Dark Sky has announced some major changes which should come as good news for cyclists. As a result of over a year of research and development, they’ve developed a new forecasting model which they claim is much better than the previous model that they were using.

Improvements include:

  • Their worst-case global resolution has been reduced to about 20km from 40km.
  • Forecasts now take into account micro-climates, making temperature forecasts accurate to within < 1km (< 0.7 mi).
  • They’ve switched to more a accurate High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) atmostpheric model.
  • A completely new, more accurate approach to predicting precipitation probability.

Additionally, Dark Sky has started providing wind gust speed, which is now available in the latest release of Epic Ride Weather:

All of this results in much more accurate forecasts for Epic Ride Weather users. The feedback that I’ve had so far is that wind predictions and temperature forecasts are bang-on. I’d love to hear how these changes work out for you in your part of the world! Send your feedback to David Green at david@epicrideweather.com

Epic Ride Weather takes into account your expected location based on your route and speed, combining multiple forecasts to give you a projection of weather over time and space. Epic Ride Weather is available now for iPhone, iOS and Android.