What's New in v49: Faster, Smarter and made to Fly

Nicole Dolezalova

Version 49 is a major milestone that makes Windy significantly more capable on mobile while improving performance and interaction across platforms, bringing advanced plugins and a smoother Leaflet GL–powered map experience so you can access desktop-level tools wherever you are.

Key Updates

Faster & Smoother app experience (Leaflet GL)
Mobile-Ready External Plugins
Expanded Airports POIs for Aviation community
Local forecast models on iOS Widgets
New Garmin Weather Widget Lite
Lightning Tracker in Garmin Weather Widgets

A faster and smoother app experience powered by new technology

Under the hood, Windy has transitioned to Leaflet GL — a major technical upgrade that significantly improves map performance.

Thanks to extensive community testing, we are delivering a faster, more stable experience when exploring layers on both desktop and mobile.

What you will notice:

Smoother zooming and panning
Greater stability when working with complex layers
Improved responsiveness on mobile devices

As part of this transition, Windy now supports double-tap and drag on phones, making it faster and more intuitive to explore forecasts with one hand.
This upgrade applies to all layers except the Windy Premium 3D globe.

Before

After

External plugins and GPX uploader are now on mobile versions

Until now, plugins were primarily a desktop experience. With the new version, Windy plugins are fully accessible on mobile devices.

Access and install external plugins
You need to be logged in to install and activate plugins. All plugins are automatically synced to your account via the cloud.
Access the Windy Plugins Guide on how to develop your own plugin
Join the Windy Plugins developer community

In the Extend your Windy section, you can now also find an uploader for your favorite routes and locations. Upload, display, and share your KML, GPX, or GeoJSON files—now also directly from your mobile phone.

alt text Photo by Alexandr K on Unsplash

Where to Find Windy Plugins

Open the Menu in the app.
Scroll down to the Extend your Windy section.
Tap Install Windy Plugin.
A list of available plugins will appear.
Select a plugin to view detailed information about it.
Tap Install Plugin.
Once installed, tap Open Plugin to activate it in Windy.

This update unlocks even more powerful workflows in the field — whether you’re checking marine conditions, planning a flight route, preparing a hot air balloon trip, or searching for clear skies to watch the aurora borealis or capture the perfect astrophotography shot.

Explore the wide range of Windy Plugins developed by our community and discover new ways to tailor Windy to your needs.

Built for IFR & VFR Pilots

Windy has become a trusted weather tool for everyone from general aviation pilots to airline crews. Airport POIs have been refined to support that and to provide smoother pre-flight briefings and en-route decision-making.

Airport POIs

More detailed runway information, coordinates, and ICAO/IATA codes
An enhanced METAR & TAF section with current VFR/IFR status and nearby airports with their METARs, runway wind conditions, webcams, and detailed meteograms
NOTAMs available in raw and decoded formats, with the option to mark as read

Route Planner (available to Windy Premium users)

A faster Route Planner — type departure and destination ICAO or IATA codes (e.g.,KLAX KJFK for ICAO, or LAX JFK for IATA) in the Search bar and open the route instantly

These upgrades make critical flight information clearer, faster to access, and easier to interpret — when timing matters most.

iOS widgets with extended local forecast models

Windy widgets on iOS now support additional high-resolution local forecast models:

North America: HRRR, HRDPS, NAM
Europe: UKV, AROME, ICON, ALADIN
Asia: MSM
Australia: ACCESS

Available:

On iPhone and iPad widgets
In mirrored iPhone widgets on macOS and CarPlay

This gives you faster access to precise local forecasts — directly from your home screen or dashboard.

New Lite version of the Garmin Weather Widget

We’re introducing Weather Widget Lite — a streamlined, lightweight version of the full Windy Weather Widget, designed to run smoothly on Garmin devices that were previously limited in supporting the full version.

By optimizing performance and reducing system demands, the Lite version makes Windy available on a broader range of devices, including models with hardware limitations.

The widget works in both color and black-and-white modes:

In color mode, it includes lightning detection (a new feature for the Weather Widget overall).
In black-and-white mode, lightning is not displayed due to technical limitations of these devices.

The Lite version brings you

Point Forecast
Radar
3-Hourly Forecast
Daily Forecast

The widget is now available on some of the most popular Garmin devices, including:

fēnix® 6 series
Forerunner® 245 / 745 / 945
Instinct® 2 series
Enduro™
quatix® 6 series*

See the full list and download on Garmin Connect IQ.

Tracking storm on Garmin Weather Widget (full version)

The main Garmin Weather Widget has also been updated to improve clarity and reliability.

lightning detection on the radar, providing faster visual insight into active storms directly from the widget
general optimizations and stability fixes

With fast access to essential weather information directly on your wrist, Windy continues to support athletes, pilots, sailors, and explorers who rely on reliable forecasts in motion.
Access the Garmin Connect IQ and download Windy on your wrist now!

Minor Improvements: Built for What Comes Next

Sections across the app are now fully unified in our preferred dark theme, creating a more consistent and comfortable experience.
Behind the scenes, Version 49 delivers important stability improvements and technical refinements that strengthen performance across web and mobile.

What’s improved under the hood:

Expanded Dark Mode support across key plugins, including Login, Consent, Subscription, Context Menu, Air Quality, Stations, and CAP Alerts.
More reliable external plugin syncing, now properly updating across devices and cloud sessions.
Improved WebGL recovery handling, reducing unexpected reloads and visual glitches.
Fixes for mobile deeplinks, airport interactions, and Route Planner behavior (including proper IATA/ICAO handling).
Enhanced METAR/TAF parsing and airport plugin reliability.
Add precipitation type visibility toggle in the Settings.
Internal refactors improving login flow, plugin initialization, and overall app stability.

These improvements lay the groundwork for faster development, smoother performance, and a more robust Windy experience going forward.

Tried the new features?
Have feedback or ideas for what should come next?
Let us know in the comments.
Thanks for being part of the Windy community, and enjoy the update.

3 Quick Pro Tips for Mobile Users

1) Tap the 🏠 button to quickly move to your start-up location
2) Long-tap 🏠 to open forecast details of your start-up location
3) Tap the 📌 to access the Forecast models and Favorite Layers & POIs

Photo on header by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash.
Photo on splashscreen by Seb Mooze on Unsplash.

Honza z Borov

God bless you for the mobile plugins. Finally, the PG map is on my phone. I'm going to renew my subscription...

Pedro Casimiro

Android Auto, Pleaaaasssseeee...

David Polášek

@Pedro-Casimiro

There is a work in progress for Android Auto.

gwicke

Really appreciate the return of mobile plugins! Thank you for that.

However, with the use of GL rendering the minimum CPU usage seems to have increased for windy map views. Previously, disabling particle animations helped reduce CPU and battery usage significantly. Now, on my laptop at least, I see 70-90% of a core constantly used, even without particles. Lenovo T480s, Intel iGPU. This is causing my fan to spin up until I switch tabs away from Windy. On mobile, I suspect battery usage will be similarly increased.

tnatna13009

@Nicole-Dolezalova
Still no gribs ?
Please do not forget sailors !!

Gribs are usefull...

Thanks in advance !

TNA

David Polášek

@tnatna13009

Later this year, there will be an update for the sailing community as well. Hopefully Q2, not guaranteed.

hydev

Great news to see it moving forward, but still doesn't have an option to keep the isolines of pressure permanently on. Small thing maybe, but an irriation for what must be an easy code option.

Mike

Nicole Dolezalova

Hello @hydev, for radar and satellite, it is about ensuring the data is trustworthy and accurate, as isolines are forecast values, while radar and satellite data provide real-time weather. That's why it doesn't work. I assume you're mainly referring to that?
For forecasted layers, the isolines should remain on even after restarting the app. The only condition is that you need to be logged in to your account.
I have noticed there is currently a bug and using radar and satellite actually resets it - I have reported it to our team (@suty).
Have a great day, Niki

Simonsez

Thank you

Would it be possible for the "waves and Tides" selection to be saved like the 1hr forecast? It's a pain to have to click on that every time if you use it every time.

thank you

Nicole Dolezalova

Hello @Simonsez set the Wave layer as your "Start-up layer and location" and add to it the "Remember 1h/3h setting". Once you open the app next time and click on "Forecast for this location" in the picker, there will be Wave layer as a start-up as well as in the detail and as a bonus, if you were using 1-hour setting, it will be preserved. Hope this helps ! :) Niki

dwansystems

With all due respect, I've been a paid windy user in the past for roughly 2 years and enjoyed the service, but with all of the obvious AI support behind the development and design of windy recently, it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. For example, the recent splash banner that was basically a blog article written by GPT. Another simple design element that's really off-putting is the bouncing "go premium" box... Windy users are not children. I don't need you to make fireworks fly to direct my attention to windy premium. That just pushes people away.

dan9080

I use Leaflet for my personal electronic flight bag app which I developed myself. The app sends the route to windy and displays cloud bases and cloud tops which is really nice.

I have always found the VFR and IFR route planning UI to be very confusing as the legend on left does not line up with the graphics. Also, text is far too small. I know the challenges of creating a UI with screen placement, etc and I have no suggestions.