Climate or weather simulation - free tools

Question

Are there any free living or discontinued tools that can simulate climate or weather?

BYOE and Monash are only online web climate simulation tools. Some tools I tried:

ClimaSim is only free climate simulator as far as I know. But full of cons.

Pros

Unregistered version is for free forever.
I can edit continents.
Temperature chart from any location or altitude.

Cons

Unregistered version can't simulate terrestrial and solar settings. Only preset scenarios.
Simulates only temperature.
Blocks-like continents causing temperature inaccuracies.

WXSIM is only free weather simulator as far as I know. Best program from this list. Only without any cons.

Pros

Small differences between unregistered and registered versions.
You can see how weather was like in different climates.
You can select any date, time and location.

So to summarize, I've found and tried 4 free tools to simulate climate. 2 online web tools. 2 free programs.

ClimaSim is notorious for its own cons. But only WXSIM doesn't have cons, because unregistered and registered WXSIM versions are nearly identical to each other. Note that free versions are called "unregistered", meaning less number of functions and features.

Edit 1 This question isn't duplicate to What computational resources would work for a 550-year climate forecast of our earth?, because my question isn't about weather forecasting, but about free online or offline tools for climate or weather simulation, not forecasting. Edit 2:The question aboutt 550 years- too much requirements. I just want to find any online or offline, but free tool.

What is your question, exactly? Finding free tools? It looks like you've already answered that question in your explanation of two programs. — Palarran, Apr 25 '19 at 10:33
Yes. I'd like find more free (online or software) climate simulation tools. Only WXSIM is good tool for me. — Rock, Apr 25 '19 at 10:39
Possible duplicate of What computational resources would work for a 550-year climate forecast of our earth? — JBH, Apr 25 '19 at 13:25
This question isn't duplicate to What computational resources would work for a 550-year climate forecast of our earth, because my question isn't about weather forecasting, but about free online or offline tools for climate or weather simulation, not forecasting. — Rock, Apr 25 '19 at 14:29
Looking at WXSIM after your glowing review. I'm only seeing costs starting at $129. No current free program, though there is a Shareware version that seems to only use a couple selected sites. Plus it's all Windows only (I have a Mac). I'd love to get some climate data for the places my novel is set in, though I do have some current weather info from modern cities in the general areas. Thought I'd see if something like this worked better... — Cyn, Apr 25 '19 at 16:52
Download free WXSIM here: https://www.wxsim.com/climasetup.exe — Rock, Apr 25 '19 at 18:01
@Rock, when you're dealing with a fictional world, simulation and forecasting are the same thing. — JBH, Apr 25 '19 at 22:05
I don't think so. Why do you say that simulate and forecast are same thing, if i want to know, (for example) how earth (or my own fictional world) look like if planet are tilted 37.5 degrees. — Rock, Apr 26 '19 at 06:09

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 20 '19 at 18:30

If you want to simulate Earth weather and climate, the Apache's Open Climate Workbench is one open source solution. Open Climate Workbench

If OCW is too confining for your purposes, then maybe you can use the solutions that are used to simulating climates on exoplanets. UofW has published papers on that topic. And, one of their papers is accessible under Creative Commons and can be downloaded at Evolved Climates and Observational Discriminants for the TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System In that paper, they broadly discuss using several open source packages in combination to simulate climates on distant planets, but it doesn't look like a simple, single app like OCW.

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered May 20 '19 at 20:51

I originally voted to close this question as a duplicate of What computational resources would work for a 550-year climate forecast of our earth?

One of the answers to that question is for Universe Sandbox², which looks an awful lot like what you're looking for — especially if you look past the pretty pictures and actually read about the tool. It isn't restricted to Earth.

That, and seven other climate tools can be found on our worldbuilding resources page (eight, I just added Open Climate Workbench).

Frankly, I don't think I deserve HDE 226868's rep — I still think this question is a duplicate. But if he's offering, I'll invite the opportunity.

Climate or weather simulation - free tools

2 Answers2