Back to the Future 2015: Weather on Your Wristwatch

Quoting from our story "Back to the Future: How Do Current Weather Forecasts Compare to the Film's 1985 Prediction?" (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

"Upon arriving in 2015, Marty and Doc were greeted by heavy rain. When they went to get out of their car, Doc checked the weather forecast on his watch and said that the rain would be over in five seconds. Five seconds later, the rain ended, clouds dissipated and the sun shined brightly to reveal the futuristic world."

This is one of the most accurate predictions from "Back to the Future II"... AccuWeather's MinuteCast product is now available for the Apple and Android watches. It doesn't predict weather down to the second, rather the minute, but it's such a leap forward in weather forecasting, some users have described the product as "magic."

I think in 1985 when we imagined our wristwatch predicting the weather, we probably felt that the watch itself would be doing the forecasting, not able to imagine a connected world where the processing is done in the cloud, and devices like a watch are connected wirelessly.

For more non-weather musings about tech, advertising, and today's "Back to the Future" Anniversary, see my personal blog.