Using the Weather Forecast
These guides on using the Weather Forecast tool cover the 7-day outlook, forecast accuracy and everyday planning — practical, no-jargon advice on getting the most from the tool.
How to Use the Weather Forecast Tool
A quick tour of every part of the tool: choosing a location, reading current conditions and the 7-day outlook, and switching units.
Read ExplainerHow Accurate Is a 7-Day Forecast?
Why tomorrow is reliable but day seven is a rough sketch — and how to use a weekly outlook without getting caught out.
Read ExplainerWeather Forecast Confidence, Explained
What forecast confidence means, how it changes from today to beyond seven days, why forecasts update, and how to read precipitation probability.
Read Health & SafetyThe UV Index & Your Health Outdoors
How the UV Index, heat, air quality, pollen and cold affect you outdoors — with simple precautions for each condition.
ReadThe Weather Forecast tool shows current conditions, an hour-by-hour breakdown and a 7-day outlook for any city you search or the location your browser reports, all powered by the free Open-Meteo API with no key and no sign-up. These guides go beyond the interface itself: they explain why tomorrow's forecast is far more reliable than day seven's, how to read a precipitation-probability percentage without over-interpreting a single number, why an outlook can shift a little between visits as new model runs come in, and which extra readings — UV index, humidity, wind speed — matter most for specific plans such as a hike, a run or a day at the beach.
Start with the how-to guide for a full tour of every part of the tool, from switching between Celsius and Fahrenheit to reading the 7-day cards. If you already know your way around and just want to trust the numbers correctly, the accuracy and confidence guides explain how forecast skill decays day by day, why meteorologists talk about "confidence" rather than certainty beyond about five days, and how to combine the forecast here with the UV Index and weather alerts tools when planning time outdoors.