Sim Soaring Club presents: 

Soaring Weather for MSFS

This is a comprehensive weather-preset package created specifically for glider flying in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024/2020.

It provides a structured range of thermal, ridge, overcast, and high-wind conditions designed for cross-country tasks, ridge flying, training, group flights, and immersive soaring adventures.

How to install (MSFS 2024):
Download the Main File and unzip the "SSC-Weather-MSFS_2024_v2" folder into your MSFS 2024 Community Folder!

How to install (MSFS 2020):
Download the MSFS 2020 file unzip the "SSC-Weather-MSFS_2020_v2" folder into your MSFS 2020 Community Folder!

To keep your in-game presets selection organized, it's recommended to delete any older versions!

There's subtile differences in the weather simulation between the two titles, with MSFS 2024 generally offering slightly weaker lift on the ridges but increased cloud coverage at the same values as in MSFS 2020. These presets attempt to compensate for this, by adjusting wind speeds and cloud coverage in a way where the same preset number (ie 017 Few Cu) should feel as close as possible in both sims, allowing cross-title multiplayer soaring.

Watch the Video Tutorial

The SSC Soaring Weather features 2 sources of lift for glider pilots:

1. Thermals (rising air associated with clouds)
2. Ridge lift (created by wind flowing over mountains)

Prerequisites:
In order to find decent thermals, flights should be done in summer around noon hours.
Time of Day and Season play a big role in determining the thermal strength.
These factors are not part of the presets and have to be set by the pilot himself.

Thermals:

Presets feature a range of thermal strengths, indicated  by the "T0 - T14" prefix included in their name.
Due to how msfs works, these thermals can be found a little offset to the windward side of the cloud (not directly below the cloud). The larger, higher and denser the cloud is looking, the bigger is the chance to find good lift.
MSFS also simulates hot air rising from the sun heating terrain, but this is completely independent from cloud formation, and cannot be controlled by a weather preset, as it solely depends on the time of day, season and wind speed among other things.

Ridge lift:

MSFS is doing an ok job at simulating air flowing over mountains, with the exception of the fact that under many circumstances lift can be found at altitudes high above the ridges, which is quite unrealistic.
To work around this fact, the presets are set up in AGL mode, featuring several wind layers at different altitudes above ground level (as opposed to altitude above sea level).
You will find wind speeds of 5 - 20 kt close to the surface (be it in a valley or on a mountain peak). As in real life this lift only reaches a couple of 1000 ft above the terrain, due to the addition of multiple wind layers of decreasing wind speeds in the preset, meaning you have to fly pretty close to the mountains in order to benefit from the ridge lift.

Weather Types Overview:

Clear ☀️

Blue soaring conditions with no cumulus markers. Great for ridge flying, clean-sky navigation, performance testing, and practicing real thermal hunting without obvious cloud clues.

• Type: Ridge + Blue Thermals
• Thermals: Very light
• Wind: 5, 10, 15, 20 kt
• Cloud base: None
• Use: Ridge flying, blue thermal practice, clean visuals

Low Cu 🌤️

Classic cross-country soaring with cumulus markers and a lower cloud base. Best for flatlands, lower mountains, and shorter tasks where climbs are easy to reach.

• Type: Ridge + Thermal
• Thermals: Light to Very Strong
• Wind: 5, 10, 15, 20 kt
• Cloud base: ~6000 ft AGL
• Use: Default XC flying, lower terrain, group flights

High Cu ⛅

Higher cloud base for bigger terrain and longer glides. Ideal for mountains, high plains, and stronger cross-country days where extra working altitude matters.

• Type: Ridge + Thermal
• Thermals: Moderate to Maximum
• Wind: 5, 10, 15, 20 kt
• Cloud base: ~10000 ft AGL
• Use: Mountains, high terrain, long transitions

Overcast ☁️

Stable, fully covered skies with no authored thermals. Best used for ridge-focused flying, atmospheric conditions, or deliberately tricky low-lift days.

• Type: Ridge focused
• Thermals: None
• Wind: 5, 10, 15, 20 kt
• Cloud base: Overcast layer
• Use: Ridge soaring, poor soaring days, moody visuals

High Winds 🌬️

Special wind-gradient presets with light wind near the surface and stronger wind higher up. These can feel wave-like in high terrain, even though it is still MSFS ridge lift doing MSFS things.

• Type: High-altitude wind gradient
• Thermals: None / limited
• Wind: Increases with altitude
• Profiles: 1000 m, 2000 m, 3000 m, 4000 m. Choose at which AMSL the wind speed reaches 10 kt
• Use: High terrain, wind-gradient training, wave-like ridge flights

Note: With the High Winds presets the lift is noticeably weaker at low AGL due to MSFS cutting the lift near the ground. So try to stay above 1000 ft AGL

• Select weather type
• Select thermal strength
• Select wind direction and wind speed
• Enter a preset number manually
• Set local date and time
• Apply everything directly from inside the sim

The Surprise Me button randomly selects and applies:

• Weather preset
• Date
• Time

This lets you discover new soaring scenarios with one click. You might get an early morning overcast winter scene, a snowy mountain challenge, a clear summer sunset with blue thermals, or a booming cumulus day with strong lift. Each click creates a different challenge, making it a fun way to explore the full range of SSC Soaring Weather v2.

Tips:

• For best conditions fly during summer at noon.
• Pick a preset with a favorable wind direction depending on your flight plan.
• Find thermals on the windward side of clouds (not directly under clouds).
• For best lift in the mountains fly between 500 - 1500 feet above the ground.
• Fly over terrain easily heated by the sun (cities, rocks, beaches)
• Set the Turbulence option in Assistance Settings to low to avoid unrealistic turbulence.

Note:

These weather presets control the lift by manipulating the wind so you will see wind speeds reducing significantly as you rise above slopes but this seems the optimal compromise to get realistic ridge-lift conditions. They were designed to work universally for thermal- and ridge soaring. 

The Sim Soaring Club is a friendly community of over 3000 pilots, flying gliders in MSFS and hosting multiple group flights every week.

Join us on discord.simsoaring.club

Contributing pilots:
Alexandre, B21, Biggles, CallMeJo, Georg, MajorDad, MountainManVR & all active members of the Sim Soaring Club.

Happy Soaring!