Heathrow fog and low visibility flights in MSFS

Look for a London Heathrow arrival where the forecast fog lasts long enough for your simulator flight to reach it.

London Heathrow uses the airport code EGLL in BadWx. For an MSFS 2020 or 2024 session focused on reduced visibility, use that destination to compare the forecast at landing with the conditions reported now. A foggy departure-time observation is only the starting point: the useful question is whether the fog is still forecast when you arrive.

Open the route finder
Select Europe, sort by Arrival airport and look for EGLL.

Why fog timing matters

One pattern to understand when looking for a UK fog session is radiation fog. During a clear, calm night, cooling ground can cool the air near the surface enough for condensation to form. The Met Office explains that this often occurs in winter and can disperse as the ground warms after sunrise. It also distinguishes ground-level fog from cloud above the surface. See the Met Office explanation of fog types.

That background gives you a reason to inspect the arrival forecast, rather than a fixed best time to fly into Heathrow. Do not assume that every winter morning will be foggy or that every fog event clears at the same hour.

Set up a Heathrow search

1. Choose your aircraft and review the preflight allowance in Settings. The allowance is read-only; if you take longer to prepare, check the forecast against your later arrival.
2. Use Reset filters, select Europe and sort by Arrival airport. Look for EGLL in the To column: region matches either end of a route.
3. For reduced visibility, leave Fog / Vis selected and deselect the other weather types. For a cloud-focused arrival, try Low Ceiling instead.
4. Narrow the flight-time filter after results appear. Its duration excludes preflight, while the arrival clock includes it.

Separate fog from a low ceiling

The Fog / Vis filter also includes mist, haze and low-visibility flags, so a match does not necessarily mean dense fog. Open Details → METAR / TAF and compare the observation with visibility forecast for your arrival. A Low Ceiling result can give you a cloud-focused arrival even when surface visibility is relatively good.

Selecting both weather types shows routes matching either type; it does not require both. If you want that combination, check both values in the weather details yourself. The METAR and TAF guide explains the observation and forecast views.

Compare arrivals around a clearing window

As an illustrative exercise, imagine adverse visibility is forecast until 09:00 UTC. One available route arrives at 08:20 and another at 09:20. The later flight may miss the fog even though both depart while it is present. Compare the adverse window and arrival uncertainty in Details; these example times are not a Heathrow forecast.

If Heathrow has no matching flights

Try a broader flight-time range or another aircraft profile. Reset filters restores region, flight-time and weather-type filters, but keeps your aircraft. The fixed weather thresholds are visible in Settings. Calm conditions, a forecast outside your arrival time or missing weather data can still leave no matching Heathrow arrival.

Check the observation and forecast times in METAR / TAF. The last-updated badge is a cache-fetch time, not the issue time of every airport report.

When you find a match, use the route's SimBrief action and follow the SimBrief planning workflow. Use live weather in MSFS and compare what the simulator produces with the forecast you selected.