How the score works
One number, no mystery.
Every city gets a single Foredays Score from 0 to 100. Here is exactly how we get there, and where it stops being certain.
score = f(weather, your preference)
First this
A score is an opinion, not a verdict.
A score is our reading of the weather, set against the kind of trip you picked. It is opinionated on purpose, and it is not the truth.
Two travellers, same city, same week, can rightly disagree. That is why the score moves with your preference.
Reykjavík64°Nthis weekA low score only says: far from typical beach weather. You decide if that is your week.
What it asks
It answers just one question.
How well does this place's weather fit your kind of trip? Change the trip, beach, hiking, snow, and the same weather scores differently. Nothing else counts. No popularity, no paid placement.
What we weigh
Four things, not all equal.
We score four parts of the weather and weight them by how often they make or break a trip. Temperature weighs heaviest, because it most often decides.
The weighted average is half the story. The other half, the weakest link, comes next.
- Temperature45%
- Rain25%
- Wind15%
- Humidity15%
The heart of the model
Temperature is not one perfect number.
Most trips have no single perfect temperature, but a whole band that feels right. Treat that as one point, and you punish everything around it, even weather that is actually right. A place that is cold on purpose would then count as a failure.
So each kind of trip has a comfort band with a direction. A beach trip leans warm and forgives heat sooner than cold. A snow trip leans cold, and deep cold is the point, not a penalty. The curve below shows how the fit from 0 to 100 responds to the average temperature.
| AVG. TEMPERATURE (°C) | -30° | -20° | -10° | 0° | 10° | 20° | 27° | 35° | 40° |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 69 | 100 | 85 | 23 | 0 |
| Beach | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 77 | 100 | 56 | 0 |
| City | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 71 | 100 | 92 | 25 | 0 |
| Hike | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 100 | 100 | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| Snow | 31 | 69 | 100 | 71 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nomad | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 100 | 100 | 36 | 0 |
The weakest link
One dealbreaker should sink it.
A place can be lovely in three ways and wrong in the one that matters. 40° is pleasant and dry, but for a snow trip it is a non-starter.
So beyond the weighted average, the weakest dimension pulls hard on the final score. A city that shines everywhere else, but has one dealbreaker, still scores low.
rain, wind and humidity are fine.
temperature is a dealbreaker.
How far ahead
Real forecast, or a typical month.
For the next two weeks we score the real forecast. For "sometime in January" we score the area's typical climate for that month: the long-run normal. A single forecast that far out says too little. Climate counts sunshine as a gentle plus, but never sinks a score.
We score each day on its own, because that far we can really see it. Higher bar, better fit.
Reading the score
Four bands, not four ranks.
Read them as bands, not an exact ranking. A 78 and an 82 tell the same story: a good week. Each band has both a color and a word, so the meaning reads without color.
Our promise
It is a model, so it simplifies.
It does not know about a festival, a great hotel, or that you love a storm. It will never tell you to skip a place. Every week is a real option. We give you the view; the choice stays yours.
Read our story