Hourly forecasts: rain chance, wind and gusts

An hourly weather forecast describes expected conditions for a particular place and time. Rain chance, precipitation amount, wind speed and gusts answer different questions. Read them together, then check the interval and units before making a comparison.

Start with the place and time

A useful hourly forecast answers a specific question: what conditions are expected at this place during the hours you care about? Before reading the numbers, confirm the selected location. A city search can return several places with the same name; a saved coordinate point can represent a destination more precisely than the city centre.

Forecast hours in Weather Pro follow the place’s local time. If you are checking a destination in another time zone, its afternoon may not be your afternoon. Read the date as well as the hour, especially around midnight.

Then check the forecast update time in the app. The time a forecast was downloaded is different from the time its weather values describe. Opening saved data does not turn it into a new forecast; fresh data requires a connection.

Weather Pro is in development. Its forecast guide explains the current place, model and display settings without assuming a public release is available.

Choose the interval for the question

The one-hour view helps you follow a shorter period in detail. The three-hour view fits a broader part of the day into the same table. Use the daily overview to find a date, then look at the hours around the time you plan to be outside.

Changing the display interval does not create a more accurate forecast. It changes how the available information is presented. Read each row according to its meaning rather than treating every number as the same kind of measurement.

Rain chance and precipitation amount

Precipitation amount is an accumulation, expressed in millimetres or inches. In Weather Pro it covers the interval ending at the column’s hour. In the three-hour view, an amount under 12:00 covers 09:00–12:00, rather than the three hours after noon.

Rain chance is a separate value. It belongs to the column’s individual hour, even in the three-hour presentation. A percentage is not an amount of rain and should not be multiplied by the displayed accumulation to invent a new value.

Neither row establishes an exact start minute. An hourly forecast can suggest a wetter period without telling you precisely when the first drops will reach your street. Weather Pro’s initial scope does not include minute-by-minute rain nowcasting.

Wind speed and gusts

Read wind speed and gusts together. A gust value describes stronger short-lived wind, rather than another unit for the ordinary wind-speed row. Check both when the wind matters to the period you are considering.

Confirm the units before comparing with another source. The app supports knots, metres per second, kilometres per hour and miles per hour. A smaller number in knots does not, by itself, mean lighter wind than a larger number in kilometres per hour.

Temperature and feels like are also separate fields. Keep the row label in view while browsing so that a change between the two is not mistaken for a change in the forecast itself.

Notice what is missing

A dash means unavailable data. It does not mean dry weather, calm wind or zero degrees. An actual zero and a missing value communicate different information.

Daily minimum and maximum temperatures need a complete local day’s samples. A partial final day can show some hourly information while still lacking a complete daily high or low. Returning to the hourly table makes that distinction easier to see.

An hourly forecast checklist

Before comparing forecasts, check:

• The selected place and its local date and hour.
• The display interval and the period covered by each value.
• The temperature, wind and precipitation units.
• The selected model and the app’s forecast update time.

Keep these choices the same when switching models. Model agreement is useful context, while disagreement is a reason to examine the range of possibilities. It is not an automatic ranking of which forecast will be right.

Read comparing weather forecast models for a practical checklist. For hazardous conditions, consult official local warnings alongside the forecast.

You can choose saved places without enabling device location. The privacy policy explains how selected coordinates and city searches reach Open-Meteo. A clear forecast view starts with understanding those choices as well as the weather values.