How Windshield Weather works

A forecast for the drive, not the place

An ordinary forecast answers one question: what will the weather be in one town at one hour? A drive asks a different one. What will it be doing on the road two hours from here, at the moment you get there?

That is the question Windshield Weather answers. You say where you are starting, where you are going and when you leave. It works out the route and how long each part of it takes to reach, then asks for the forecast at each point along the road for the time you will be there — not for now.

Sections that follow the weather

The route is cut into numbered sections, 01 from the start, wherever the weather changes. A long run of clear road can be a single section; a short band of snow keeps a section of its own. A long drive has up to about thirty.

The numbers are the same everywhere in the app: on the map, on the coloured strip at the top of the timeline, and in the timeline's rows. Sections explains how the road is divided.

Rated, then read aloud

Every section gets one of five ratings, from CALM to EXTREME. A rating is always a colour, a shape and a word together, so it reads the same in bright sun and to eyes that do not tell colours apart. The worst section gives the drive its headline, such as “Weather that could slow you down”.

The briefing turns the whole drive into a short spoken summary, stretch by stretch, so you can hear it once before you set off rather than read it on the way.

Reading a drive

What it does not do

• It is not a navigation app. There are no turn-by-turn directions. Use your usual navigation app to find your way; use Windshield Weather to know what the weather will be doing on the way.
• It does not follow you. Location is used only when you ask the app to start a drive from where you are, and never in the background.
• It does not send alerts to your phone. There are no push notifications. Open a drive to see its latest forecast.
• It does not plan stops. A drive is a start, a destination and a departure time. Arrival times assume you drive the whole way without a break.

Where it runs

Windshield Weather is in public beta on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, and in a browser at windshieldweather.com. It is free, and it needs an account. Install the app has the links.