By Nanci Dixon
We are riding out the wind in Altus, Arkansas, for three long nights of tornadoes, severe weather, and unrelenting wind. As we were driving in the wind gusts, my husband would ask for continuous, up-to-the-minute wind reports punctuated by questions of where the next campground or RV park was. I started to think I needed a meteorologist degree! Turns out I just needed to try a few wind apps…
As we seem to travel most in the spring and the fall, the windiest times of the year, I have an arsenal of wind apps: Windy, WindAlert, Windfinder, Drive Weather, and my new favorite, Wind Compass. I have an iPhone and these are all from the iPhone app store. I believe most are available for Android, too. (The store won’t let my Apple products in.)
Wind Compass is my new favorite!
My new favorite is Wind Compass. It tells me the current wind speed at my location as well as what direction it is from. 33.5 MPH gusts are just too gusty today! It also shows the temperature, sunrise/sunset times, as well as hourly weather. The app is free with ads. If you want the ad-free version that comes with daily reports, it requires a yearly subscription fee of $19.99. I am good with the free one with ads! So now when my husband goes, “What is the wind right now?” I can quickly pull up my phone and tell him.
Drive Weather
Drive Weather is an excellent app to show projected winds, temps and weather radar along a route you choose. I am cheap (frugal?), though, and didn’t resume the $5.99 a month subscription until yesterday. It is worth it! I also found that the forecast is pretty accurate compared to the actual wind speed.
Windy.app
Wind.appy shows the forecast for a chosen spot for several days. You can move to different cities or areas by dragging your finger along the map. It is great for an overall idea of wind speed, but because it is only a forecast, it is not as accurate regarding to current wind conditions. The basic free version of the app says it has low accuracy, and it really is only a ballpark. I have it but don’t use it a lot.
WindFinder and WindAlert
Both WindFinder and WindAlert show actual readings and past readings in graph form from actual weather stations and airports. They provide a graph and show miles from the current location.
RVing in the wind? Get off the road!
All in all, when the wind is strong and gusty enough to push the RV, it is time to get off the road and wait it out. Be safe!
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We use Drive weather. This year it helped us find the best time to drive over Maryland mountain. Later in the day wind gusts would have been over 40 mph.
Last year, when I first started using the app, it really saved us! Snow was forecasted for our return trip from Maryland to Ohio. No weather forecast said much accumulation but Drive Weather showed snow over Maryland Mountain and along I 68. We decided to delay a day before leaving. The weather got worse and they closed 68 with several cars stuck there or sliding off the road! So glad we used that app.
We use the Windy app every day on our trips in the West to plan our following day’s drive. We need the forecast on wind speed and direction, not the current values, since we can just look outside to see current conditions. We have changed our planned travel routes several times and even stayed in place an extra day based on the Windy forecast. The ability to move through different locations and times of day are VERY helpful on travel days. We haven’t found any better app for wind direction and speed on our RV trips.
Bear in mind, windy.com is the app that generated the screenshot. I like it better than windy.app, which is a different company, different but similar product.
I like Windy.com for its extra layers that can be pinned and used (radar/lightning, and cumulative rainfall, snowfall predicted, etc)
Isn it “Murrphys Law” that when you pull an RV is always into the wind?😊
Air currents are generally circular it seems and although when we start a days drive it might be into the wind but throughout the day it swings from all directions.
I really like the “Ventusky” weather App. It has many very useful features such as predictions of wind over the next 24 hours or more.
For example you can see air flow where you plan to be later in the day.
I highly recommend it.
I have used Esther Mate for a long time time and I paid for it after tryin it out for awhile.
Hi, Doug. Should that be WeatherMate, by any chance? I’ll fix it, if that’s what you meant to say. Have a great day. 😀 -Diane at RVtravel.com
In Windy, actual wind speeds are under the selection Wind > Reported Wind Speed on the bottom right Layer button. If you select that, the layer will stay rather than forecast speeds.
Thank you, Nanci! 🙂 I had one of these on my phone for several weeks, but removed it to gain storage space. However, after the past two days of driving through windy conditions for about six or seven of our ten-hour trip, I will be downloading your second application listed (the first is only for apple products). Thanks again and safe travels! 🙂
Wind Compass is available for Android. The free version is so annoying with all the ads that I can’t use it.
Thank you, Z Dargaty! I see that the free version has not been well-received by others, in addition to yourself. 😉 Thanks again and safe travels! 🙂
Drive Weather (Android, paid version) is my ‘go to’ especially on what I call ‘forced march’ travel days – 300+ miles and a RV park reservation at the end. If there is no route with acceptable weather, I will pay the cancelation fee and figure out something else.