The free forecasts keep beating the one you pay for.
Scored daily, published free, because nobody owns the weather. A sweater, you can own.
Not in Boone? Your town has its own page and scoreboard. Find your town
Sweater Weather Index
Wearing a sweater would be a cry for help.
Recommended layers: 0
The 5-day | Boone
Bars show the hourly chance of rain, 6a–10p (Open-Meteo). Taller, solid bars = heavier odds.
Measured against actuals, the forecasts behind this consensus have missed the next-day high by ±2.5°F on average; day 5 runs ±3.7°F. | How we grade
Dave's Sweater also tracks a real forecast for 17 more High Country towns, each graded against its own actuals.
Bakersville | Banner Elk | Beech Mountain | Blowing Rock | Burnsville | Deep Gap | Foscoe | Jefferson | North Wilkesboro | Seven Devils | Spruce Pine | Sugar Grove | Todd | Valle Crucis | Vilas | West Jefferson | Wilkesboro
Boone's outlook, fact-checked daily. Built on data that was always yours.
One forecast. One bill.
You paid a business for the only outlook in town. The sell was an appeal to authority: tenure, staff forecasters, decades of habit, and stations he owned.
So, somebody started checking.
Every prediction, scored against what actually happened — 142 days and counting.
The gap isn't close.
Spending money for offices and equipment helped sell a product, but it doesn't buy accuracy.
| Date | Open-Meteo | Ray's |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-03-05 | 98.8 | 54 |
| 2026-03-06 | 96.7 | 55.9 |
| 2026-03-07 | 78.9 | 64 |
| 2026-03-08 | 78.2 | 63.1 |
| 2026-03-09 | 78.3 | 67.8 |
| 2026-03-10 | 81 | 67.2 |
| 2026-03-11 | 96.1 | 62.2 |
| 2026-03-12 | 57.3 | 35.3 |
| 2026-03-13 | 75.1 | 61.3 |
| 2026-03-14 | 100 | 84.6 |
| 2026-03-15 | 96.5 | 40.2 |
| 2026-03-16 | 76 | 52.6 |
| 2026-03-17 | 78.4 | 52.7 |
| 2026-03-18 | 91.9 | 60 |
| 2026-03-19 | 73.3 | 53 |
| 2026-03-20 | 100 | 42 |
| 2026-03-21 | 92.6 | 81.2 |
| 2026-03-22 | 100 | 94.2 |
| 2026-03-23 | 98.5 | 51.9 |
| 2026-03-24 | 91.6 | 72.1 |
| 2026-03-25 | 90.7 | 55 |
| 2026-03-26 | 76.8 | 57.1 |
| 2026-03-27 | 95.2 | 41.1 |
| 2026-03-28 | 83.2 | 74 |
| 2026-03-29 | 96.1 | 60.4 |
| 2026-03-30 | 84.9 | 62.2 |
| 2026-03-31 | 77.7 | 60 |
| 2026-04-01 | 79 | 75.6 |
| 2026-04-02 | 91.5 | 64.1 |
| 2026-04-03 | 95.7 | 67 |
| 2026-04-04 | 91 | 61.5 |
| 2026-04-05 | 86.1 | 56.8 |
| 2026-04-06 | 98.8 | 77.9 |
| 2026-04-07 | 98.8 | 73.4 |
| 2026-04-08 | 92.2 | 84.1 |
| 2026-04-09 | 89.5 | 78.8 |
| 2026-04-10 | 94.9 | 76.3 |
| 2026-04-11 | 93.7 | 58.4 |
| 2026-04-12 | 92.2 | 85 |
| 2026-04-13 | 84 | 86.2 |
| 2026-04-14 | 71.9 | 64.1 |
| 2026-04-15 | 91.6 | 88.4 |
| 2026-04-16 | 86.1 | 79.2 |
| 2026-04-17 | 91.2 | 69.2 |
| 2026-04-18 | 77.4 | 42.8 |
| 2026-04-19 | 95.8 | 62.2 |
| 2026-04-20 | 96.9 | 75 |
| 2026-04-21 | 86.2 | 53.4 |
| 2026-04-22 | 80.8 | 74.2 |
| 2026-04-23 | 89.5 | 69.9 |
| 2026-04-24 | 91.6 | 62.7 |
| 2026-04-25 | 82 | 67 |
| 2026-04-26 | 93.7 | 75.2 |
| 2026-04-27 | 97.6 | 77.6 |
| 2026-04-28 | 77.8 | 67.2 |
| 2026-04-29 | 98.8 | 55.2 |
| 2026-04-30 | 92.5 | 62.4 |
| 2026-05-01 | 92.1 | 81.2 |
| 2026-05-02 | 88.6 | 70 |
| 2026-05-03 | 99.7 | 68.7 |
| 2026-05-04 | 85 | 43.7 |
| 2026-05-05 | 89.6 | 63 |
| 2026-05-06 | 92.6 | 82.1 |
| 2026-05-07 | 100 | 52.5 |
| 2026-05-08 | 94.3 | 65.9 |
| 2026-05-09 | 94.8 | 84.6 |
| 2026-05-10 | 93.4 | 83.3 |
| 2026-05-11 | 94.8 | 65.3 |
| 2026-05-12 | 81.4 | 79.7 |
| 2026-05-13 | 90.2 | 72.3 |
| 2026-05-14 | 80.1 | 77.9 |
| 2026-05-15 | 89.5 | 44.7 |
| 2026-05-16 | 81.8 | 71.6 |
| 2026-05-17 | 87.9 | 70.7 |
| 2026-05-18 | 88.2 | 68.1 |
| 2026-05-19 | 95.8 | 86.4 |
| 2026-05-20 | 86.4 | 69.5 |
| 2026-05-21 | 99 | 71.2 |
| 2026-05-22 | 100 | 75.5 |
| 2026-05-23 | 85.1 | 56.5 |
| 2026-05-24 | 97.3 | 47.5 |
| 2026-05-25 | 91.8 | 84.4 |
| 2026-05-26 | 99.9 | 74 |
| 2026-05-27 | 93.1 | 72.2 |
| 2026-05-28 | 93 | 56.4 |
| 2026-05-29 | 96.7 | 53.6 |
| 2026-05-30 | 91.5 | 48.2 |
| 2026-05-31 | 93.4 | 72.2 |
| 2026-06-01 | 85.2 | 70.7 |
| 2026-06-02 | 91.9 | 20.4 |
| 2026-06-03 | 99.7 | 67.3 |
| 2026-06-04 | 93.4 | 82.7 |
| 2026-06-05 | 91 | 80.1 |
| 2026-06-06 | 87.1 | 84.4 |
| 2026-06-07 | 91.3 | 80.1 |
| 2026-06-08 | 88.2 | 68.7 |
| 2026-06-09 | 91.4 | 85.2 |
| 2026-06-10 | 89.1 | 79.4 |
| 2026-06-11 | 67.5 | 67.9 |
| 2026-06-12 | 80 | 74 |
| 2026-06-13 | 92.1 | 76.5 |
| 2026-06-14 | 94.7 | 58.9 |
| 2026-06-15 | 95.8 | 54.6 |
| 2026-06-16 | 87 | 52.5 |
| 2026-06-17 | 87 | 55.3 |
| 2026-06-19 | 93.2 | 63.6 |
| 2026-06-20 | 99.1 | 79.2 |
| 2026-06-21 | 92.7 | 68.8 |
| 2026-06-22 | 98.3 | 55.8 |
| 2026-06-23 | 99.1 | 68.1 |
| 2026-06-24 | 93.7 | 85.3 |
| 2026-06-25 | 81 | 62.7 |
| 2026-06-26 | 88.8 | 66.5 |
| 2026-06-27 | 86.4 | 78.9 |
| 2026-06-28 | 90.1 | 74.7 |
| 2026-06-29 | 100 | 73.6 |
| 2026-06-30 | 100 | 86.2 |
| 2026-07-01 | 99.4 | 67.2 |
| 2026-07-02 | 99.7 | 64 |
| 2026-07-03 | 75.4 | 70 |
| 2026-07-04 | 88.6 | 64.9 |
| 2026-07-05 | 97.9 | 76.3 |
| 2026-07-06 | 79 | 77.6 |
| 2026-07-07 | 86.4 | 81.7 |
| 2026-07-08 | 93.9 | 83.5 |
| 2026-07-10 | 80 | 75.4 |
| 2026-07-11 | 91.4 | 84.6 |
| 2026-07-12 | 90.1 | 88.8 |
| 2026-07-13 | 93.8 | 77.7 |
| 2026-07-14 | 88 | 66.8 |
| 2026-07-15 | 95.8 | 88.4 |
| 2026-07-16 | 96.1 | 78 |
| 2026-07-17 | 93.3 | 80.1 |
| 2026-07-18 | 83.7 | 74.1 |
| 2026-07-19 | 81.6 | 65.9 |
| 2026-07-20 | 95.7 | 88 |
| 2026-07-21 | 90 | 75.8 |
| 2026-07-22 | 81.7 | 89 |
| 2026-07-23 | 80.3 | 76.7 |
| 2026-07-24 | 95.3 | 82.5 |
| 2026-07-25 | 95.5 | 83.6 |
| 2026-07-26 | 100 | 87.3 |
It was never better weather.
It's open data anyone can pull, gated behind a paywall. The habit was the product, bundled with things you don't need and lacking what you do need, like publishing a rain total (missing 83 of 142 days).
The weather was never his.
The data behind every forecast is public. Satellites, models, and data from stations your taxes already paid for. Credentials that gate it behind a bill don't make it truer. We find it, vet it, and hand it over. Free.
And we publish the receipts.
One open rubric, every forecaster graded alike — ours included. And it doesn't stop at weather: dusk math for the fireworks, a day planner for the Highland Games, and more to come. Whatever's sitting out there, we'll make it useful.
Every score here comes from one transparent rubric, applied to all forecasters alike. See exactly how we score each forecast
Yesterday in Boone | July 26, 2026
The longer story: Is Ray's Weather Accurate? 118 Days Scored | Ray's Weather Report Card: June 2026
