The calculation of weather forecasts takes time!
Virtual Regatta uses GFS 0.25° weather forecasts provided by NOAA, the weather service of the United States. They are, of course, the same forecasts we uses.
These forecasts are calculated 4 times a day and the outputs are identified by the time of the beginning of the calculation in UTC time, also called Z. So we have the outputs of 00Z, 06Z, 12Z and 18Z.
For each calculation, the first 24 hours of forecast are available after about 3h40 of calculation, and delivered in eSail4VR few minutes after, about 03h45 UTC for the 00Z model. That makes 4h45 in winter time and 05h45 in summer time for France. Then, (+90) indicates that the first 90 forecasts hours are available, and so on.
Here is a summary table where you will find the update times of the weather forecasts (UTC+1):
WARNING:
The NOAA is sometimes late and in this case the files are not updated. It doesn't matter because they are not updated in the game as well. What matters is that we are synchronized with the game. The NOAA delays can be due to the production of the model or its distribution.
You can check how the PRODUCTION is going by following this link.
You can check how the DISTRIBUTION is going by following this link.
Now, at what time to do the routings?
The best compromise seems to be (European Central Timezone):
- Winter time (UTC+1): at 05h15 or at your alarm clock, 11h15, 17h15 and 23h15.
- Summer time (UTC+2) : at 06h15 or at your alarm clock, 12h15, 18h15 and 00h15.