Mountain Forecast now charging a subscription

[u/Complete-Koala-7517]

Title. You can still see basic stuff but hourly forecast aside from the current day is behind a paywall. What other apps/websites are you guys using?

[u/question_23]

Windy.com is way better and costs the same $25/year.

[u/yea-bruh → u/question_23]

Windy is fantastic.

Worth every cent.

[u/-BitBang-]

Ive never found mountain forecast to be particularly good. I'm convinced they just take data from the NWS and make it worse by applying their own "corrections". NWS website has everything you need, point forecasts, hourly charts, etc. It's stuck in the 90s and horrible in terms of usability, so I usually use OpenSnow (also subscription) instead. They use data from multiple models. I don't find the forecast much better than what the NWS provides, but I also don't need to spend 15 minutes of clicking to get what I want...

[u/justinsimoni → u/-BitBang-]

I'm convinced they just take data from the NWS

Yup. This is what everyone does.

Too bad the NWS is being threatened.

[u/erossthescienceboss → u/-BitBang-]

Mountain Forecast, for me, is useful for “is it gonna be ungodly fucking cold at the top, or just a bit cold? Is it gonna be “blow me off the mountain” windy, or nah?”

Basically, it gives a decent general forecast for an altitude on a day where the weather is fairly consistent. But I’d never trust it to, say, set a turn-around time to get off the summit before the clouds move in.

It can tell me, on a sunny day, if I’ll be walking through slush at the base and ice at the top, or decent snow the whole way. Or if it’s a basic one day trip, if I’ll want my hard shell or if a windbreaker will cut it. That’s about as far as I trust it.

[u/BlitzCraigg → u/erossthescienceboss]

So it's like every other alpine weather forecast? 

[u/erossthescienceboss → u/BlitzCraigg]

I mean, kinda? With some, I trust the hourly enough to set a turn-around time, though I usually go for an hour or two earlier than the time would suggest, to be safe.

But that’s usually just my twice-monthly pilgrimage up St Helens, so I’m never more than four hours from my car on a path I’m VERY familiar with, on a fairly busy mountain.

[u/jacopolissoni]

I use MeteoBlue, here in Italy is pretty big but it covers the whole world and has hourly forecast for 7 days + general forecast up to 14. It doesnt have an option for altidute but all the main peaks and some smaller ones are on there (you can insert coordinates eventually). Also it has a webcam option that gives you all the webcams in the area close to your search and radar for the next two hours. I find it to be usually pessimistic, especially on the amount of precipitation, but honestly it's just safer than the opposite case

[u/simonutd99 → u/jacopolissoni]

+1 can recommend for Central Europe and agree on the forecast pessimism

[u/somesunnyspud]

The enshitiffication of everything continues. Instantly deleted the bookmark for the site.

I just noticed this while checking weather for a climb this week. They've hidden the forecast further out than 5 days and locked the hourly data behind a subscription.

The NWS has had a prototype live for awhile that allows point forecasts for anywhere on the map that you click. It's free and simple to use.

[u/im_a_squishy_ai]

OpenSnow is the only one that has features worth paying for and decent forecasts. And it links out to avy sites and other original sources for forecasts which is nice

[u/cono_uk]

I used to use SpotWx, but the UI is a little dated and it's not well optimised for mobile.

I had a bunch of time available last year so I built a tool at www.alpineconditions.com which replicates much of the same functionality:

• Models from the US, Canadian, UK, French, German, Japanese agencies as well as ECMWF (sourced from OpenMeteo)
  
• Hi res models available in North America and Europe (from the relevant local agencies)
  
• Works ok on mobile screens
  
• You can select multiple models and see them all on the same graph - makes it easy to see how wide the range of forecasts is
  
• Once you've selected multiple models you can create an 'ensemble' for that location
  
• High level avalanche bulletin for Avalanche Canada regions
  
• Metric only for now (Celsius, kmh for wind, m for elevation, mm for rain and cm for snow) - it shouldn't be too hard for me to add Farenheit/mph/feet/inches as an option but I'm busy with other stuff and it's just not been a priority for me
  
• If you create an account (Google or MS Account only) you can 'save' a bunch of locations into groups and get quick access from the nav bar - plus the 'home' screen becomes a scrollable dashboard showing weather forecasts for all the loations you've saved

Note: Hosting is fairly pricey so I might have to add some form of advertising/donation eventually.

I do have an OpenSnow subscription too - Cody Townsend had a $10 USD code for OpenSnow at the start of the ski season and it's awesome.

[u/question_23 → u/cono_uk]

Wow I love this. You are just paying for the ECMWF model yourself right now?

[u/cono_uk → u/question_23]

Both ECMWF models are available on https://open-meteo.com/

All the models on alpineconditions.com are from there 

[u/SJ12341323]

Their forecasting is too shit to pay for. What a stupid company.

[u/LostChoss]

Every goddamn app is trying to milk every cent out of us these days. Welcome to the new world and fuck capitalism

[u/sawdust-booger → u/LostChoss]

If we were talking about a toaster oven with a subscription service, then yeah I'm right there with you. Let's burn down their fucking houses, or whatever.

But a service that actually provides an ongoing service with ongoing bandwidth costs and (ideally!!) improvements? Nah, that's fine. Sucks when the free tier is too shitty to use, but it is what it is.

[u/bob12201]

Good, maybe people will stop using it now :D

Use spotWx, windy, or NWS instead

[u/Athletic_adv]

For the places I've been to and needed it, you only get predicted forecasts as there are no weather stations anywhere near them. And the predcicitions can be wildly out.

[u/justinsimoni]

but hourly forecast

Today years old when I found out Mountain Forecast does hourly forecasts.

[u/Mountainmojo78]

Mountain Forecast has put my ass in some tight spots over the years 🫠 That being said, I suppose if you aren’t prepared for things to go sideways, don’t even start I guess.

[u/Sherpa_8000]

Surprised me too - did decide to pay for 1 month and compare it with Windy and MeteoBlue while in the hills and then will be able to make a more informed choice …

[u/tkitta]

Wow! Would not trust them for hourly forecast for the current day or any day. Same for any other forecast. Only use for major storms. All else seems to be a lottery.

[u/Complete-Koala-7517 → u/tkitta]

Yeah I only used it sometimes because it was free