RV Weather Enterprises

[Updated 30 November to reflect the actual prices]

Earlier this year I posted how change was coming to RV Weather. A few weeks ago I announced our new Joint Venture RV Weather Enterprises with Metron Inc., a high-technology engineering and science company based in Virginia.

It’s now time to take a major step forward converting RV Weather Enterprises from a fun-to-do hobby into an actual business. In the next few weeks, we are rolling out a brand-new product that will greatly assist RV’er in planning their routes to minimize weather hazards: The RV-Weather Impacts Likely to Make an Appearance (WILMA), on one graphic, will show where there will be weather-related challenges to RVers from the current time out to eight days in the future. You can zoom and pan on the map and freeze the frames or control the speed of the animation. This product updates every hour, 24/7/365.

Also in the next few weeks, most of our products and services will go behind our Paywall.

The National Weather Service Warnings, Watches and Advisories, current radar, important current weather parameters such as wind gusts and temperatures, and key outlooks (severe weather, flooding, snow, etc.) for the current day will continue to be available for free. All the weather safety information and tips, as well as general weather and weather education information will remain freely accessible.

I have included some screen captures of a developmental version of WILMA, showing how it handled one of last year’s December blizzards that came across the country. The data was from the evening of 12 December and you can see in that left-hand graphic how the wind and snow are already impacting RV travel from the Great Basin eastward to the Plains. By Wednesday the 14th (center graphic), the forecast shows how impacts are now along and east of the Mississippi River valley, with extreme cold and wind across the Northern Plains, extending southward into Kansas. By the 16th (the right-hand graphic), four days into the future, you can see how winter weather is making its appearance over New York and New England while I-80, I-90 and I-94 still have high weather impacts over the central U.S., but I-40 is free of impacts. Having all the weather impacts on one graphic makes it so much easier to see where you do – and do not – want to be traveling, compared to looking between separate graphics of thunderstorms, wind, snow, ice, etc. Tell me what you think!

I hope to publish a short video on how best to interpret and use WILMA before we go live.

My manual / legacy routing will be available but the service will no longer be free. Click here for the charges.

We currently offer two subscription tiers. You can pay either monthly or annually.

For access to the hand-written forecasts and all the short-term and medium-range weather graphics, the subscription rate is $5.99 / month or $59 / year.

For access to the Integrated Weather Impact Product (IWIP) plus all the forecasts and graphics, the subscription rate is $9.99 / month or $109 / year.

For those who subscribe, you will be invited to join my private RV Weather Facebook Group where you can ask me questions, post any weather-related questions or comments you might have, and join me for monthly ‘ask me anything’ sessions.

We will let everyone know when we get the paywall up and functional.

In early 2024 we intend to roll out another new product that will be even more helpful for route planning and weather avoidance; this will become our third product tier. We’ll have more details as we get closer to launch.

Let me know if you have any questions!

I hope you can join me on this journey with a membership level that fully meets your needs.  Safe travels! — Dave