF function works globally and I even user it for local weather forecasts while on holiday on Tenerife via CAT

I’d say the app provides 99% of the information you really need and is quite uncluttered when compared with the PCmet web interface. I use it a lot for non-aviation activities as well to get the most out of the yearly subscription fees. Non-pilot friends are often impressed by the radar feed…

I recommend to work it out in the following order:

• Bodenwetter: check every day until the day of your flight to retrieve an overall picture
• 3-Tagesprognose, Meteogramme, Vertikalprofile, Cross Sections, Low Level SWC, Regenradar, Blitzkarte: check every day the last 3 days before flight to get the feeling for the real weather. You can compare prognosis versus reality to see how stable or unstable the overall weathersituation is.
• Gamet, Flugwetterübersichten, aktuelles Flugwetter, Vertikalprofil, Analysen, Low Level SWC, Gafor: Before flight to get the actual weather. Maybe you can check also Vereisung. Although you will fly vfr this might help to get an hour by hour idea how fronts are moving and most of the time you will find convective miderate to severe icing in aereas where thunderstorms can be expected.

I do it this way when flying vfr and I find the DWD weather reliable and helpful for a good vfr planing.

Enjoy your flights.

I use www.flugwetter.de and the app Flugwetter available for iOS both with your DWD login credentials and I find it superior to the app „DWD Flugwetter“ which is only focused on Germany.
The most important for me is the textual 3-Tagesprognose and then also Analyse, Meteogramme and ALPFOR (now together with the discontinued SWC Schweiz) and short term of course the GAFOR.

CharlieRomeo wrote:

For the same purpose I use the Meteograms which give more detailed information about isothermals, cloudbase, wind and precipitation.

One thing crucial to realise about the Meteograms is that the nice picture with clouds on top shows only layered clouds (stratus). Convective clouds are blue bars in a lower row!