Instructions
Please read the FAQs first! Instructions on how to use our service is contained there. Do not access our web site via your cell phone web browser or PDA web browser as this is not how our service works! Again, please read the FAQs.
Glass Cockpit Technology
 
If you fly with a glass cockpit (Garmin G1000, Avidyne Entegra, Avio NG, Aspen Avionics EFD1000 Pilot PFD, Chelton FlightLogic EFIS, etc.) then you will want to consider using WxNotice.com to augment your in-cockpit weather reporting capabilities. Your Glass system can provide you with in-flight weather information and WxNotice can provide you with the same information outside of the cockpit, before a flight and in-between flights.
If you don't fly with a Glass cockpit, then WxNotice service becomes even more important. You can make on-demand requests for weather reports and weather images between your flights using your cell phone or PDA device.
What Weather Notice (WxNotice) Does
WxNotice.com is a content (aviation weather reports) push technology service designed for pilots. Now you can get textual aviation weather reports such as Metar and TAF (others are available also) for any airport sent (pushed) to your cell phone as an SMS (Short Message Service) or MMS (Multimedia Messaging System) text message! Also available are weather map images: Satellite, Radar, NexRad, Forecast and Storm Front images. Once you create your account, you can start using our service immediately. Create "WxNotification Records" for each airport or area that you want to monitor weather conditions for. Once a WxNotification Record is created, you have several reporting options you can customize to control the format and when the weather report is sent to your cell phone or to your email address. Some weather reports exceed 160 characters and therefore can only be sent via MMS text messaging or to an email address (Sigmet reports for example).
Unlike the other weather service providers which make weather reports available on you cell phone, we are the only weather reporting service that pushes weather data to you - when you want it. You don't have use your cell phone to access the web and use your keypad to navigate through menus to fetch the weather reports you are interested in. With our service, you setup your weather reporting criteria (WxNotification Records) on our web site and our server then executes your instructions to deliver your weather reports to you - all you have to do is open your cell phone and read the weather report!
Your cellular provider may charge you for using SMS text messaging. Please check with your provider to make sure you are aware of any charges associated with sending and receiving SMS text messages, MMS text messags or MMS Picture messages. You are responsible for any fees while using text messaging services from your cellular provider.
How WxNotice Works
Before using our service please click on the CellPhoneTest link and test your cell phone to make sure your cell phone and your cellular plan works with our service. You need both SMS (Text Messaging) and MMS (Picture Messaging) service enabled on your cellular phone. This also means you need a cell phone or PDA device with a camera (if your cell phone or PDA device does not have a camera then you cannot receive pictures on it; therefore, you cannot receive our weather images).
There are two ways to use our service once you have successfully tested your cell phone and have created an account. You do not ever have to access the internet or your web browser from your cell phone to use our services.
(1) On-Demand - You can use your cell phone to send us an SMS Text Message and request a varity of weather reports to be sent to your cell phone within minutes. Please click on the On-Demand link above and read how to do this. There is a specific address (wxod@wxnotice.com) you need to send your request to and there is a specific request string format that you must follow so our system knows what to send back to your cell phone.
(2) WxNotification Records - You can create what we call WxNotification records and schedule a varity of weather reports and weather images to be sent to your cell phone and/or email address at specific dates and local times.
Once you have created a new account and are logged in, you can click on the WxNotifications link and create a Metar WxNotification Record for a given airport. You can set wind, ceiling and visibility trigger parameters for notifying you. Here is an example. If you want to monitor Las Vegas airport, you can create a WxNotification Record. You want to know when the ceiling drops to or below 3000 feet and/or the visibility drops to or below 3 miles, so you set up those parameters. Now that your KLAS WxNotification Record is created, you can sit back and relax. Every hour the Metar report for Las Vegas will be checked by WxNotice.com and if either of those parameters are met, the Metar report showing the wind, ceiling and visibility will be sent to your cell phone in the form of an SMS text message. Or you can have the reports sent to your email address if you prefer. You can also specify the English decoded Metar reports. And you can control the delivery time block (what time block during the day you want to receive the reports).
Every hour for Metars, Images, TFR's, Airmets, Sigmets, FD's, FA's and every 6 hours for TAFs, our server connects to multiple centralized weather services and downloads the aviation weather data. Immediately afterwards, various scripts on our server are executed in a sequenced manner (for load balancing) and a check is made against all of your Metar, TAF, Airmet/Sigmet, etc. WxNotification records to see if you need a weather text message or image sent. There may be some time lag from the time we send them out until it gets to your cell phone, but usually, when sent, you will get them within a couple of minutes.
Your cell phone must be capable of receiving SMS (Short Message Service) text messages! If you don't have an SMS capable cell phone, we can send our weather reports to your email address. We can even send them to both your cell phone and to your email address.
WxNotice Intended Usage
WxNotice is designed to be used outside of the cockpit. By setting up WxNotification records for various weather reports, the idea is for WxNotice.com to deliver (push) weather content to your cell phone/PDA/Email Adress at some point prior to your departure and while out on your trip. Some usage examples: Pilots can have the airport winds sent to them in the morning they are scheduled to go out and do some practice landings to get an idea of how the winds are behaving (or not!). As part of your preparation for a cross country trip, you can have weather information (including Temporary Flight Restrictions TFRs) waiting for you at your computer when you wake up on the morning of your departure. Using a Metar WxNotification record, monitor your destination airport for IFR conditions and have a metar report sent to you only when wx conditions drop to IFR values. Once at your destination, monitor your home airport with another Metar WxNotification record for the same conditions. If your not instrument rated, you can get a text message if the wx drops below VFR minimums at your home airport and you can start thinking about making over nite arrangements early :-)
SMS (Short Message Service) Character Lengths - 120-160 Max
Depending on who your cellular provider is, SMS text message character lengths will vary from 120 characters to 160 characters. Please let us know if you receive any SMS text message weather reports that are truncated (cut off). Contact us at support@wxnotice.com.
MMS (Multimedia Messaging System) - 1000 Characters + Pictures
WxNotice.com is on the leading edge of weather delivery technology. We have designed a system to utilize the Multimedia Messaging System (MMS) capabilities of your cell phone. Only the latest cell phones are MMS enabled (cell phones with built-in cameras) but this capability opens up a whole new world of delivery possibilities for textual weather data as well as picture/image data! By sending textual weather reports via MMS (instead of SMS) we can include textual weather reports that are too large to send via SMS. MMS can handle approximately 1000 characters of text vs SMS which can handle only 120-160 characters. The MMS protocol is also the method used to send you weather images.
For those of you who have a picture cell phone, you may be able to receive our current Satellite, Storm Front and NexRad weather images:
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| North Central Satellite Map Image |
US Storm Front Map Image |
KBIS (Bismarck ND) NexRad Image |
A Note About SMS/MMS Text Messaging
Most cellular phones can receive text (SMS) messages. Most camera phones can receive MMS picture messages. We have created a link at the top of this page so that you can test your cell phone. Please see if your cell phone can receive MMS pictures and MMS text messages from us by clicking on this link and selecting MMS. We will send you a test Satellite picture. Some of our textual weather reports such as Airmet/Sigmet and Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR's) are sent via MMS text messaging only because these reports exceed the 120 to 160 character limits associated with SMS text messages. If you do not get this test picture on your cell phone within 3 minutes for MMS pictures and within 2 minutes for SMS/MMS text messages, please contact us at support@wxnotice.com so that we can do some research for you.
On-Demand Weather Reports
On-Demand Weather Reports allow you to use your cell phone and request immediate Metar and TAF textual weather reports as well as any of our Satellite, Radar and NexRad images. Metar reports can be sent in two formats: raw, which is the regular Metar format or our abbreviated format which provides only wind, visibility and ceiling information. From your cell phone, you can send an SMS message to our on-demand email address (wxod@wxnotice.com) and receive an immediate weather report for almost any airport of your choice!
Click on the navigation link On-Demand to read more about this exciting feature.
WxMonitor
Once logged into our website, clicking on the WxMonitor link will popup a separate small browser window that will allow you to monitor various aviation weather reports. Once opened, move the window to a corner of your desktop so you can monitor your desired weather data. The data will update several times per hour. You may close the main WxNotice.com browser window and just keep this small monitor window open if you wish to work and monitor, however, you will have to open a new browser window to access any of the main WxNotice.com features. Controlled by pull-down menus, you can display up to six of your WxNotification Metar report records. This is done automatically; what ever WxNotification records you have created will be read out of the database and the current Metar reports will be displayed. Use the top pull-down menu to select other weather data such as Radar and Satellite images. The Setup menu will allow you to choose which weather images to display when selected by the pull-down menu.
Misc Info
Once you are logged in, a reminder of your username is provided in the Logout navigation links located at the top and bottom of each web page. Please make sure to logout after you have finished using your account so that your database record can be properly closed.
Cellular Providers Currently Supported
If you don't see your cellular provider listed here, contact us at support@wxnotice.com and we'll see if we can add it to our list.
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