Forecasts for informed decisions

 

sms weather on request

phone sms query result

Even nowadays there are situations where is not possible to be online every minute, or when bandwidth limitations prevent us from reaching a full weather forecast. Yet, it is at these times when we probably need it most.

Designed for situations where weather information is critical but technology support is limited, such as sailing or remote expeditions.

Our service provides a essential summary of weather conditions for the next 48 h and up to 72 h.

Simply send an sms with either latitude and longitude, peak name or METAR ICAO to our number to get two sms delivered to your own telephone (mobile or satellite).

 

Latitude & Longitude

Accepted queries are:

 52 30 N 4 45 W
  ✔
 52 30 N 4 45 W +24
  ✔ forecast starts 24 h from now.
 52° 30′ N 4° 45′ W
  ✗ it is better not to use other symbols than "+"
 52 30 4 45 W
  ✔ assumes North
 52 30  4 45 
  ✗ caution, assumes North and East (not West)
 52.5 -4.75
  ✔
 52,5 -4,75
  ✔
 52.5 -4.75 W
  ✗ caution, double negative, will give East, not West

Sample of return message:

44 15N, 8 30W Jun 10 T 15,15C pcp 0 mm
18Z NNE17 knots G19 knots P1013
Jun 11 T15,15 pcp0
00Z NW8 G9 P1011
06Z W11 G12 P1010
12Z WSW15 G17 P1010
18Z W18 G20 P1010
Jun 12 T14,15 pcp1
00Z WSW19 G21 P1011
06Z WSW18 G20 P1010
12Z SW23 G26 P1010
LOWs 1007mb at 40 46N, 6 16W   1004mb at 29 34N, 4 47W
waves 1.4 to 2.3m

Return fields are: time UTC, wind direction, wind speed in knots, gusts in knots, pressure in mb.
On the change of date minimum and maximum temperature in °C and daily sums of precipitation in mm are given.

Wind direction from north through east in 22.5° increments are:
"N", "NNE", "NE", "ENE", "E", "ESE", "SE", "SSE", "S", "SSW", "SW", "WSW", "W", "WNW", "NW" and "NNW".

LOWs are the location of the nearest low pressure and the location of the deepest low pressure system within 1000 nautical miles. You might be able to track the lows by resubmitting the queries and inserting a few hours delay (+12 for example).

 

coverage

world coverage

 

Data coverage ranges from -90° S to 90° N, and 0° to 360° E.

Peak and mountain resort coverage is shown in the map on the left as blue triangles. You can find a complete list here. If your favourite peak is missing, send us the coordinates and we will add it to the database.

 

Peak name

It is also possible to query a peak name, for example a query with Denali will answer:

Denali Jun 10 metric
10h T:-32,-31 pcp:2.7 SW18
16h T:-32,-32 pcp:7.8 SW25
22h T:-32,-32 pcp:10.3 W32
Jun 11 4h T:-32,-31 pcp:7.1 WNW43
10h T:-30,-30 pcp:0.6 NW43
16h T:-29,-29 pcp:5.5 WNW54
22h T:-28,-28 pcp:6.2 WNW79
Jun 12 4h T:-28,-28 pcp:2.7 WNW94
10h T:-30,-29 pcp:1.3 NW86
Storm risk 24h: low

Return fields are: local time, temperature minimum and maximum, precipitation, wind direction and wind speed in the selected metric system. Last row has an evaluation of the convective storm risk.

Accepted queries are:

 peak name [metric system] [delay time].

Brackets indicate optional fields. An unequivocal string contained in the name will also return the correct forecast. Accepted metric systems are metric (Centigrade, km/h, mm), imperial (Fahrenheit, mph, inches) and mic (Centigrade, mph, inches), delay time has the format +nn where nn are digits up to a value of 72 (recommended maximum is 48, above 72 will result in an empty message), for example:

 Snowd
  ✔ will return Snowdon
 Wydd +24
  ✔ will also return Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) starting 24 hours from now
 K2 +36 imperial
  ✔ will return a forecast for the K2 mountain starting at 36h from now in Imperial units
 Mont
  ✗ too ambiguous, there are too many "Monts", it will return the first one of the list
 54 30 N Makalu
  ✗ the system does not process mixed queries

 

 

METAR

You can also get METARs from any airport in the world. For example an sms with the query METAR PAJN will return:

PAJN 190753Z 07008KT 10SM -RA FEW023 BKN032 OVC060 12/10 A2998 RMK AO2 RAB0658 SLP153 P0000 T01220100

The query is case insensitive, the example is for Juneau in Alaska. If the METAR is more than 6 hours old, the result will start with an exclamation mark.

Data sources

The weather data comes from the new GFS 0p25, the most advanced NOAA/NCEP global forecast system. Spatial resolution is 0.25°, which is about 28 km of longitude at the equator and about 14 km at 60° of latitude. Temporal resolution is 3h but the forecasts are given in time intervals of 6h to increase efficiency. We process almost a million data points (921,600) several times a day, collecting quite a few meteorological parameters in order to produce these messages. Inland it is more accurate to query a peak name than the geographical coordinates, as for the peaks we process values at the correct elevation.

The wave data come from the NOAA global Wavewatch III model at 1° resolution. One degree may seem quite coarse but is less than the average distance you may travel in one day. Waves are given as a range from minimum to maximum over the whole forecast period. We would like to hear if this is useful or you prefer a shorter time window. We would like to hear also about the significant wave height accuracy, to consider higher resolution models.

It is possible to get higher resolution for a smaller region, using the WRF-ARW model for up to 1km resolution. If resolution is critical to you, get in touch, and we will study your case in detail.

Response time

For every query we need to search about 95 million fields in the maritime database and about 15 million records in the mountain database. That takes only a fraction of a second and the rest is due to communication between servers, telephone companies and satellites. On average sms delivery shouldn’t take longer than 30 seconds for a mobile phone. For satellite phones it depends on your refresh rate, iReach can take up to 20 minutes or until you send another message. We monitor rejected messages, but if you think that the system is not working at its best, please let us know.

 

Example

Please, either insert the name of a peak or METAR and the selected ICAO code in the box below and press enter,

 






 

 

or insert coordinates in the boxes below and press enter (latitude, longitude as decimal degrees in this case).

 

 






 

Test your number

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Subscription plans

You can choose between a monthly subscription or a monthly subscription renewing automatically until you cancel it. In that way you dont’t loose the service if you miss the renewal date.

Prices are 9.90€ monthly plus the VAT in case you live in a European country. With this plan you can receive an unlimited number of sms.

If you have a valid VAT number, reverse charge applies and we will not charge VAT.

Choose your preferred plan below and you will be taken to an associated page with extra security to insert your billing information and payment method.

 

We do not store your credit card data. We process our recurring billing through recurly.com and our payment gateway is Braintree, a PayPal company. All of them have the higher standard of security required by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).