We all check the weather. It’s a simple, universal habit that dictates our daily choices, what to wear, how to commute, or whether to carry an umbrella. But what if you could use this universal habit to communicate more effectively with your audience and even guide their purchasing decisions? Displaying an hourly forecast on your digital signage does more than just provide a public service; it creates a dynamic and relevant touchpoint that keeps people looking at your screens.
For businesses, staying relevant means providing value at every interaction. An hourly weather forecast is a small but powerful piece of information that can make your digital displays a trusted resource. Instead of showing static content, you can deliver timely updates that help people plan their next few hours. This simple addition can change how customers, employees, and visitors interact with your brand, making your screens a source of practical, real-time information.
This guide explores the strategic advantages of integrating hourly forecasts into your digital signage. We will cover which industries benefit the most, how visual weather updates capture attention, and how a platform like RocketScreens makes it simple to add this feature to your displays alongside your most important business data.
Why Immediate Weather Updates Are a Business Asset
Daily weather forecasts are useful, but hourly updates offer a level of detail that is far more actionable. For a customer deciding whether to shop now or later, or for a restaurant manager anticipating foot traffic, knowing what the weather will be like in the next two, four, or six hours is incredibly valuable.
Influencing Real-Time Decisions
An hourly forecast gives people the information they need to make immediate plans. A sunny afternoon might encourage a visit to a nearby café with outdoor seating, while an impending rain shower could prompt someone to finish their errands quickly. When you display this information, you are not just reporting the weather; you are helping your audience make better decisions. This builds a subtle but strong connection between your brand and their daily lives.
For example, a retail store showing that rain is expected in two hours might see a surge in shoppers looking to get home before the downpour. A public transportation hub displaying clear skies for the evening commute can reduce passenger anxiety. It’s about providing information that has immediate, practical value.
Keeping Your Content Fresh and Engaging
One of the biggest challenges with digital signage is preventing "banner blindness," where people become so used to seeing screens that they stop paying attention to them. Dynamic content like an hourly weather forecast is an effective way to combat this. Because the information changes throughout the day, it gives people a reason to look at your screens repeatedly.
This constant refresh keeps your displays from becoming stale. When your audience knows they can get useful, up-to-the-minute information from your screens, they are more likely to notice the other content you display, such as promotions, announcements, or company news.
Industries That Thrive with Hyper-Local Weather Information
While almost any business can find a use for displaying weather, some industries see a more direct and immediate benefit from showing hourly forecasts.
Retail and Shopping Centers
Retailers can use hourly forecasts to create timely promotions. A sudden cold snap in the forecast is the perfect opportunity to display advertisements for warm jackets or hot drinks. A forecast for a sunny afternoon can be paired with promotions for outdoor gear or patio furniture. By aligning your marketing messages with the immediate weather, you make them more relevant and persuasive. A shopping mall can also use weather forecasts to position itself as a comfortable haven from impending bad weather, encouraging visitors to stay longer.
Hospitality: Hotels, Restaurants, and Cafes
In the hospitality sector, guest experience is paramount. A hotel can display hourly forecasts in the lobby to help guests plan their day, suggesting indoor activities if rain is coming or promoting a poolside bar if the sun is out. Restaurants and cafes with outdoor seating can use forecasts to manage customer expectations, letting them know if they should expect to move indoors later in the evening. This proactive communication shows a level of care that guests appreciate.
Transportation Hubs
For airports, train stations, and bus depots, real-time information is critical. While arrival and departure times are the main focus, supplementary information like hourly weather forecasts at the destination can be a great help to travelers. It allows them to prepare for the conditions they will face upon arrival, making their journey smoother. It also keeps waiting passengers engaged and informed.
Corporate Offices and Campuses
In a corporate setting, digital signage is a powerful tool for internal communications. Displaying hourly weather forecasts can help employees plan their lunch breaks or their commute home. For large corporate campuses with multiple buildings, knowing if a sudden rain shower is coming can be the difference between getting soaked while walking to a meeting and waiting for a short downpour to pass. It’s a small touch that contributes to a better employee experience.
Healthcare Facilities
Hospitals and clinics often have visitors and patients waiting for extended periods. Displaying useful information like hourly weather can make the wait feel more productive. It helps people plan their trip home and provides a welcome distraction. For staff who may be working long shifts indoors, a quick glance at the weather forecast can help them prepare for their journey home.
The Visual Appeal of Weather on Digital Screens
It’s not just the information itself that matters, but how it is presented. Digital signage allows you to display weather forecasts in a visually compelling way that is easy to understand at a glance.
Clear Icons and Graphics
Modern weather feeds use intuitive icons, a sun, clouds, raindrops, that communicate the forecast without requiring much reading. This makes the information highly scannable, perfect for busy environments where people are on the move. A well-designed weather display can add a touch of color and movement to your screens, making them more visually interesting.
Customizable to Match Your Brand
With the right digital signage platform, you can customize the look and feel of your weather display to match your brand’s aesthetics. This ensures that even third-party information like a weather feed feels like a natural part of your brand’s communication. You can choose colors, fonts, and layouts that align with your style guide, creating a cohesive and professional look.
Seamlessly Integrate Hourly Forecasts with RocketScreens
Displaying an hourly forecast should be simple, and with RocketScreens, it is. Our platform is designed to let you pull in content from over 100 different applications and display it on any screen, anywhere. Adding a weather feed is just one of the many ways you can use RocketScreens to make your digital signage more effective.
RocketScreens connects directly to trusted weather sources, so you can be confident that you are always displaying accurate, up-to-date information. Our system automatically refreshes the data, so you can set it up once and let it run without any manual intervention.
More Than Just Weather: A Unified Content Strategy
The true power of RocketScreens is its ability to integrate a wide variety of content streams. You can display an hourly weather forecast alongside your company’s sales dashboards from Salesforce, your marketing analytics from Power BI, or your latest social media posts. This allows you to create a truly comprehensive information hub on your screens.
Imagine a screen in your sales department that shows the current weather, the team’s progress toward its quarterly goals, and a live feed of positive customer reviews. Or a screen in your lobby that welcomes visitors, displays the day’s meeting schedule from Google Calendar, and provides a local weather forecast. With our extensive list of integrations, including Canva, Asana, Google Drive, and social media platforms, you can pull all your important information together in one place.
Easy to Set Up, Easy to Manage
You don’t need a dedicated IT team to manage your digital signage. RocketScreens is built with a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to add content, create layouts, and schedule what displays on your screens. You can manage all your screens from a single, cloud-based dashboard, whether you have one screen in a single office or hundreds of screens across multiple locations. This simplicity means you can focus on what matters most: communicating effectively with your audience.
Getting Started with Weather on Your Screens
Adding an hourly forecast to your digital signage is a straightforward process with RocketScreens.
- Connect Your Weather App: Within the RocketScreens dashboard, you can select from various weather applications.
- Set Your Location: Enter the location for which you want to display the forecast. You can even show forecasts for multiple locations on the same screen, which is ideal for companies with a national or global presence.
- Customize the Display: Choose how you want the forecast to look. You can select different layouts, choose between Celsius and Fahrenheit, and adjust the design to fit your brand.
- Add It to Your Channel: Drag and drop the weather feed into your content channel alongside your other information. You can decide how much screen time to give it and where it should appear in your content rotation.
It’s a simple setup that adds a layer of dynamic, useful content to your displays, keeping your audience informed and engaged. By providing valuable information like an hourly forecast, you make your digital signage a go-to resource, ensuring that your most important messages are seen.
