XM WxWorx 30-minute radar delay

[Dan Robinson]

Wondered if anyone else is seeing this. This is not the first time this has happened to me. I've seen it several times here in WV and once in Missouri.

WxWorx radar, 6:30PM EDT (2230Z)

RLX image, 6:30PM EDT (2230Z)

RLX image, 5:58PM EDT (2158Z)

Notice the radar and storm tracks are 30 minutes behind on the WxWorx display! The timestamp on WxWorx says 18:30 (6:30PM) but the radar image is actually from 5:58PM. This is not the normal WxWorx 'lag' of 5 to 10 minutes. As you can see, the lightning strikes are the only data that is current.


Just wondering if anyone else sees this.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

I was having problems when I was up in MT around May 19th I believe. I was confused as to what was causing the problem since I didn't have internet access at the time. But below is a pic of what I was seeing. Once again believe the strikes data was correct. I'm very pleased with WX WORX but have had problems with it over this year at a much greater frequency than I would like. This being one of the problems and the other being from the data outage that happened back in April in the TX panhandle, I think. If I keep having problems like this I will certainly be considering other data possibilities. The time stamp bugs me too because I don’t know if it is actually current data or not given what was said in the post above…

 

[Jason McKittrick]

I was having problems when I was up in MT around May 19th I believe. I was confused as to what was causing the problem since I didn't have internet access at the time. But below is a pic of what I was seeing. Once again believe the strikes data was correct. I'm very pleased with WX WORX but have had problems with it over this year at a much greater frequency than I would like. This being one of the problems and the other being from the data outage that happened back in April in the TX panhandle, I think. If I keep having problems like this I will certainly be considering other data possibilities. The time stamp bugs me too because I don’t know if it is actually current data or not given what was said in the post above…

Two comments I wanted to make the first one..... I have had this problem frequently when I have a weak signal. It would appear that due to the large size of the radar file, when your signal is weak there are too many errors during the reception of the radar files. That is why the shear, storm tracks and lighting will be out of phase. However, was your radar showing a current time stamp at the time of this screen grab or was it being displayed as old (i.e. the radar button showing in red)?

Secondly, on April 21 st I too was in the TX panhandle and a data card didn't help, the problem on that day to my understanding was that the NWS uplink went down (not internet dissemination of radar or warnings period).

 

[Billy Griffin]

I used to have the XM WxWorx, now just have the music radio. I received an email from XM about a week or two ago, apologizing to their customers about recent satellite outages. Perhaps this could be an ongoing issue they're dealing with?

All this technology is good, just don't forget to use your skills as a chaser first, BEFORE counting on the equipment. Good luck!

 

[mrobinett]

Methinks they are repainting Rock and Roll in Sirius blue!

I noticed the outages last weekend for about ten minutes at a time on their XM Radio feed.

 

[Dan Robinson]

About 45 minutes after I posted this, the 30 minute lag eventually corrected itself.

The thing that puzzles me is that the tracks and the radar are being received in real-time, so whatever is showing up on the display is what has just been received via the satellite. Particularly true for the tracks, which as far as I know are not 'cached' like the radar is for looping purposes. Those tracks on the screen are what the satellite just sent. When new ones come in, the last ones are deleted. If there are data errors due to a weak signal, you would not receive an update at all and the radar button would turn red. When the 30 minute lag is happening, everything updates normally as if all data is being received.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

Yes the time was correct. I remember looking at the storm thinking gee it's certainly more west than it appears and I double checked the time. Also, the link was fine; I have the antenna on the outside not inside the vehicle. Second the april problem wasn't something they could fix but it was a problem I had so I mentioned it. Lastly, I wouldn't rely on it, which is why I don't understand how people feel they can chase at night just because they have something like this. That being said I will not chase without it or some sort of data feed, because it certainly has helped me a few times.



A question for Dan, was this problem with just this part of the country or were other parts not experiancing this problem? Perhaps it was just with the RLX?

 

[Eric Whitehill]

A question for Dan, was this problem with just this part of the country or were other parts not experiancing this problem? Perhaps it was just with the RLX?

Hi Robert:

I was watching and checkig for this issue out of DDC, and I did not notice the same issue this evening around 8:00pm CDT.

Has anyone talked to XM/WxWorx about this? They may not even be aware of the issue.

-Eric

 

[Paul Knightley]

We had the same issue on May 19...was fine the next day.

 

[Mike Kovalchick]

"I was having problems when I was up in MT around May 19th I believe. I was confused as to what was causing the problem since I didn't have internet access at the time. But below is a pic of what I was seeing. Once again believe the strikes data was correct. I'm very pleased with WX WORX but have had problems with it over this year at a much greater frequency than I would like. This being one of the problems and the other being from the data outage that happened back in April in the TX panhandle, I think. If I keep having problems like this I will certainly be considering other data possibilities. The time stamp bugs me too because I don’t know if it is actually current data or not given what was said in the post above"

I had the exact same problem in MT as well on the 19th. My WX WORX was delayed, I had no cell signal so no internet, my GPS seemed to be blocked by thick clouds, my weather radio couldn't pick up any thing; I was so desperate-I had to actually look at the clouds to figure out what to do!

 

[John Diel]

Data streaming may be the issue. Since I don't actually own or even know a whole lot about Wx Worx, I can only 'Assume' a few things from the symptoms you describe.

Depending on how the information is stream out and the amount of data per stream is being sent, this will give you the latency issues you are seeing. If Wx Worx is streaming out the the actual image rather than raw data for the radar, then you've got a whole lot of data that will be prone to error in the form of dropped packets. Wx Worx can't render what it's not receiving or partially receiving. However, the Tracks, Lightning Data, and other things you are seeing updata are most likely coming from another data stream. Since THAT information is in a smaller packet size it's easier to send and less prone to the error rate and Wx Worx will render that information.

You can have several different streams being ingested into the receiver, some may have errors and other may not. It all gets tied in and processed by the programming that Wx Worx uses. Which streams get processed with enough data are the ones you will see displayed and updated.

It works much the same way the internet works except it's only 1 way communication rather than 2 way. The data is being streamed all the time. However, it sounds like the programming is waiting for a full dataset to render before it moves on to the next dataset. if X dataset is incomplete, it will wait for the completion. However, if Y dataset is complete, then the programming will render that dataset and move on to the next.

Now remember, this is based on a lot of assumption and the description of the symptoms. I know very little about Wx Worx programming and how it handles the data received.

John

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

I don't know if this was related to a longer lag, or the normal 10 minute lag with wx worx, but on May 22nd in Kansas I noticed quite a delay with other chasers who were using WXworx. While my chase partner and I would be chatting about a new storm taking off and the other storm dying, other chasers using wxworx would be saying the opposite and commenting on the new storm struggling. Then a good 10-20 minutes later while we were already hauling it to the new storm which was already a full fledged supercell, the wxworx users would get on the radio and begin mentioning a new storm beginning to take off, and would start deciding if they should head that way.

The delay was substantial, and if the delay is normally that long I can't see myself ever using wxworx. GRlevel3 works great, and we were able to get to storms 10-20 minutes earlier than we would have otherwise it looks like.

 

[Bob Hall]

This is my 4th season chasing with WxWorx and this year has been strange in that the latency for the base reflectivity radar data has been in the 20-30 minute range. As has been pointed out previously, the SCIT (Storm Cell Identification and Tracking) markers seem to be correct and in near real time. This makes some sense as this is a very small amount of data to transmit and I’m guessing that given the relative infrequent TVS that they are given a high priority. I’ve looked at the files that WxWorx downloads and most of them are text based and relatively small. I have not been able to figure out the radar data though. Given the on screen presentation I’m guessing it is vector based.

 

[afischer]

I'm having this same problem w/ WXWORX as we speak. Tracks and lightning are up to date, but the radar is 30 minutes old or so. I've seen this a couple other times while chasing over the past year.

 

[Jeff Buss]

We had numerous problems with WX Works yesterday while chasing near Broken Bow, Nebraska. It was working fine, then started going up and down the rest of the evening.