Privacy
Effective October 13, 2026.
The short version: the site asks for a ZIP code, uses it to fetch a forecast and builds no record of who asked. Visits are counted, without cookies.
What happens to the ZIP code
- The calculator runs in your browser. To place your ZIP code, your browser downloads from this site a small list of the ZIP codes that share its first three digits and finds yours in it.
- The ZIP code is written into the address of the page (
?zip=), so that reloading or sharing the link shows the same place. When a page is opened or reloaded with that address, our server receives the address, ZIP code included, as any web server receives the address of a page. If you share the link, the person you send it to sees the ZIP code. - If you search by city or school instead, your browser downloads the lists of towns and public schools that share the first three letters you typed, and the name you picked is written into the address (
?city=) in the same way. - No cookies are set. One thing is saved in your browser’s storage, and only if you use the °F / °C switch: your choice, so that the next visit shows the same units. It stays in your browser, is never sent to us or to anyone else, and is deleted after 30 days.
What is sent to the National Weather Service
To get the forecast, your browser contacts the US National Weather Service (api.weather.gov) directly and asks for the forecast at the map point for your ZIP code, and for the weather alerts issued there over the past few days. Like any request on the web, it arrives from your IP address. The National Weather Service is a US government agency with its own privacy policy at weather.gov. We never see these requests.
If the National Weather Service does not answer, your browser asks Open-Meteo (api.open-meteo.com), a weather service based in Switzerland, for the forecast at the same map point instead. That request also arrives from your IP address, and we never see it.
Near me
The “Near me” button asks your browser for your location, and your browser asks you first. If you allow it, the location is rounded to about a hundred metres and sent to the forecast service to get the forecast there: the National Weather Service in the US, Open-Meteo in Canada. It is not sent to us, not written into the address of the page and not stored.
Counting visits
To know how many people use the site and which pages they open, the pages load a small script from Cloudflare Web Analytics. For each page view it sends Cloudflare the address of the page, the page you came from, your browser and device type, the country your request came from and how quickly the page loaded. The address of the page includes the ZIP code, postal code or town you checked, because that is part of the address. The script sets no cookies and keeps nothing in your browser’s storage, so it cannot recognise you on a later visit or on other sites. We see only totals, such as the number of visits to a page, never individual visitors. How Cloudflare handles this data is set out in its description of Web Analytics and its privacy policy.
On another site
A site that embeds the calculator shows it in a frame served from this site. The same rules apply there as here, except that visits to the embedded calculator are not counted.
Canadian postal codes
For a Canadian postal code in a city, only its first three characters are used. In a rural area the full code is needed to tell one town from another: your browser downloads from this site the list of towns for the code’s first three characters, finds yours in it, and writes the code into the address of the page as it does a ZIP code. Your browser then asks Open-Meteo (api.open-meteo.com), a weather service based in Switzerland, for the forecast at that place. The request arrives from your IP address, as any request on the web does. Open-Meteo publishes its own privacy terms at open-meteo.com. We never see these requests.
For weather alerts in Canada, your browser also asks Environment and Climate Change Canada (api.weather.gc.ca) which alerts are in force at that place. That request arrives from your IP address as well, and we never see it.
What we do not do
- No accounts and no sign-in.
- No cookies.
- No advertising and no advertising trackers.
- No tracking from site to site and no profiles of visitors. The one outside script is the visit counter described above.
Server logs
The server that hosts the site keeps standard request logs (IP address, time, file requested, browser type) for security and to keep the service running. We do not use them to identify visitors.
Children
The site is meant for a general audience, including students. It collects no personal information from anyone, so there is nothing about a child to collect, keep or share.
Changes
If this page changes, the date at the top changes with it.