Mountain-Forecast.com

Review by eFreeware

Most weather apps give you a single forecast for a town or a point on a map. Mountain-Forecast.com does something different: it publishes forecasts for more than 11,000 summits around the world and shows conditions at several elevations on each one, which is the detail that matters when the summit sits thousands of feet above the trailhead. This is the official Android app of that service, published by Meteo365 Ltd., and it brings that mountain-specific approach to a phone.

That focus tells you who it is for. Climbers, hikers, skiers, snowboarders and mountain bikers are the people the developer has in mind, and the app is built around the questions they ask before a trip: how hard is the wind blowing up high, is the freezing level above or below the route, will the weather window hold for the day I have free. If your plans involve elevation gain and exposed terrain, the shape of this forecast fits them.

The service behind it has been running for more than 20 years, which is a long track record for a mountain weather source, and the app itself arrived on Android in August 2023. It is free to download, and the numbers suggest a settled audience rather than a novelty: over 100,000 installs and a 4.8 average across 1,301 ratings.

Elevation-by-elevation forecasts for 11,000 summits

The core of the app is the summit forecast. You pick a peak, and instead of one set of numbers you get conditions at multiple elevations, so the base, the mid-mountain and the top can be read side by side. On a big volcano or an alpine face, that is the difference between knowing the valley will be mild and knowing the upper slopes will be in cloud and wind.

Forecast detail goes down to the hour, which suits planning around a specific start time rather than a whole day. The developer refreshes the forecasts four times a day, so a picture that changes overnight is likely to be reflected by morning. The free tier covers six days ahead.

The catalog is the other half of the appeal. With more than 11,000 summits listed, from Mount Rainier to Mount Fuji, most well-known peaks in the world's mountain regions should be findable, and the coverage is global rather than tied to one range or country.

Maps, route import and what MountainPro adds

Alongside the numbers, the app includes topographic and satellite mapping, which is useful for putting a forecast in context: seeing the ridge line, the approach and the aspect of a face makes a wind or precipitation forecast easier to interpret. There is also support for importing GPX routes, so a planned track can sit alongside the weather for the same area.

A subscription tier called MountainPro extends the forecast horizon to 12 days and adds offline maps and forecasts, so terrain and weather can be downloaded before a trip and consulted without a connection. The developer also notes that MountainPro subscribers get ad-free browsing of the mountain-forecast.com website, which ties the phone app back to the desktop service.

Those two additions are the main reasons to pay. A 12-day outlook is helpful for watching a weather window develop well before a trip, and offline access matters on routes where signal disappears entirely. Both are pitched at people planning bigger days out rather than casual walks.

What it costs, and what the free version gives you

The app is a free download, which is a straightforward arrangement for a weather tool. It carries in-app purchases, and the developer identifies the paid tier as MountainPro, a subscription that unlocks the 12-day forecasts, the offline maps and forecasts, and ad-free browsing on the mountain-forecast.com website.

The free version is not a trial shell. It includes six-day forecasts, hour-by-hour detail, multiple elevations, four daily updates and the topographic and satellite mapping, which covers most planning needs for day trips and short outings. GPX route import also sits in the app's feature list rather than being tied to the subscription.

So the decision is fairly clean. If you check conditions the day before or the morning of a trip, the free tier does the job. If you want to watch a longer window or you regularly travel where there is no signal, MountainPro is where those two capabilities live.

How it compares with general weather services

The obvious alternative is a general weather app or a national forecasting service. Those are built around towns, roads and cities, and they are good at it, but they rarely tell you what is happening at 9,000 feet on a specific peak. For a hike in a valley or a drive to a trailhead, a general service is often enough and you may already have one installed.

Specialist mountain sources are the closer comparison, and the difference here is breadth: a catalog of more than 11,000 summits with elevation-split forecasts and four updates a day is a lot of coverage to match. Dedicated avalanche or backcountry services go deeper on snowpack and stability, but they cover particular regions rather than peaks worldwide.

The developer is also candid that mountain weather resists prediction, and advises combining these forecasts with what you observe on the ground and with other sources. That is the right way to treat any mountain forecast, including this one: a planning aid, not a guarantee.

A planning tool for people heading uphill

If your outings involve gaining serious elevation, this app is built for exactly that question set, and the free tier answers most of it without any commitment. The elevation-by-elevation forecasts, hourly detail and four daily refreshes are the features I would expect to use most, and the global summit coverage means one app handles trips in different ranges.

MountainPro makes sense for a narrower group: people who plan trips well in advance, or who head into areas where a downloaded map and forecast are the only ones available. The subscription is the only cost, and the free version stays genuinely usable rather than crippled.

The caveat is the one the developer raises itself. Mountain weather is unpredictable, and a forecast for a summit is a guide to what is likely, not a promise. Treat it as one input among several, check conditions as you go, and it earns a place on the phone of anyone who spends time above the tree line.