Tip #18. Pick the right spot type for your outdoor activity

Among 100+ Windy.app features, there are always one or two, or even three that you didn't know about, right? Even if you're a true weather and outdoor expert using the app. Meanwhile, these may be important features.

For example, you can find and pick the right spot type for your outdoor activity: kitesurfing and windsurfing, surfing, other water sports, fishing, and so on thanks to filters and icons. Why pick the spot of a particular type? For at least three reasons. First — it’s faster and more convenient than searching for a spot in a common database, just like some goods in some online store. Second — on every thematic spot you will find additional information about it: best season, most common wind direction, availability of certain services, and more. Third — the spots are connected to the weather profiles, so picking a spot you get ready-to-use set of weather elements for your sport.

Here's exactly how you can do it:

1. On the app's Home screen in the search bar, enter the name or geographic coordinates of the spot you want or find it in the Nearest Spots list. For the latter, first, enable the geolocation function in the app's Settings.

Spot types on the Home Screen in the Windy.app for iOS

The marked spots in the Windy.app are highlighted by icons that help you to identify the spot type depending on the place: Home Screen or Weather Map, namely:

Fishing spots — fish
Snow sports (ski resorts) — skier / snowflake
Kite spots — kite
Surf spots — surfboard
Windsurf spots — windsurf sail
Marinas (sea, lake, and rivers ports and docks) — boat / sail

The rest of the marked spots have the standard geolocation icon, i.e. suitable for active holidays in general.

2. The second way to find the specific type of spot you want from the list above is on the Weather Map. Go to it from the Home screen.

The spots are highlighted on the map by the same symbols, but you can easily remove the spot types you don’t want and leave only the ones you are interested in to make your search faster. For example, if you’re a surfer, you’re not likely to be interested in fishing. Well, at least at the time of surfing.

To select the spots, go to the Weather Map Settings and check the checkboxes.

Spot types on the Weather Map in the Windy.app for iOS

3. In the Windy.app there are also weather stations as spots highlighted by anemometer icon (tool for collecting wind data). You can also leave just them on the map or you can enable Live Weather Stations feature with wind data.

Live Weather Stations on the Weather Map in the Windy.app for iOS

4. In addition to being divided by sports and stations, the spots are also divided into five categories, depending on your actions as a user. You can find them during a search, as follows:

Favorite
Nearest
Popular
Found
Viewed

Found spots in the Windy.app for iOS

Viewed spots and Popular spots in the Windy.app for iOS

Nearest Spots in the Windy.app for iOS

Favorite Spots in the Windy.app for iOS

5. To make a spot a Favorite, click on the icon to the right of its name on the Weather Map or on the spot page.

6. To get more information about a particular spot, click on it. In the window that opens you will get a wind or precipitation forecast depending on the selected weather layer on the map. This function is even more useful in the case of marinas, where you get its exact name, coordinates, and contacts.

Marinas information on the Weather Map in the Windy.app for iOS

7. Go to the spot page to get more even information about it (best season, most frequent wind direction, services, etc.) and the weather forecast.

8. Finally, you can also consider the following three other categories as spots, for which you can also get the weather forecast:

My location + widget
Creating and naming a personal spot
Any point on the map

Read all useful tips in the Windy.app blog. You can also find them all on the Tips page in the Support section of the website:

Text: Ivan Kuznetsov, an outdoor journalist, editor and writer from the Dolomites, Italy, and Karelia, Finland, with 10 years of professional experience. His favorite sports are hiking, cycling and sauna. Read his other articles

Cover photo: Mateusz Zatorski / Unsplash