New forecast tools are here: your week, your boat days, your storm watch

Author: Dominic Fichera

Posted on: Sunday, November 8th, 2026, 12:08:42 AM

G'day everyone,

When the new website went into beta a couple of weeks ago, I said the new setup would make it much easier to bring you new features. Well, here's the first big batch, and I'm really excited about this one.

We've added a whole set of new forecast tools built for the way you actually use the weather up here. Whether you're picking a day to get the boat out, working out when to spray, keeping cattle cool through the build-up, or watching the Coral Sea for the first low of the season, there's something in here for you.

Best of all, if you're an Eyewall Lite or Eyewall Pro subscriber billing through Stripe, it's all included in your subscription at no additional cost. No new plan and nothing extra to pay. We just wanted your subscription to be better value.

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🤓 First, a quick bit about where the numbers come from

Most of these tools are built on the European weather model (ECMWF), which Nitso uses every day. Instead of running the forecast once, ECMWF runs it 51 times, each with slightly different starting conditions. When most of those 51 forecasts agree, you can be fairly confident. When they're all over the place, the weather is harder to call.

So throughout the new tools you'll see things like "70% of forecasts show rain". That simply means 70% of those 51 forecasts have rain for that day. It gives you a feel for how likely something is, not just whether it might happen.

Before we move onto the fun stuff, two small disclaimers:

1. We're still in the process of tweaking these limits to make sure they maintain the same level of quality you expect from WeatherIQ. That means you may see things change a little bit over the coming weeks as we find the perfect balance when it comes to telling you what "good" and "bad" looks like.
2. The images in this blog post use fake data for illustrative purposes. I guess what I'm saying is: Don't be surprised if these screenshots say there's going to be snow in Townsville tomorrow! To view the actual forecasts for your location, please feel free to check out the new pages for yourself.
3. As with everything in the Beta, things may change rapidly. By the time this blog post goes out, some of the pages may already have changed slightly based on internal feedback. We will try and keep it to a minimum, but if you need a hand you can always get in touch.

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🌤️ My Weather now shows your whole week

Your My Weather page has picked up three new things.

Your week sits right under your current conditions. It pulls every new tool together into one strip, so you can see at a glance which days look good for fishing, when heat is building, and when storms or heavy rain are on the cards. Green means good, amber means worth keeping an eye on, and red means take it seriously. Tap any chip and it opens that tool on that day.

Your week at a glance, right under your current conditions.

It's just as easy to read on your phone.

How sure is the forecast? Every day in your forecast now has a little meter showing how much the 51 forecasts agree. A full bar means they're all telling the same story. A short one means the day could still change, so check back closer to the time. Open a day and it explains why, and on the shakier days it links straight to the model disagreement map (more on that below).

The meter on the right shows how much the forecasts agree for each day.

How we did. We think you should be able to see how the forecast went, not just what it said. At the bottom of My Weather we now check the forecast from a day ahead against what the Bureau of Meteorology actually measured near you: top temperature, rain and the strongest gust.

The forecast from a day ahead, checked against what the Bureau measured.

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🗓️ The Planner: find the good days

The new Planner is home to the tools for getting things done outside. It opens on the Good Day Finder: pick what you want to do and where, and it rates each of the next ten days as Good, OK or Poor, with a one-word reason when a day misses out (Windy, Rain, Hot).

There are activities for fishing from a boat or the shore, cutting hay, mustering, cattle and yard work, burning off, concreting and, arguably the most important, a good ol' BBQ. If our limits don't suit you, tap Adjust limits and set your own wind, gust, rain or temperature limits.

Ten days rated for fishing from a boat. The thin bar under each day shows how the forecasts split.

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🎣 Boating and fishing outlook

Pick your spot along the coast (there are 64 of them across Queensland, the NT and WA) and the size of your boat, and you'll get a Go, Caution or No-go call for each of the next ten days. Each day is split into morning and afternoon, so you'll know whether to get out early.

There's a wave height chart with your boat's limit marked on it, plus swell, wind (in knots or km/h, your choice), the moon phase and a link to tide times for the nearest port.

Wave height against your boat's limit, then the call for each day.

Morning and afternoon calls on your phone.

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🚜 Spray and frost window

For the farmers: this one shows the best times to spray over the next six days, in three-hour blocks. It looks at Delta T, wind, rain soon after spraying, and those still, clear evenings and early mornings when an inversion is likely. Inversion blocks are always shown in red, so there's no second-guessing.

Underneath there's a ten-night frost outlook, which moves to the top of the page from May to September.

The next spray window up top, and every three-hour block for six days below it.

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🥵 Heat stress outlook

The build-up is hard work. The heat stress outlook shows how hot it will actually feel, every three hours for the next eight days, so you can plan the hard jobs for the cooler parts of the day. Outlined blocks are the daytime hours that feel under 32°C.

There's also a cattle heat load row for graziers, and an amber dot when a night won't cool down much, because the heat builds up when you don't get any relief overnight.

How hot it will feel, with the cattle heat load underneath each day.

On your phone, switch between people and cattle.

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🗺️ New weather maps

There's now one Weather Maps page with a few different layers, and you can zoom straight into North Queensland, the Top End, the Kimberley or the Pilbara.

• Heavy rain chance shows where more than 25, 50 or 100 mm is likely in a day, or 50 to 200 mm over three days, so you can see flooding rain coming days ahead.
• Storms is for the storm watchers. It shows where the ingredients for severe storms line up (storm energy and wind shear), and tells you how close the nearest setup is to you.
• Model disagreement is for the weather buffs. It shows where ECMWF's two main models disagree, which is a good sign a forecast could still change.
• Rain amount shows the expected rain for each of the next ten days.

The chance of more than 50 mm in a day, zoomed into North Queensland.

Where the storm ingredients line up, and how close they are to you.

If your phone signal is patchy, each map also has a List view that loads much faster.

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🌀 Cyclone watch

There's a new Cyclone watch tab on the Cyclones page. When a low or cyclone is around, it shows where each of the 51 forecasts takes it, with a slider to play it forward, and the chance it passes within 100, 150 or 250 km of your town. Towns along the coast are ranked by how likely it is to come close.

When there's nothing around, it says so, which is the best news of all during the season.

Every forecast's track for a developing low, and the chance it comes within 150 km of you.

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🔔 Get told when the forecast changes

You shouldn't have to check every tool every day. Look for the Tell me when it changes button on each tool, and we'll send you an email or a push notification when the forecast for your place changes. For example, when a boating day turns Go, when heavy rain becomes likely, or when a cyclone's chance of coming close goes up.

All your alerts, and the latest changes we've sent you, live together in your account under Alerts, where you can edit, pause or delete them.

Every alert in one place, with the latest changes at the top.

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🧭 Where to find it all

Everything lives under the Eyewall menu, now grouped into Forecasts, Plan, Maps and charts, and Community. Look for the New badges. On your phone, the Planner has its own spot on the bottom bar.

The new tools are marked New in the Eyewall menu.

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💳 Who gets the new tools?

Everything in this post is included for Eyewall Lite and Eyewall Pro subscribers whose subscription is billed through Stripe. There's no new plan to sign up for and nothing extra to pay.

If you're still paying through PayPal, each tool will show you how to move your billing across to Stripe. Once that's done, you'll have everything above at no additional cost to you.

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🙏 Tell us what you think

These tools are brand new, and we'd love your help making them better. Do the calls match what you see out on the water or the paddock? Is something confusing? Is there an activity or a spot you'd like added?

You can send feedback through our Contact Us form or by emailing us at support@weatheriq.com.au. As always, please keep it friendly. There's a real person reading it (hi 👋).

Thanks for being part of WeatherIQ. I hope these make your week a little easier to plan!

Dominic