StrataWx Weather Engine Now Available for X-Plane 12

StrataSim Designs has released StrataWx for X-Plane 12, bringing its real-time weather engine across from Microsoft Flight Simulator with a version specifically built around how X-Plane handles its atmosphere.

The big difference here is that X-Plane exposes its atmosphere as writable data. StrataWx takes advantage of this to inject a 13-layer wind column, individual turbulence values for each layer and actual cloud decks, rather than simply passing a uniform weather preset into the simulator.

Underneath, the same weather engine used by the MSFS version remains. StrataWx combines live surface observations, upper-air data and global weather models to build conditions including winds aloft, temperatures, cloud layers, visibility, pressure, convection, turbulence and icing. As you fly, the weather is continuously recalculated for your position and slightly ahead of the aircraft, with transitions designed to happen gradually rather than suddenly snapping between conditions.

Alongside live weather, the X-Plane version includes a historical mode for recreating past conditions and a sandbox mode for manually building your own weather.

There are some limitations worth knowing about. X-Plane currently exposes a single atmospheric region around the aircraft, meaning StrataWx cannot create different weather systems across separate parts of the map. Weather radar also relies on X-Plane’s own weather state rather than displaying individual cells generated by StrataWx.

The X-Plane edition is also Windows-only and is sold separately from the existing Microsoft Flight Simulator version.

StrataWx for X-Plane 12 is available now for $40.99 directly from StrataSim Designs, or $42.99 / €36.99 through SimMarket. Updates are included with the purchase and there is no subscription required.