Above the Trees: Golf Wind

The wind on the ground swirls. The wind above the trees doesn’t.

Above the Trees takes the National Weather Service forecast for the ground you are standing on and splits it two ways: the part running down your line, and the part running across it. Two numbers instead of one, each with its own gust range.

Point the phone down your line and the split turns as you turn, held steady by the compass. A 15 mph wind stops being an abstraction and reads as what it actually is: mostly across you, mostly into you, or somewhere in between.

Built for a bright afternoon. Big figures, hard contrast, a yellow field you can read at arm’s length in full sun. Nothing moves that does not have to.

It also tells you what it does not know. This is a public forecast for a grid square about 1.7 miles across, not a measurement taken at the course, and the app says so plainly. When your position is rough, it marks it and shows you what the areas around you are forecast to be doing. When the compass cannot be trusted, it says that too, and holds the display to north rather than pointing you the wrong way.

You get the wind. What to do about it stays yours.

No account. No advertising. No analytics. No tracking. No server of any kind. Your location is used only while the app is open, only after you ask for it, and the forecast request goes straight from your phone to the National Weather Service.

Coverage is the United States, its territories, and the marine areas the National Weather Service reports on.