St. Petersburg, Florida — July 29, 2026 — A loaded airmass is not the same thing as storms on your route. PlaneWX already scored thunderstorms from the models. As of today, live radar from NOAA’s Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor mosaic can change that number — but only in one direction, and only when it has actually looked at the corridor you fly.
Convective Watch now shows two badges on the same segment bar: what the atmosphere supports, and what is painting. Model is potential. Radar is now. When they disagree and radar is the more credible of the pair, the route-coverage thunderstorm deduction can come down. If the corridor is quiet, that deduction can go to zero instead of leaving a few points behind on a clear day.
Quiet is strict. Nothing at or above 30 dBZ within 10 nautical miles of the course, no lightning, and nothing at 45 dBZ there in the past hour. A single moderate cell on your path is not quiet. Radar never adds a thunderstorm deduction. Convective SIGMETs, TAF and METAR thunderstorms, and your personal-minimum hard limits are untouched. A quiet corridor cannot undo a ceiling that has already grounded the flight.
Radar is a nowcast, not a 14-day forecast. It attaches when part of the flight falls inside roughly the next two hours, the route has MRMS coverage — the continental U.S. and nearby mosaic — and the image is fresher than 20 minutes. Farther out, the models keep the call. If radar has seen less than 70 percent of the route points, it does not get to vouch for the rest.
This is not a crystal ball. It is the difference between “the airmass could support storms” and “the scope is empty on the path you will actually fly.”
The in-app guide is at app.planewx.ai/help/live-radar.
About PlaneWX
PlaneWX is the pilot’s decision support system, founded in 2025 by Mark Wolfgang, a Navy veteran and commercial instrument-rated pilot. Its WX Score synthesizes authoritative weather data against each pilot’s specific aircraft and personal minimums, feeds an integrated flight risk assessment built on the FAA’s PAVE framework, and connects pilots to a peer mentor network — so go/no-go planning can start up to 14 days out, not the night before. Tagline: The confidence to go, or the courage to stay™.
Media contact
Mark Wolfgang, PlaneWX
hello@planewx.ai
www.planewx.ai