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Editorial Standards

How we source, verify, and update travel weather information.

Last reviewed: May 5, 2026

Our Editorial Mission

WeatherLens exists to help travelers make better decisions about when and where to go, using transparent, source-cited climate data rather than marketing copy or affiliate-driven recommendations. Every featured destination on our site is backed by 30-year climatological norms, not single-year anecdotes or seasonal trends.

Climate Data Sources

Monthly averages for temperature, precipitation, sunshine hours, and humidity are aggregated from the following authoritative meteorological agencies and reanalysis datasets:

• NOAA Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN-Monthly v4) — the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's quality-controlled historical record covering 100,000+ stations worldwide. Source.
• ERA5 Reanalysis from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), used to fill gaps in remote destinations where station coverage is sparse.
• National meteorological services (UK Met Office, Japan Meteorological Agency, Bureau of Meteorology Australia, Deutscher Wetterdienst, Meteo France) for country-specific normals where they publish authoritative records.
• World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Climatological Standard Normals (1991-2020) for long-term baselines.

For each destination, monthly values represent the climatological mean over the most recent 30-year period. We do not interpolate single-year data or use forecast models for historical figures.

Live Weather Data

Real-time weather conditions for cities not in our featured database are fetched on demand from Open-Meteo, an open-source weather API that aggregates data from multiple national weather services. Live data is clearly labeled in the comparison tool and is never blended with historical norms without disclosure.

Cost / Daily Budget Methodology

Our daily-budget figures represent a mid-range, per-person estimate in USD covering: a 3–4 star hotel (double occupancy), three meals (mix of casual and sit-down restaurants), local transport plus occasional rideshare, and one paid attraction or activity per day. Excludes: international flights, travel insurance, and luxury upgrades.

Source data is aggregated from:

• Budget Your Trip — crowd-sourced traveler-reported costs.
• Numbeo Cost of Living Index — for groceries, restaurants, and transport benchmarks.
• Official tourism board reports and tourism ministry statistics for 2025–2026.

Tier classifications: $ under $50/day (budget), $$ $50–100 (moderate), $$$ $100–200 (mid-to-upper), $$$$ $200+ (high-end).

Comfort Score

Our 0–100 travel comfort score is a composite metric that weighs the four climate variables we track. The scoring formula:

• Temperature (40%): peaks at 22°C / 72°F, declines linearly toward extremes. A 5°C day and a 38°C day score similarly low.
• Rainfall (25%): less is better up to a comfort threshold; 0–30mm/month is optimal, 200mm+ scores poorly.
• Sunshine (20%): higher is better up to ~10 hours/day.
• Humidity (15%): 50–65% is optimal; tropical highs (above 80%) and arid lows (below 30%) both reduce comfort.

The formula is publicly available in our open-source app.js file (function calcComfort) so any reader can verify how a given score was computed.

Editorial Process

1. Drafting: Each destination guide is written by our editorial team using primary climate data (sources above), official tourism resources, and recent travel reporting from established outlets (Lonely Planet, Travel + Leisure, The Guardian Travel, Condé Nast Traveler, Tripadvisor research reports).
2. Fact-checking: Climate figures are cross-referenced against at least two independent sources before publication. Any disagreement greater than 10% is flagged and reviewed.
3. Editorial review: A second editor reviews each guide for accuracy, clarity, and tone before it goes live.
4. Publication: Guides are published with a visible Published and Last reviewed date.
5. Maintenance: We perform a weekly data-refresh pass on the comparison tool's destination database. Long-form guides are reviewed at least every 6 months.

Corrections Policy

If you spot an error in our data or content, please email editorial@weatherlens.live or use our contact form. Corrections are typically reviewed within 48 hours. Substantive corrections (changes that alter a recommendation or mislead a traveler) are noted in the Data Update Log on our home page.

Independence and Transparency

WeatherLens is a small independent publisher. We do not accept payment from tourism boards, hotels, airlines, tour operators, or any travel-industry party in exchange for favorable coverage, ranking, or inclusion in our destination database. Display advertising (via Google AdSense) is the only revenue source on the site, and ad placement is content-neutral.

If we ever introduce affiliate links, sponsored content, or partnerships, they will be clearly disclosed on the affected page and listed here.

What We Don't Do

• We do not publish AI-generated content without editorial review and human-authored framing.
• We do not republish other publishers' work without permission and attribution.
• We do not gate any of our climate data behind paywalls, sign-ups, or affiliate funnels.
• We do not auto-translate guides into multiple languages without human review.

Contact the Editor

For editorial questions, source disputes, correction requests, or partnership inquiries: editorial@weatherlens.live. For general feedback, use our contact form.

These standards are reviewed and updated quarterly. Last review: May 5, 2026.