WeatherRoam
How to find the best weather this weekend within a few hours' drive
A forecast tells you about one place. The weekend question is a different one: of all the places you could drive to, which will have the best weather? There are three ways to answer it, from slowest to fastest.
1. Check the towns one at a time
Open a weather app, look up a town, remember its Saturday and Sunday, then look up the next one. It works for two or three places. It gets slow past that, it leaves you comparing numbers from memory, and it only covers the towns you thought of.
2. Scan a forecast map
A forecast map shows rain and cloud moving across the whole region, which is good for seeing the broad pattern. You still have to step through the hours yourself, work out which towns sit under the clear patch, and look up how far away each one is.
3. Let Weekend Pick rank them
WeatherRoam's Weekend Pick does the comparing for you. It is the fastest of the three, and it is free.
- Say how far you will drive. Anything from 1 to 6 hours.
- It reads the weekend forecast for the towns within reach, one day at a time, looking for days that are warm enough, dry enough and calm enough to enjoy.
- It ranks the places that look best, each with its drive time and a plain verdict: looks good, mixed or poor.
- It is honest about a bad weekend. Days with thunderstorms, dangerous heat or cold, high wind or smoke are never called good.
- Show the picks on the map to compare them side by side, then turn the one you choose into a day-by-day trip.
Turn on the Thursday heads-up and WeatherRoam tells you on Thursday evening when a place you checked looks good for the weekend. It sends at most one a week.
Weekend Pick covers the US and Canada today, with more countries planned. It looks at the coming weekend.
After you pick: plan the days
Once you know where the weather is good, WeatherRoam carries on from there. Drop pins on the places you are still weighing, up to 20 of them, and compare their forecasts, drive times and severe-weather alerts on one map. For a longer trip, give each stop a day and every stop shows the forecast for the day you will be there.
WeatherRoam is free on iPhone and Android, with no ads and no account. Its forecast runs four days and it has no radar. If you also want a forecast for the road itself, see how the route-weather apps compare.
One other app for this job
Sunspot, for iPhone and iPad, searches places within a driving distance for the weather you ask for, up to two weeks ahead. Its App Store listing was last updated on April 3, 2024.
Common questions
Is there an app that finds good weather near me?
Yes. WeatherRoam's Weekend Pick ranks the towns within a 1 to 6 hour drive by the weekend forecast, on iPhone and Android.
How far ahead does it work?
Weekend Pick looks at the coming weekend. Forecasts firm up late in the week, which is why the heads-up arrives on Thursday evening.
What does it cost?
Nothing. WeatherRoam is free, with no ads and no account.