Normally, we all run from hurricanes. But still, the curiosity remains. What are hurricanes like up close and especially inside?
Now, people have found a unique way to discover just that in Microsoft Flight Simulator. The program which prides itself on its realism has introduced hurricane Laura in its latest edition and people are flying straight into it.
RELATED: A TYPO SPAWNED A 212-STORY TOWER AMID MELBOURNE SUBURB IN MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR
AFAIK all the green dots are other players.
I feel like MS Flight Sim is going to create a new genre of gaming events where people track down IRL weather events in-game to experience them.
It's so incredible that this stuff is possible. pic.twitter.com/ZBws2qFIbc
— Technically Alex ?????? (@TechnicalDIY) August 27, 2020
Indeed, players have been heading straight into the eye of the storm, all around its outer edges and even so high that they have frozen. The virtual storm chasers have taken to Twitter to share their exciting journeys and judging from the pics we are not surprised they decided to track the hurricane.
Hurricane Laura looks impressive in Flight Simulator! ???? pic.twitter.com/FGhsAqE2c5
— Simon Coude (@SCoude) August 26, 2020
The views of the weather event are spectacular. These views are possible because Microsoft Flight Simulator uses real-time weather data provided by a partnership with Swiss company Meteoblue.
Mathias Muller, Meteoblue co-founder, told The Verge that the program used his firm's comprehensive data to actually predict hurricane Laura.
“Yesterday’s hurricane was very beautiful to look at and was accurately predicted by our models even days ahead,” explained Muller in an email to The Verge.
“We are very happy that real-time weather is now part of Flight Simulator. It was a long journey as integrating these massive amounts of data required the solution of many problems. From our end, we would like to have even more details and weather parameters we already compute for our customers and the meteoblue.com website inside the game, but the development on the game side is extremely complex and takes time.”
What do you think of this exciting development? Do you want to join these virtual storm chasers or do you feel safer far from hurricanes even in virtual worlds?
