Whether it’s a quick temperature check in the morning or testing the hourly radar ahead of a storm, we guarantee The Weather Channel app can help you plan your day all season long. For those who haven’t been swayed into upgrading to a premium subscription, what if we told you those daily weather checks could unlock exclusive access to services?

Introducing The Weather Channel Premium Perks: the deals program that will turn your weather obsession into serious savings (up to $187 value to be exact). We’re talking up to four months of Spotify Premium, live sports and storytelling, travel discounts, golf app access and more.

Premium Perks: It’s more than ‘just’ weather

The Weather Channel Premium Perks partners

Think about your typical week. Maybe you’re planning outdoor activities, looking for new music for your workout, researching weekend getaways or trying to improve your golf game. Premium Perks connects your interests with curated offers that enhance how you live with (and plan around) the weather.

Rain or shine, they’ve been specifically chosen for people who care about being prepared, staying active and making the most of every day. Plus, many of these offers provide richer value than what you’d find directly on other sites.

How to unlock your Premium Perks

Follow our step-by-step guide to unlock your Premium Perks.

Step 1: Make sure you’re registered

You’ll need a registered weather.com account with a valid email address. This is how we deliver your exclusive promo codes and redemption instructions. Sign up here for free.

Step 2: Sign up for The Weather Channel Premium

You can start with the seven-day free trial at weather.com/subscribe. There’s no commitment, and you can explore all the premium weather features first. Learn more about all of the extra app and website perks you get when you upgrade to premium.

But note that your Premium Perks won’t kick in until you decide to activate your annual subscription.

Step 3: Complete your paid subscription

After your free trial, your annual premium subscription kicks in at $29.99.

Step 4: Check your email

Once you’re an annual subscriber, you’ll receive an email with all your Premium Perks codes and step-by-step redemption instructions for each partner. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for each.

Step 5: Redeem and enjoy

Use the provided links and codes to claim your perks directly on each partner’s website.

Who’s eligible

If you’re ready to upgrade to Premium (especially if you’re currently a free or ad-free user), you’ll get full access to Premium Perks once you complete your paid annual subscription.

Important Details:

• Location: Currently available to U.S. subscribers only
• Timing: Perks are delivered after your free trial period ends and you become a paid subscriber
• Email required: You’ll need a valid email address to receive redemption instructions

Already using some of these services?

Each partner has their own terms and conditions for how existing users can benefit. Check the specific terms for each perk before you upgrade.

Existing Premium subscribers

Premium Perks are included for eligible paid Annual Premium subscribers after a new purchase or paid renewal. If you are already an Annual Premium subscriber, you will receive your Premium Perks after your next paid renewal, provided you have a registered weather.com account with a valid email address.

The bottom line: Weather meets value

Premium Perks isn’t just about getting deals, it’s about enhancing how you live with the weather. Whether you’re building the perfect playlist, booking experiences for your summer vacation, or planning your next round of golf, these perks connect your weather awareness with your real interests.

Ready to turn your daily weather checks into serious value? Start your free trial at weather.com/subscribe and see what Premium (and Premium Perks) can do for you.

Premium Perks are exclusively available to paid annual Premium subscribers in the United States. Full terms and conditions, including partner-specific details, are available at weather.com/subscribe/premium-perks.

The Weather Company meteorologists have officially issued a Super El Niño watch for late 2026. In short: the 2026 forecast is essentially a massive heatwave that refuses to quit. For anyone in marketing, this isn’t just a weather update; it’s a signal that your usual game plan for the second half of the year needs a serious refresh.

At The Weather Company, we don’t just report the weather; we forecast intent. We’ve spent years studying how the environment acts as a core indicator of consumer behavior. When the weather shifts, so does the human brain. By leaning into neuroscience-backed Mindset Marketing, you can stop reacting to consumer behavior and start staying ahead of it — meeting your audience exactly where they are, both subconsciously and emotionally.

The seasonal slide: Adapting to shifting consumer purchasing windows

With 2026 projected to be a hot one, the old-school retail windows are officially broken. If you’re trying to sell heavy coats in a 75-degree October, your ROI is going to take a hit. Instead, try using weather as a predictive intent signal across your current media mix, from CTV to search. It acts as a force multiplier for your spend, reducing waste and boosting performance by keeping your brand ahead of the consumer’s next move.

• Stretch the summer vibe: Demand for outdoor gear, cold beverages, and sun care will likely stay strong well past traditional summer months.
• Expect a winter delay: Consumers won’t be in the mood for winter sports or “cozy” home goods until the cold actually hits. This habitual behavior is why nearly half of our 330M global users start their day with us — they are looking for the “need-to-know” data that dictates their spend.
• Capture the “Seasonal Snap”: After months of heat, the first real break in temperature will trigger massive pent-up demand. Consumers will be primed and excited to finally pivot to cool weather rituals the second the mercury drops.

Navigating the “Cocooning” mindset

When that record-breaking heat and humidity settle in, people enter what we call the Cocooning Mindset. In plain English: it’s so hot that people’s brains actually struggle to focus on complex details and make decisions.

The marketing pivot: Keep your messaging simple and punchy. Use humor, bold visuals, and clear calls to action. By using our Weather Targeting tools, you can serve these “low-friction” ads only when the heat index hits that “too hot to think” threshold. It works: our mobile web ad units average a 2.8% CTR¹, far exceeding typical industry performance.

The hurricane factor: Connecting during the “Enduring” mindset

A Super El Niño usually means fewer Atlantic storms, but we’re more likely to see activity super-charged by warm ocean waters in the Pacific. When the sky turns grey, consumers shift into the Enduring Mindset. Their focus narrows to safety, comfort, and preparation.

The marketing pivot: Brands that provide real value during these moments build massive long-term trust. We’ve seen a 25% boost in global memory² and 22% boost in detail memory³ when companies offer comfort or utility in their campaigns during “Enduring” weather events. This is your opportunity to engage a highly attentive audience — nearly 50% of our users are Gen Z or Millennials who value brand authenticity during critical moments.

The Weather Targeting assist: Turning data into action

You can’t control the Super El Niño, but you can control how your brand reacts to it. We deliver predictable, incremental performance by fusing the world’s most accurate forecast data with our massive-scale and trusted inventory.

• Automated creative swaps: Use weather-triggered ad creative to drive real-time relevancy by dynamically delivering your ads in real-time. If a local heatwave hits, our tech automatically swaps your “Fall Preview” banner for an “Endless Summer” promo.
• Mindset alignment: Neuroscience proves that aligning an ad with the current weather mindset can boost ROI by up to 18%.⁴ We help you serve high-energy ads during the “Creating” mindset (sunny days) and comfort-focused ads during the “Enduring” mindset (stormy days).
• Predictable outcomes: We move beyond simple media placements to data-driven outcomes. Our solutions drive 3.4x the CPG benchmark⁵ in sales lift for major global brands. Whether you buy via Premium Direct, PMP, or Curated Performance Deals, our data is channel-agnostic and ready to activate.

Reimagine your 2026 weather strategy

To stay ahead of the El Niño curve, your 2026 plan should focus on three pillars:

1. Mindset alignment: Match your message to the local weather. Sunny skies call for upbeat energy; stormy skies call for support and reliability.
2. Dynamic automation: Move your budget into “flex” categories that can react to or anticipate the thermometer in real time.
3. Contextual relevancy: Use our weather-triggered advertising tech to ensure your message makes sense for the weather outside your customer’s window.

The 2026 Super El Niño is coming. You can either be surprised by the heat, or you can be the brand that knows exactly how to keep its cool.

You check the weather before heading out, but how often do you think about the quality of the air that you’re breathing? If you’re managing allergies, asthma or other respiratory conditions, the air around you could be quietly impacting your health every single day. And for the vulnerable (including young children, pregnant and elderly) or chronic illnesses sufferers, your exposure to pollution and particulate matter mean that those tiny particles could end up nesting in your lungs.

The hidden health impact

Poor air quality isn’t just an environmental issue, it’s also a personal health issue. Living in areas with compromised or poor air quality has been linked to:

• Immediate symptoms like coughing, wheezing and throat irritation
• Long-term effects including reduced lung function
• Increased risk of heart attacks and strokes for those with cardiovascular conditions
• Complications for people with COPD, bronchitis and pneumonia

What’s the risk? Fine particulate matter (PM) from dust, fires, fumes, gas and other pollutants can penetrate deep into your lungs, enter your bloodstream and travel to organs, causing damage to tissues and cells. The EPA confirms that small particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter (smaller than the diameter of a human hair!) pose the greatest health risks because they can bypass your body’s natural defense systems.

The Weather Channel’s Air Quality Index

Find the Air Quality Index within the Breathing section of The Weather Channel app.

Think of our Air Quality Index as your personal air quality bodyguard. You’ll get personalized information based on your exact location, complete with color-coded maps that make it easy to see air quality levels from very good to very poor at a glance.

What we track

• PM2.5: Ultra-fine particles that can enter your bloodstream, including combustion particles
• PM10: Larger particles that can still reach deep into your lungs, such as dust, pollen and mold
• Carbon Monoxide (CO): A colorless, odorless gas that reduces oxygen delivery
• Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂): Often from vehicle exhaust, and can trigger asthma
• Ozone (O₃): Ground-level ozone that worsens respiratory conditions
• Sulfur Dioxide (SO₂): Can cause breathing difficulties and lung inflammation

The weather connection

According to senior meteorologist Jonathan Erdman, there are a few main factors that play a crucial role in air quality.

1. Heat domes and temperature inversions can create a lid in the atmosphere, trapping pollutants near the ground with little to no wind to disperse it.
2. Favorable winds aloft can tap smoke from wildfires hundreds of miles away and send it into your area. If the smoke is dense enough and there’s a large number of wildfires, that smoke can reach the ground and be dangerous to breathe.

In our app, the Air Quality Index factors in additional data such as current temperature, humidity and dew point to give you a complete picture of how weather conditions are affecting the air you’re breathing.

Why you need the 24-hour forecast

Get a personalized 24-hour Air Quality Forecast in The Weather Channel app.

Knowledge is power when it comes to protecting your health. With our 24-hour Air Quality Forecast, you can:

• Time your activities: Plan morning jogs, evening walks or kids’ outdoor playtime during the cleanest air windows
• Optimize your commute: Choose the best times to drive with windows down or plan alternate routes during high-pollution periods
• Protect vulnerable family members: Get ahead of conditions that could affect pregnant family members, elderly relatives or children with asthma
• Make smart daily decisions: Know when to close windows and turn on an air purifier, use air recirculation while driving and when to avoid prolonged outdoor activities

Ready to take control of the air you breathe?

Visit weather.com/forecast/air-quality for your local air quality, and download The Weather Channel app to access your personalized Air Quality Index with color-coded maps and 24-hour forecast.

Spring is supposed to be the season of renewal, with budding flowers and warmer temperatures. But if you’re dealing with seasonal allergies, it might feel more like a season of Survivor. According to the CDC, allergic rhinitis (hay fever) affects up to 60 million people annually in the United States.

If you’ve been suffering through sneezes and sniffles, what if there was a better way to navigate allergy season than just loading up on antihistamines and nasal spray and hoping for the best?

The reality of pollen season

The American Lung Association puts it perfectly: “Pollen is perhaps the most obvious springtime asthma and allergy offender.” As trees, grass and weeds launch those tiny grains into the air, pollen can trigger symptoms that make breathing more difficult or even cause full-blown asthma flare-ups.

Tack on air pollution and sudden temperature changes, and your symptoms will be dialed up to 11.

Game-changer: The Allergy Risk Index

Here’s where things get exciting. Most pollen forecasts tell you about pollen counts – but The Weather Channel’s Allergy Risk Index goes several steps further. Instead of just reporting how much pollen is in the air, it predicts how intense your personal experience with that pollen will actually be over the 15 days.

Local pollen count and weekly allergy forecast in The Weather Channel app.

How? Our methodology combines real pollen data with real-time weather conditions that affect how pollen spreads and concentrates. This means accounting for wind patterns, humidity levels and temperature changes – all the factors that can make a “moderate” pollen day feel absolutely overwhelming.

Your complete allergy planning toolkit

In The Weather Channel app, you’ll find everything you need to plan your days (and weeks) around your allergies:

• Weekly outlook: Get specific breakdowns for tree, grass and ragweed pollens with clear low, medium and high ratings.
• Detailed pollen counts: See estimated pollen grains per cubic meter with color-coded forecasts for the next several days.
• Practical tips: Access proven strategies for managing symptoms right when you need them.
• Nationwide data: Get the latest news about pollen conditions across the country, plus helpful “Did You Know” videos to better understand your triggers.

Take control of your spring

The bottom line? You don’t need to lock yourself inside every spring. With the right information and planning, you can:

• Know which days to limit outdoor activities
• Plan medication timing around high-risk periods
• Understand why some days feel worse than others
• Make informed decisions about outdoor workouts and weekend plans

Ready to stop letting pollen call the shots? Get your personalized allergy forecast at weather.com/allergy or download The Weather Channel app to access your local Allergy Risk Index.

Because life’s too short to spend spring hiding indoors. We’ll help you get back to enjoying those beautiful days (tissues optional).

The confidence to make critical flight decisions doesn’t come from technology alone. It comes from rigorous verification that validates forecasts, refines models, and holds every meteorologist accountable. Not only does verification help our products provide an invaluable service to our clients, it validates the essential human value-add in areas where technology cannot yet replicate expert intuition. Verification is how we prove our forecasts work. It’s also how our experts make them better.

How verification drives continuous improvement

Forecast verification systematically compares predictions to observed conditions. At The Weather Company, it serves three purposes:

1. Improving forecast accuracy
2. Promoting transparency about performance
3. Embedding reliability into decision tools

Our automated verification system evaluates parameters against observed weather data recorded by stations at airports worldwide. This helps unlock consistent, objective performance tracking in near real-time. It also frees forecasters from the burden of manual verification, while delivering nuanced insights that drive continuous improvement.

Verification often reveals that a model might be technically accurate in its intensity prediction but poorly timed. By identifying these discrepancies, a human meteorologist can recognize when an actual storm is developing quicker or slower than the model suggests. This allows the forecaster to refine the forecast window in real-time, minimizing costly downtime and optimizing operational efficiency for the airline.

Verification is about creating a feedback loop that meaningfully improves aviation forecasts over time.

The technology behind the trust

The Weather Company is partnering with NVIDIA to train AI models on 20 years of proprietary aviation weather data — developing convective-scale forecast ensembles ideal for aviation decision making. Verification will validate these innovations, helping AI advancements translate into greater operational confidence.

We’ve also implemented the JEDI data assimilation system, which cycles forecasts back into the model rather than starting each hour from scratch and allows timely incorporation of diverse observations. This creates a more realistic, continuous view of the starting state of the atmosphere that powers our Global High-Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting System (GRAF^®).

Where verification delivers results

This rigorous verification process delivers measurable improvements across our product suite, including:

Future radar: The latest version of our forecast radar is 2.5 times better at predicting where heavy precipitation will occur during the critical next two hours — giving operations teams earlier warning when conditions are expected to deteriorate.

Gate Convective Forecasts (GCF): This risk product now provides increasingly accurate predictions of thunderstorm coverage, timing, and intensity across terminal airspaces. By validating GCF against actual convective events and sharing those results back with our forecasters, we’ve refined the forecast process to better distinguish between scattered activity and widespread operational disruption.

Fog risk forecasts: Advancements have evolved rapidly through automated verification, providing immediate performance feedback that helped forecasters identify and eliminate bias before full deployment. Each new product undergoes the same accountability loop: forecast, verify, refine, repeat.

Beyond hit or miss: Partial credit matters

Traditional verification relies on binary thinking. For flight operations, this misses what actually matters — was the forecast useful for decision making? And airlines generally communicate risk on a spectrum from “no risk” to “operationally disruptive.” So, when operations see high risk, they hold departures and reroute aircraft.

Here’s the problem: Meteorologists may forecast high convective risk, but moderately impactful convection occurs instead. Traditional verification calls this a “false alarm.” Yet operationally, the forecast was useful— you held departures, rerouted arrivals, and avoided delays. This is why The Weather Company developed a Partial Credit Critical Success Index (PC-CSI) — to capture decision-grade accuracy and reward operational value over exact binary matches.

High-confidence risk assessment

One analysis identified that when The Weather Company forecasts high convective risk, impactful weather occurs approximately 80% of the time — the certainty needed to confidently trigger proactive flight delays or reroutes. This accuracy results from fostering forecaster accountability through continuous feedback.

Closing the feedback loop

Verification data only matters if it drives action. Lead meteorologists receive monthly performance summaries analyzing accuracy across airports and weather scenarios. They identify improvement opportunities and share findings with their forecasting teams — enabling collaborative learning and year-over-year performance gains.

Weather intelligence that moves aircraft

Just as verification can help to address forecast biases in weather prediction, it also validates how AI translates weather into aviation decisions. The same rigorous process enables AI models to correctly link atmospheric conditions to operational impacts.

We aren’t talking about generic weather forecasts. Our verification process validates that AI models accurately translate weather patterns into actionable insights. The Weather Company trains these weather impact models on historical weather data and real operational outcomes, then tests their performance through continuous verification. The result is a suite of predictive tools designed to answer the specific questions flight operations teams face daily:

TrACR (terminal airspace convective risk): AI-driven forecasts visualize thunderstorm risks in the departure and arrival gates around airports up to 7 hours in advance with 30-minute intervals, helping airlines optimize traffic and reduce delays.

Airport-specific capacity predictions: Forecasts limits on arrival and departure rates, giving clear visibility into when demand will outstrip capacity — before it happens.

Runway configuration predictions: Enable optimized route adjustments in advance of ATC clearance.

Ground de-icing insights: Allow dispatchers to proactively plan for icing conditions.

Achieving forecast “consensus”

Our forecasters leverage WxMix^®, The Weather Company’s proprietary multi-model ensemble, which analyzes over 100 global weather models and intelligently combines them to create a consensus forecast that is more accurate than any of the inputs. Verification validates that the engine delivers on its promise.

Accuracy that earns trust

The Weather Company is the world’s most accurate forecaster — nearly 4x more likely to be the most accurate than the next closest competitor.¹ That accuracy is built on cutting-edge AI, rigorous verification, and human oversight working together to deliver critical aviation insights.

The Weather Company delivers more than accurate weather data — we deliver the confidence to stay ahead of the storm. With FAA-compliant EWINS meteorologists blending aviation and meteorological expertise with innovative forecast technology, our Weather Forecast Services deliver real-time weather analysis and insights you can trust — globally, 24/7. When stakes are high, you need more than data, you need weather intelligence you can act on with confidence.

Beyond basic forecasts

Your weather app should be more than a simple “rain or shine” check. Consider it your schedule maker (or breaker), whether you’re planning your morning jog around pollen levels, timing your commute with future radar or staying informed with breaking news. The Weather Channel app packs serious utility into your daily routine.

From emergency severe weather alerts to seasonal forecasts, including mosquito activity and snow predictions, having the right information at the right time makes all the difference in how you plan your day.

Upgrade to Premium: More precision, better decisions

You don’t need to stretch your budget when it comes to the necessities. There are three tiers designed for every weather enthusiast:

Premium
The full suite of advanced features

Standard
Completely ad-free browsing

Basic
No cost, fewer ads and cleaner experience

Premium gives you the tools to plan like a pro:

• 72-hour future radar: See exactly when weather will hit your location
• 192-hour forecast: Plan your entire week with confidence
• NEW Storm Radar premium app: High-resolution storm and hurricane tracking with 6½ hours of global future radar
• Advanced map layers: Windstream, 30-mile lightning detection, 48-hour future snowfall
• Morning Brief: Newsletter delivered to your inbox

72-hour future radar forecast in The Weather Channel app.

Live activities: Real-time weather on your lock screen

Premium subscribers get instant updates without opening the app.

Live Activities on the lock screen showing precipitation alerts.

What it is:

Live Activities transforms your lock screen into a real-time weather monitor. Instead of guessing when rain or snow will start or stop, watch precipitation levels change minute by minute.

Perfect for:

Timing your walk between meetings, avoiding the carpool lane scramble in the rain or monitoring storm intensity without constantly unlocking your phone.

How to turn on Live Activities

1. Open The Weather Channel app and click your profile (top right corner)
2. Select “Notifications” in the top left menu
3. Scroll to “My Places” and click the alerts button under your location
   • Pro tip: Choose “Current Location” for alerts that travel with you
4. Turn on “Live Activities” by tapping the slider in the third box

Your weather optimized

With breaking news, alerts and precision forecasting all in one place, plus premium features that give you the detailed insights to make better daily decisions – why settle for basic weather when you can have the complete picture? Start your Premium free trial today.

Set up rain alerts (and never get caught by unexpected storms again)

Unexpected storms aren’t just an inconvenience, they can put your family at risk. One minute your kids are playing outdoors or you’re enjoying a family beach day, the next you’re scrambling to get everyone out of the water as lightning approaches. When you’re responsible for keeping your family safe, you can never be overprepared.

Lightning strikes and sudden severe weather can turn a normal day into an emergency situation if you don’t have advance warning. Tack on the surprise summer cold from an unexpected downpour, and you’ll have your hands full the next week.

So why wouldn’t you set up an extra layer of protection that works automatically?

Your 2-minute rain alert setup

Real-time alerts can give you the critical minutes you need to get your family to shelter, bring the kids and pets indoors or clear the pool before lightning strikes within 15 miles of your location.

1. Open The Weather Channel app and click your profile (top right corner)
2. Select “Notifications” in the top left menu
3. Scroll to “My Places” and click the alerts button under your location
   • Pro tip: Choose “Current Location” so alerts follow you everywhere (perfect for travel days)
4. Turn on “Real-Time Precipitation” by tapping the slider in the second box
5. Bonus protection: While you’re there, enable government-issued alerts for serious weather warnings and lightning alerts within a 15-mile radius
6. Customize your daily forecast delivery starting as early as 6 a.m.

Alert notification set-up screen in The Weather Channel mobile app

You’re protected

That’s it. You’ve just created a safety net that works 24/7 to keep your family informed and protected. No more wondering if those dark clouds are dangerous. Just reliable, advance warning that gives you time to act.

When it comes to your family’s safety, why wouldn’t you take every precaution available? Turn on your real-time weather notifications today.

The November 2025 eruption of Hayli Gubbi in Ethiopia served as a wake-up call for the aviation industry. An ancient volcano with no recorded history of activity suddenly sent an ash plume 50,000 feet into the atmosphere, directly into one of the world’s most active subtropical jet streams.

For flight operations, the challenge wasn’t just the ash — it was the data. While government-issued SIGMETs (Significant Meteorological Information) shuttered massive swaths of airspace, The Weather Company provided a more surgical approach.

The Hayli Gubbi event: From quiet to 50,000 feet

On November 23, 2025, at approximately 08:22Z, Hayli Gubbi erupted. Because the volcano had no confirmed historical eruptions, it wasn’t on every operator’s immediate radar.

The timing was particularly difficult. A strong subtropical jet core was positioned directly over Ethiopia, with winds exceeding 100 knots. This acted as a conveyor belt, rapidly transporting high-level ash toward the Arabian Sea and India. By 19:45Z, three distinct ash layers were identified, with the highest reaching FL500 (50,000 feet) along the Yemen border.

The problem with “blanket” SIGMETs

When a major event like Hayli Gubbi occurs, the default response for many government agencies is to issue broad SIGMETs. During this event, we saw government advisories cover entire FIRs over India and Bangladesh, extending from the flight ceiling down to the surface.

For a Director of Flight Operations, these blanket closures are an operational nightmare. They lead to:

• Massive fuel burn due to long-range diversions.
• Widespread schedule disruptions across hubs like New Delhi.
• Increased pressure on flight ops teams to find viable routes in congested, restricted airspace.

A more surgical approach to Enroute Hazards

TWC SIGMETs clearly begin to offer more precision as compared to Government SIGMETs being issued over India and Bangladesh.

The Weather Company’s approach during the Hayli Gubbi eruption focused on high-frequency updates and particulate differentiation.

As the plume moved toward Central China, TWC meteorologists noticed a shift. While some agencies continued to flag the entire remnant plume as volcanic ash, TWC’s analysis suggested the trailing edge was primarily sulfur dioxide (SO₂) — a gas that, while notable, does not pose the same structural threat to jet engines as abrasive volcanic ash.

Over China, TWC SIGMETs focus on where the narrowing and thinning remnant ash resides.

The result: The Weather Company was able to drop SIGMETs over northern India and eventually east of Shanghai hours before official agencies, as our team confirmed the ash had dissipated into harmless gas.

Comparing government vs. The Weather Company SIGMET precision

A time lapse view of the Hali Gubbi event comparing government and TWC SIGMETs.

Why precision is the ultimate safety tool

For pilots who may be looking at a weather brief that is already three or four hours old by the time they reach the cockpit, precision is synonymous with confidence. Knowing exactly where the “narrowing and thinning” remnant ash resides — rather than seeing a giant red block on the EFB — allows for better in-flight decision-making and fewer “just in case” diversions that eat into fuel reserves.

By integrating volcanic ash insights within our Enroute Hazards suite, we provide the clarity needed to keep the fleet moving without compromising passenger safety.

How confident is your volcanic ash response?

Don’t let outdated or overly broad advisories ground your fleet or put passengers at risk. See how our high-precision SIGMETs within Pilotbrief and Maverick Dispatch can streamline your operations during the next major eruption.

Turbulence remains one of aviation’s most persistent safety and operational challenges. Moderate-or-greater turbulence reports per 100 flight hours have been steadily climbing in recent years.¹ And it’s also the leading cause of in-flight injuries, accounting for the majority of air carrier accidents recorded by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board between 2008 and 2022.²

In a world of razor-thin margins and viral social media moments, a single “clear air” turbulence (CAT) encounter can trigger a cascade of costs. When an aircraft hits severe turbulence, the financial fallout can be immediate: flight diversions, emergency medical services at the gate, and the grounding of aircraft for multi-day structural inspections. Beyond the balance sheet, these events erode passenger trust and disrupt crew scheduling or impact pilot flight time limits. For operations teams, this means the tools and strategies that worked a decade ago may no longer be enough — especially as weather becomes increasingly erratic in a changing climate.

The turbulence problem demands a more sophisticated, real-time approach. Building on our trusted solutions for fleet safety, The Weather Company’s turbulence nowcast delivers exactly that. Embedded within Maverick Dispatch, it synthesizes real-time observations, model forecasts, and human forecaster expertise. The result: a single, frequently updated snapshot of current turbulence from one authoritative source — one screen, one truth.

Today’s problem: More data, but less clarity

The challenge isn’t a lack of data; it’s an abundance of noise. Flight dispatchers and ops teams can be flooded with fragmented information. As a result, they are sometimes forced to do “mental math” to reconcile what’s in front of them. Real-time observations are scattered across multiple sources, including:

• Automated systems measuring both aircraft shake and atmospheric conditions.
• Traditional PIREPs, which remain globally critical despite their subjectivity.
• NCAR’s in-situ EDR algorithm, now standard on new Boeing aircraft.

Existing forecaster products provide:

• SIGMET and FPG polygons issued by trained The Weather Company meteorologists, often in three hour windows to account for dynamic conditions.
• Polygonal regions account for dynamic conditions through a forecast period and hazardous turbulence may evolve through the forecast period.
• Turbulence reports are valuable for real time situational awareness but often come with questions such as “will the turbulence persist when I arrive?”

Many forecasting services fall short because they fail to reconcile their models with fresh, real-time observations. When teams are forced to juggle static forecasts against observations streaming in every minute, it can lead to “analysis paralysis.” Our approach eliminates this friction, turning model output, observations, and forecaster input into a single, verified truth.

Turbulence nowcast: From data fatigue to tactical confidence

The Weather Company’s newly-developed turbulence nowcast does the heavy lifting for your team by fusing these fragmented signals into one high-fidelity stream. Unlike traditional models that update only a few times a day, the turbulence nowcast refreshes every 10 minutes. It doesn’t just present data; it synthesizes it. By blending diagnostic signals like global models, aircraft observations, radar observations, satellite observations, lighting observations, and forecaster input into one high-resolution grid, we provide the clarity needed to “thread the needle” through complex weather.

The big picture: Global modeling builds strategic awareness

GRAF (Global High-Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting System) model diagnostics operate at horizontal resolutions of 15 kilometers, forecasting large-scale atmospheric phenomena — mountain waves, thunderstorm outflows, jet stream dynamics — out to 72 hours in 3D. But, the turbulence that actually impacts aircraft occurs at scales of just 100 meters or so.

Bridging that gap requires sophisticated turbulence diagnostics: algorithms that translate model-scale conditions into aircraft-scale forecasts. Artificial intelligence optimally blends these diagnostics based on atmospheric level and forcing conditions, producing gridded forecasts in both EDR and categorical turbulence intensity.

The human-over-the-loop advantage

While we leverage industry-leading AI, we believe in “human-over-machine” reliability. Our solution utilizes SIGMET and FPG nudging, where our global team of meteorologists refines the AI-synthesized output in real-time. This helps prevent your flight crews from reacting to “ghost” turbulence vs. the most tactically accurate nowcast available.

How it works: From fragmented to unified turbulence nowcast data

The turbulence nowcast delivers global coverage with immediate insight into where turbulence exists right now — not where it was an hour ago, or might be in four hours. It starts with GRAF’s turbulence forecast as its foundation, then blends the right ingredients to enhance it intelligently using multiple data streams, including:

• Observation nudging: Adjusts the forecast grid toward in-situ EDR data and the latest turbulence reports from all available sources — automated systems like The Weather Company’s TAPS^®, traditional PIREPs (scaled by aircraft size and type to support consistency), and more. This helps enable the grid to reflect what aircraft are actually experiencing.
• SIGMET and FPG nudging (an innovation from The Weather Company): Scales turbulence values within meteorologist-issued warning polygons so the grid remains consistent with human forecaster expertise. If a SIGMET indicates moderate turbulence in a region, the nowcast reflects that intelligence.
• Intelligent interpolation: Supports smooth temporal continuity as conditions evolve between preceding and following forecast hours.

The result: A three-dimensional EDR grid at 15-kilometer horizontal resolution and 1,000-foot vertical resolution, from 1,000 ft to FL500. The same familiar grid operations teams already use with GRAF Turbulence is now infused with real-time awareness.

The turbulence nowcast isn’t just faster — it’s smarter. It merges the comprehensive spatial coverage of model forecasts with the immediacy of live observations and the tactical judgment of expert meteorologists. For dispatch and flight operations, that means one authoritative answer: This is where turbulence is, right now.

See the difference: Forecast vs. “nowcast”

What separates a forecast from a “nowcast” becomes clearer when you see them side by side. The turbulence nowcast enhances turbulence regions where recent observations and SIGMET/FPG polygons indicate heightened activity. When real-time intelligence is layered in, areas that might appear benign in the model forecast reveal themselves as active hazards. Similarly, the nowcast reduces turbulence regions in areas where recent flights have found smooth air.

Turbulence nowcast (right) side-by-side base comparison with GRAF Turbulence (left), featuring enhancement of turbulence severity due to recent observations, SIGMETs, and more.

Know now, decide fast: Actionable, real-time turbulence intelligence

Turbulence will always be part of aviation. The Weather Company’s turbulence nowcast gives operations teams the real-time clarity they need to act proactively —  reducing passenger and crew injuries, costly aircraft inspections, schedule disruptions, and the spillover that likely follows.

This isn’t about generating more alerts; it’s about generating better situational awareness from the world’s most accurate forecaster.³ Take advantage of a single, trusted source for what’s happening in the atmosphere right now — so you can focus on what happens next.

For the world’s largest retailers, weather is no longer an “uncontrollable” factor — it’s a structured data asset that requires uncompromising precision. In a climate-volatile era, the difference between a record-breaking quarter and a supply chain disaster comes down to how a business integrates weather data for retail into its core logic.

For enterprise leaders, the mandate is clear: transition from manual checks to automated weather APIs for retail that feed directly into AI-driven decision engines.

How does weather data improve the accuracy of retail demand forecasting?

The financial stakes of atmospheric volatility are staggering. According to data from the National Retail Federation (NRF), weather impact on retail sales influences approximately $1 trillion in annual global retail revenue.³ When over 3% of total sales are tied directly to the weather,⁴ traditional historical models are no longer sufficient.

The use of The Weather Company weather APIs for retail allow retailers to move from descriptive data to prescriptive modeling. By treating weather as a primary financial variable, retailers can:

• Correlate history to sales: Use History-on-Demand (HoD) APIs to analyze retail weather trends (at a 4km resolution) to see how they impacted foot traffic and SKU performance in specific regions dating back to 2015.
• Predict demand peaks: Retail demand forecasting using weather data can predict how a 2-degree shift in a specific region can drive a double-digit spike in demand while cooling sales elsewhere.
• Trigger dynamic pricing: Use weather-based dynamic pricing retail strategies and lifestyle indices to delay markdowns on seasonal goods during a late-season chill, preserving millions in margin.

Mitigating impact through supply chain resilience

Logistics and weather-based inventory management are where weather volatility strikes the hardest. By integrating weather data into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Transportation Management Systems (TMS), companies can automate resilience at scale:

• Long-range merchandise ordering: Retailers use our 7-month seasonal probabilistic forecasts to inform production and ordering. By understanding the likelihood of temperature and precipitation anomalies half a year in advance, buyers can align seasonal stock with reality rather than guesswork.
• Autonomous rerouting: Logistics platforms can automatically divert freight from storm-impacted corridors to protect cold-chain integrity and prevent “dead-head” miles.
• Inventory pre-positioning: Use 15-day probabilistic models to shift stock to regional hubs before consumer demand peaks.

The “Hidden ROI”: Operational logic beyond the aisles

While logistics and demand are the pillars, weather intelligence provides a “multi-tool” for the broader C-suite:

Energy management & sustainability

For a retailer with thousands of locations, energy is a top “controllable” expense. By integrating weather APIs with Building Management Systems (BMS), retailers can pre-cool stores during off-peak hours based on upcoming heat spikes, reducing peak-load charges and meeting ESG goals.

Parametric insurance & risk mitigation

Modern retailers use Parametric Insurance, where high-fidelity weather APIs serve as the “ground truth” trigger for instant payouts following a weather event, providing immediate liquidity for repairs without the month-long wait for manual adjustments. For a $10B+ retailer, this isn’t just “insurance,” it’s capital management.

Why The Weather Company is the industry standard for retail weather data APIs

To be truly weather-ready, a retail data stack requires a foundation of precision. Free or public data often lacks the granularity and reliability required for enterprise weather data solutions. Retailers need a consistent, global dataset they can trust. We provide a consistent, global dataset of core weather parameters, all accessible through a single web API.

History-on-Demand (HoD)

Understanding weather’s historical impact is critical for training predictive analytics retail models. Our HoD capability provides:

• Global hourly data: 4km resolution covering the entire globe from July 2015 to the present.
• Ready-to-use datasets: One subscription provides access to all datasets, allowing retailers to pull the specific parameters most appropriate for their geography without rummaging through poorly organized public data.

Accuracy and AI modeling

• Ranked #1 in accuracy: For nearly a decade, ForecastWatch has named The Weather Company the most accurate forecaster globally—nearly 4x more often than the next-best competitor.⁵
• Proprietary GRAF™ modeling: Our Global High-Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting updates every hour at a 3km resolution, providing the low-latency weather data API inputs required for automated decisioning.

Ready to weatherproof your retail strategy?

Don’t let the forecast dictate your margins. Build a business that anticipates every atmospheric shift. Explore our weather API for retail solutions today or start a free trial to see how enterprise-grade weather data can transform your operations from reactive to resilient. Start making smarter, weather-informed decisions now.