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Real weather,
modeled & injected.
A living, three-dimensional atmosphere, built from real observations and fed into MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020 in real time. Every change is carried across as a continuous move, at a speed you set. The alternative to Active Sky FS.
- Either simulator
- $29.99
- Both, one licence
- $35.99
- Pre-order
- $40.00
A separate build on its own licence. Owning StrataWx for MSFS does not include it and does not discount it. $42.99 at release.
Pre-order X-Plane 12One-time, per product. No subscription. Free updates, forever.
MSFS 2024 · FL340 · Live
Right now
Global precipitation
Precipitation over the entire planet, from the satellite record, on the same map projection the app draws. StrataWx does not work from a list of supported airports: it builds the atmosphere around your aircraft wherever you fly it, over any airport, any ocean, and everything between.
Acquiring
Precipitation rate · NASA GPM IMERG via GIBS
Capabilities
Live weather for MSFS 2024 and 2020
Live weather, not a preset. The whole sky you are flying through.
- Vertical temperature profile
- Winds at every level
- Live precipitation scope
- Confidence, shown
StrataWx does not hand the simulator a preset. It reads the live weather where you are and builds the entire column of air you are flying through: temperature and the freezing level, the wind at every altitude, each cloud band sitting where it actually sits, and the precipitation around you, live. What the profile shows you is exactly what the simulator is being given.
Profile · Scope
Every hazard, called out before you reach it.
- Icing and turbulence bands
- Freezing level and ceiling
- Convective risk
- SIGMET, AIRMET and PIREP
Ceiling, freezing level and convective risk up top; icing and turbulence bands plotted by altitude; live SIGMETs, AIRMETs and PIREPs along your route. You get the flight picture the way a briefer would hand it to you.
Hazards · Advisories
Layer by layer, exactly as observed.
- Up to 24 cloud layers
- Real bases, tops and coverage
- Winds aloft, surface to the flight levels
Cloud decks with real bases, tops, coverage and density. Winds aloft at every level from the surface to the flight levels. And the raw METAR it's all anchored to, decoded and injected.
Decks · Winds aloft
Four ways to fly.
| Mode | Use it for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Live | Flying the world today | The weather that is happening right now, kept current around your aircraft for the whole flight. |
| Historical | Reflying a real day | Rebuild a past day from the ERA5 reanalysis archive and fly it. ERA5 trails real time by about 5 days, so recent weather is live mode's job. |
| Sandbox | Practising one condition | Author exact conditions: overcast at 1,200 ft, 30 kt crosswind, moderate chop, then fly them. |
| Hybrid | Today, your way | Start from the real sky, then change whatever you like and keep everything you did not touch. |
The complete window.
- Conditions
- Atmosphere profile
- Precipitation scope
- Hazards
- Advisories
- Cloud decks
- Winds aloft
- Generated ATIS
Everything above is one window, and this is it, whole: the conditions row, the profile and the scope, the hazards and the advisories, the decks and the winds aloft, and at the foot, the observation the whole picture is anchored to, decoded, with the ATIS it generates for the field.
The whole window
Method
Real weather injection
From the real sky to your cockpit. StrataWx is a weather injector: it builds the atmosphere outside Microsoft Flight Simulator and injects it, over and over, for as long as you fly. Flying X-Plane 12 instead? That simulator works differently and gets a separate build, StrataWx for X-Plane 12.
The pipeline.
-
01
Read
StrataWx takes in the real weather around you and along the route ahead, and keeps taking it in while you fly.
-
02
Build
That becomes a complete atmosphere around the aircraft: every level, every deck, every hazard, with nothing left flat between the airports.
-
03
Smooth
Every change is carried across as a continuous move rather than a substitution, at one of four speeds you choose.
-
04
Fly
The simulator is held at that atmosphere for the whole flight and it keeps up with you as you move. There is nothing to press.
Every change is eased in, at a speed you set.
Wind, pressure, temperature and cloud arrive as continuous moves rather than substitutions, and you set how fast they move. A deck whose base drifts is eased on the slot it already holds. A deck that leaves dissolves before it is dropped.
StrataWx vs Active Sky FS
For MSFS 2024
Active Sky FS is the engine most buyers compare us with, so here is the comparison, for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Where they are ahead, we say so. StrataWx for X-Plane 12 is a separate product and is not compared here.
- $29.99One time, nothing renews
- $0Every update, forever
- 3Simulators, one engine (X-Plane 12 in pre-order)
StrataWx is $29.99 for one simulator and $35.99 for both MSFS simulators, bought outright, with free updates forever. Nothing renews and nothing expires. Adding the other MSFS simulator later is a $6.99 cross-grade, never a rebuy. StrataWx for X-Plane 12 is a separate build, so it is a separate product at $42.99, or $40 to pre-order.
- Licence grace
- StrataWx Activate once, then 14 days of grace. If our licence server cannot be reached, an activated install keeps flying for 14 days. Live and historical weather still need a connection to read real observations; sandbox needs none.
- Active Sky FS It cannot be used offline. Their product page states that the online activation and login system requires an online connection, and that the product cannot be used offline.
- Account and session terms
- StrataWx One activation, bound to your machine. There is no login session to hold, and a licence stands down only after two consecutive definitive rejections, never on a single failed check.
- Active Sky FS One login at a time. Their product page states that one login per user account is permitted, and that you may be logged in only once at a time.
- Hybrid
- StrataWx Live winds under a sky you built. Hybrid lays today's real winds, temperature and pressure under a sky you set by hand: the ceiling, the crosswind, the chop and the visibility you want, in the air that is actually out there.
- Active Sky FS Live, historical and custom weather. Their product page lists those three plus a Passive mode, and does not list a mode that puts live winds under an authored sky.
- Transitions
- StrataWx Decks are tracked, not re-slotted. A deck whose base drifts is eased on the slot it already holds, and the in-sim panel eases toward the target every 200 ms at one of four speeds you choose.
- Active Sky FS Smoothing work in open beta. Their 17 July 2026 beta notes describe improved cloud smoothing to address edge cases where cloud layers may instantly transition or become corrupt.
Weighing Active Sky FS? Read the full StrataWx vs Active Sky FS comparison.
Active Sky and Active Sky FS are trademarks of HiFi Technologies, Inc. StrataWx is an independent product, not affiliated with or endorsed by HiFi Technologies, Inc., Microsoft or Asobo Studio. Comparisons on this page are our reading of HiFi's published product pages on the date shown, and either product's features and pricing can change: check their store before you buy. Last verified 2 August 2026.
Price
Windows x64
One-time. No subscription. Free updates forever.
Windows x64 · signed installer · instant download · all sales final. The upgrade applies to a StrataWx licence you already own, and is never a rebuy. The X-Plane 12 pre-order is delivered at release, not immediately.
Installed and activated in about a minute. The Quick Start walks the whole thing. Flying the previous generation? MSFS 2020 live weather covers what is different there.
Questions
Is StrataWx a good alternative to Active Sky FS for MSFS 2024?
StrataWx reads the weather that is happening right now and rebuilds it as a complete three-dimensional atmosphere around your aircraft: cloud decks with real bases and tops, winds and temperature at every level, turbulence, icing, visibility and pressure. It then holds your simulator at that state, continuously, so the sky changes the way the real one does. Both are real-weather engines, and Active Sky FS does things StrataWx does not: wake turbulence, voice ATIS on the radio, a companion app and a public API. Here is the other side. Their product page states that Active Sky FS cannot be used offline, and that one account may be logged in only once at a time. Activate StrataWx once and an activated install keeps flying for 14 days even if our licence server cannot be reached. Live and historical weather still need a connection, because they read real observations.
Does it work with MSFS 2020 or X-Plane?
StrataWx runs on both Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and 2020. StrataWx for X-Plane 12 is a separate product, releasing 4 September 2026: it will be $42.99, with a $40 pre-order. It costs more because it does more. X-Plane exposes the atmosphere as writable data, so that build writes a true 13-layer wind column, per-layer turbulence and real cloud decks instead of relaying one uniform preset. Updates to a simulator you already own are always free; adding the other MSFS simulator carries a small one-time upgrade fee, never full price.
Is this really a one-time price?
Yes. $29.99 buys StrataWx for MSFS 2024 outright, with free updates forever. We only ever charge again if we bring StrataWx to a totally different simulator, and even then it's a small upgrade fee, never a full repurchase.
How does injection actually work?
Two pieces, both installed for you: a desktop app that does the work and shows you the weather, and a small in-sim panel that the installer copies into your MSFS Community folder, the standard MSFS addon folder, and that keeps the simulator matched to the app. Start the app, fly, and never touch it again.
Will it affect my frame rate?
Very little. The heavy work happens outside the simulator, in the StrataWx app, so the simulator only ever receives a finished weather state. On a machine that already runs MSFS comfortably you will not see the difference in the frame counter.
Windows only?
The desktop app is Windows x64 today, shipping as a signed installer. Broader platform support follows the sim integrations.
What's the refund policy?
All sales are final. Like most digital software, StrataWx is non-refundable once purchased. If you hit a problem, email us. We'd much rather help you get it working than leave you stuck.