Weather & Flight
Drone Rain Radar & Rain Window
Will rain reach your flight? Arrival time, nearest rain and a radar loop for the next hours.
Planning aid only — not certified flight-planning software or airspace clearance. Always verify results against your own aircraft's manual and check current regulations before flying. Full disclaimer.
Radar, last 2 hours
Rings at 10, 25 and 50 km. The radar shows rain that has fallen; the verdict above uses the forecast ahead.
Forecast precipitation, not a guarantee. Showers and thunderstorms can form and move faster than any model predicts — keep watching the sky and land at the first drops. Forecast: Open-Meteo. Radar: RainViewer.
Embed this rain window on your site
Free for flight schools, clubs and blogs. Copy this code into your page.
What the tool answers
Not "will it rain today?", but "will rain reach my spot while my drone is in the air?". Choose a location, when you plan to take off and how long you'll fly. The tool then shows:
- a verdict for your flight window — rain likely, rain nearby, or no rain expected;
- when rain is expected at your spot, or when the current rain should stop;
- the nearest rain right now — distance and direction;
- which way the rain area is moving, and how fast;
- a 3-hour timeline of rain at your spot in 15-minute steps, with your flight outlined;
- a radar loop of the last two hours with rings at 10, 25 and 50 km.
How it works
UAV Meteo reads a 15-minute precipitation forecast for your spot and for 24 points on three rings around it (every 45° at 10, 25 and 50 km) — a small picture of the weather around you, refreshed every few minutes.
- At your spot, the forecast says when rain starts and stops.
- On the rings, it shows where rain is now: the closest wet point is the "nearest rain".
- Across the rings over time, the wet area shifts; comparing where it is now with where it will be in 30 minutes gives a direction and speed.
- For your window, any 15-minute interval with 0.1 mm or more at your spot means "rain likely"; rain within 10 km during the window means "rain nearby".
Times are shown in the location's local time, so you can plan a trip somewhere else.
Example
You plan to take off in 30 minutes for a 40-minute survey flight.
- Nearest rain now: 25 km W. Moving towards the E at about 30 km/h.
- Forecast at your spot: dry until 15:45, then 0.6 mm in 15 minutes.
- Your flight: 15:00–15:40.
Verdict: no rain expected during your flight — but with only five minutes to spare. Start on time, keep an eye on the western sky, and land if the first gusts arrive early: wind often picks up a few minutes before a shower.
How accurate is it?
- Europe and North America: the 15-minute values come from real short-range models (DWD ICON-D2 and NOAA HRRR). Timing is as good as free forecasts get — typically right to within 15–30 minutes for organised rain.
- Elsewhere: the 15-minute values are interpolated from hourly forecasts. Use the timing as a guide to ±1 hour and lean more on the radar loop.
- Showers and thunderstorms everywhere can form in minutes and move faster than models predict. No forecast replaces looking at the sky.
The radar shows rain that has already fallen; it doesn't extrapolate into the future. If the radar shows a band of rain that the forecast doesn't, trust the radar for the next half hour.
Can my drone fly in the rain?
Almost certainly not: most consumer drones — every DJI Mini, Air, Mavic and Avata — have no water-protection rating at all. Only a handful of enterprise aircraft (IP43–IP55) are built for light to steady rain. See Can you fly a drone in the rain? for what IP ratings mean and which drones have them.
Put it on your own site
Flight schools, clubs and drone blogs can embed the rain window for free: open "Embed this rain window on your site" under the tool and paste the code into a page. The raw data is also available as JSON at /api/rain-window?lat=…&lon=… — please cache it for a few minutes and keep the attribution to Open-Meteo.