The Epic Clouds Guide

The Epic Clouds have a host of features that are not so obvious at first glance. Here are some of the things that create the synergy.

How to Explore the Epic Clouds Quickly

If you want to discover what the clouds can do for you quickly:

  1. Start a flight in a jet so you can quickly traverse distance and altitude
  2. Go to 15000 ft
  3. Choose a cloudscape
  4. Keep moving to ensure you are not inside a cloud when the cloudscape loads
  5. Set the time of day to sunrise, noon or sunset to get a feel for how the clouds respond

Some of the cloudscapes cast big shadows and leave large open areas. This type of contrast often increases the colour range for mountain peaks and fields exposed to the sun. Some of the clouds have drizzling mist and rain beneath them for a temporary change of mood.

How to Find a Weather Type

Enable the Correct Mode to See the List of Presets

In order to see the images for each preset in the weather preset list, select the ‘Flight Conditions’ button and then enable the ‘Preset’ option. If you leave the ‘Custom’ option selected you will not see the cloud images, only the text. Finally, select a cloud preset from the list.

The MSFS 2024 Flight Conditions Page

The 2024 ‘Flight Conditions’ page

The MSFS 2020 Flight Conditions Symbols

The 2020 Preset option
The 2020 dropdown list of presets

Use the Preset Title & Icon to Identify a Preset Type

In the 2024 version the name of the preset is sorted alphanumerically in ascending order and there are no choices in sort order as there were with the 2020 presets collection.

Note: In order to adapt the Epic Clouds to the MSFS 2024 marketplace, installation options needed to be removed. This means it is no longer possible choose to sort by cloud name or cloud cover. Similarly the choice between displaying Fahrenheit or Celsius temperatures has been replaced by a word describing the temperature. See below for a list of the temperature ranges.

The Details

There Are Two Prefix Types

The Epic Clouds come with two prefixes: FEC (Floyds Epic Clouds) and FEW (Floyds Epic Weather).

The FEC presets focus on cloud types with other features such as temperature, pressure, and precipitation playing a supporting role.

The FEW presets focus on weather features such as thermals, precipitation, fog etc, in which case the cloud visualisation is a secondary consideration. The FEW type will be sorted to the bottom of the presets list.

The FEC Image, Icon and Description

The first element is the name tag (eg: FEC). The second element is the cloud cover ratio (eg: 3’8). This will be the primary way of selecting an item from the list. You can gain more information by also taking into account the temperature, the preset image, description and weather icon.

The cloud image in the dropdown list of presets is a screenshot from the cloud preset. The weather icon depicts the amount cloud cover and precipitation you can expect. Snow is depicted as dots, rain is depicted as lines.

The description will either be the name of a specific real-world cloud type or else a description of the overall mood or appearance of the preset.

Cloud Cover Units Explained

The second element of an FEC preset title represents cloud cover in oktas where 1 okta represents 1/8th of the sky. For example 4’8 means that half of the sky will be covered in cloud. A setting of X’8 means the sky is obscured by low level cloud, mist or fog.

Cirrus Clouds Break the Rule

Unfortunately, Cirrus clouds must also be taken into account when a cloud cover reading is taken. This can be misleading because full cloud cover due to Cirrus clouds can still result in a bright day. For example, a setting like ‘FEC 8’8 MILD – Cirrus’ with full cloud cover could be bright and clear.

Temperature in Words

The MSFS marketplace does not support installation variations, and some changes were necessary to make a single download possible to suit that environment:

  1. The temperature options C & F are replaced by temperature ranges using short English words as descriptors.
  2. The sort order will be in cloud cover order only (oktas)

There isn’t an official list of aviation biased words that match temperature ranges globally. However, similar words and ranges are being used in USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand. All of the English speaking international variations start from 0c / 32f and use a 5c / 9f step size between the bands.

Icy0c or less32f or less
Chill0c to 5c32f to 41f
Cold5c to 10c41f to 50f
Cool10c to 15c50f to 59f
Mild15c to 20c59f to 68f
Warm20c to 25c68f to 77f
Hot25c or more77f or more

The advantage of this list is that the two temperature scales are represented by whole numbers. This does create one more temperature category than is necessary in my opinion but it’s easier to live with this compromise than a peculiar Fahrenheit step size.

Winds Aloft

You can find the Winds Aloft explanation here.