Weather
Zora shows the weather in two places. The Weather screen is Windy's wind map, live from the internet. On the chart, Zora draws its own forecast, which the boat keeps aboard for when you are offline.
How the forecast reaches the boat, and how far to trust it, is in Weather on board.
The Weather screen
Open Weather from the Fullscreen group of the Navigation tab.
It shows Windy's wind forecast, centred on the boat with a marker on it, or the whole world while Zora has no position for the boat. Wind speed and temperature are in the units you use in Zora. Rain is in millimetres, or in inches if you use feet for short distances.
The screen needs internet. Without it you see a crossed-out globe.
The button at the top right opens the full Windy website at the boat's position.
Show weather on the chart
On the Charts screen, long-press the weather button. You can also open Weather in the NAV tab of the Tools panel. Either way the Weather chart list opens:
- Wind, 10 m above the sea
- Temperature, of the air 2 m above the surface
- Pressure, at mean sea level
- Precipitable Water, the water in the whole column of air
- Precipitation, over 3 hours
- Humidity
- Visibility
- Snow Depth
- Cloud Cover
- Wave Period and Wave Height
- Tidal Current, set and drift
Tap a row to draw it on the chart. Tap it again to take it off. The chart shows one at a time, so choosing one takes the last one off.
Under each row is the name of the forecast model it comes from. When the boat keeps that parameter aboard, the label also shows for how long, such as 5d. You can draw any parameter; one the boat does not keep aboard is downloaded as you look at it, and needs internet then. To choose what the boat keeps, see Keep the forecast aboard.
Move through time
Along the bottom of the chart are the colour scale, the timeline and a chip with the time on the chart.
- Drag the chip, or tap along the bar, to go to another hour. With a mouse, the time under the pointer shows before you click.
- The days are named under the bar. A dot marks the present moment.
- The timeline opens on the first hour still to come. The earlier hours of the forecast stay on the bar.
- It steps every hour for the first day, then every 3 hours to the end.
While the forecast loads, the chip reads Loading with a count, and you cannot drag it yet.
Play runs through the hours; Pause stops. Long-press Play to open Animation: Slow, Normal or Fast, and Loop Animation to start again from the beginning. It runs at Normal, without looping, until you change it.
On a phone-sized screen only the timeline shows. Use a larger screen for Play and the draw styles.
Change how a layer is drawn
The chip at the bottom right names the layer and its model. Tap it.
- A row of buttons appears, one for each way the layer can be drawn. Turn on as many as you like. Hold the pointer over a button to see its name. Wind offers Speed Color, Wind Flow, Barbs and Contours. Pressure offers Color Map, Wind Flow, Values, Isobars and High/Low. Every layer except Wind and Wave Period can show Wind Flow over it.
- The slider sets how strongly the colours are drawn, from 0 to 100%.
- The chip becomes a list of the models this layer can come from. Tap the one in use to close it.
Read a value
Tap the chart. The INFO tab of the Tools panel shows the value at that point, with a direction in degrees for wind and waves. With a mouse, the value also follows the pointer. Taps go to Distances and Position Fix instead while you use them.
Wind, temperature, pressure, visibility and wave height are in the units you use in Zora, as is the tidal current. The rest keep their own: rain and precipitable water in mm, humidity and cloud in %, snow in cm and wave period in seconds.
One hour: Quick Forecast
To look at one hour without the timeline:
- Long-press a parameter in the Weather chart list. Its settings open, with where the data comes from and when this forecast was issued (Forecast at).
- Under Quick Forecast, tap Now or one of the hours after it.
The chart shows that hour, and the time shows beside the row. To go back to the timeline, tap the row twice: once to take it off, once to draw it again.
Tidal Current has no settings to long-press.
Keep the forecast aboard
Zora can download the forecast in the background while the boat has internet, so it is there offshore. Auto Updates, at the top of the Weather chart list, is green with a cloud and arrow while it does, and shows a crossed-out cloud when it does not. Tap it to open Weather:
- Forecast period: 1d, 2d, 3d or 5d. This is also the length of the timeline.
- Keep the forecast current: the switch for the background download.
- Parameters: what the boat downloads, under Weather and Sea. Turn each on or off.
A new Zora keeps Wind, Temperature and Pressure for 5 days, with the download on. Choosing any parameter other than Wave Period also keeps Wind, because the wind flow drawn over it comes from the wind forecast.
There is no save button: closing the dialog applies it. If you changed something and the download is on, Zora first asks Keep the forecast current, with how many parameters it will download and for how long. Tap download to keep the change, or discard to drop it.
If the dialog says this Zora does not keep the forecast current on its own, the chart still draws the weather: it is downloaded as you move along the timeline, while you have internet.