How to Get an Email Before It Rains
There are a few ways to get an email before it rains: rain notifications in a weather app, an automation tool such as IFTTT, a calendar app that shows the day's forecast, or one sentence handed to MailMeWhen, which needs no account or app.
The forecast is always somewhere — an app, a widget, a website. The problem is you have to remember to look, and the one day you forget is the day it pours on your commute.
Ways to get a rain alert by email
A rain alert in one sentence
With MailMeWhen you write the request the way you'd say it to a person: name your city, say you want a heads-up the day before rain. Then forget about it — on dry weeks you hear nothing at all.
The first 7 days are free with no payment details; after that it's $5/month, and it stops by itself if you don't subscribe. One reply stops it any time.
Good to know about rain alerts
This is an event-driven request: letters arrive only when the condition is met, which is exactly what makes it useful. If you'd rather get a daily weather summary instead, write that — the sentence is the setting.
Forecasts are forecasts. A heads-up letter beats being surprised, but it can't promise the sky anything.
Try it — hand us this sentence:
I live in New York. Mail me the day before rain is expected, so I remember the umbrella.
Common questions
How far ahead does the rain alert arrive?
The evening before, unless you ask otherwise. If you'd rather have it two days ahead or on the morning itself, write that in your request — the sentence is the setting.
Does it work for any city?
Yes. Name the city, or the neighbourhood if your area's weather differs from the city's. Forecasts are forecasts, though: the letter reflects the forecast for your place, not a promise.
What if it doesn't rain for weeks?
You hear nothing, which is the point. Within 24 hours of your request you get one letter confirming what we're watching; after that, letters come only when rain is expected.