Garmin Activity Weather: Why It's Missing or Wrong
If the weather shown on a Garmin activity doesn't match what you remember experiencing, there is a straightforward reason: Garmin's activity weather comes from a weather station, not directly from the temperature your device records during the activity.
Garmin says the weather displayed on an activity is provided by the nearest official weather station, which is often a local airport. Garmin also says that if the station does not provide all weather data, an activity can show limited information, including missing sky conditions, wind or temperature.
Why Garmin's weather can differ from what you experienced
The nearest official weather station may be several miles from your route. Local conditions can vary with elevation, terrain, cloud cover, sun exposure, and wind.
Garmin also captures activity weather once, at the start of the activity. On a long run or ride, conditions can change a lot by the time you finish.
Separately, Garmin explains that the temperature graph recorded by the device is different from the weather information shown for the activity. Device temperature can be affected by body heat, direct sunlight, hot pavement, and device placement.
A different approach to activity weather
Klimat uses your activity and historical weather data to add weather to supported training logs. Instead of relying solely on the weather Garmin attaches to an activity, Klimat retrieves weather for your activity from its supported weather providers.
Klimat can report conditions at the start, middle, and end of an activity, plus minimum and maximum readings for supported metrics, so a long ride shows how the weather changed, not just how it began.
You can choose from several weather providers, including Open-Meteo, AccuWeather, Apple Weather, and Visual Crossing, with The Weather Channel available on Premium.
What Garmin users can do with Klimat
Klimat does not currently write weather data back into Garmin Connect activities. Most Garmin users already sync their activities to Strava automatically, so the practical workflow is to connect Strava to Klimat and let Klimat add the weather there.
That gives Garmin users another way to look at the conditions surrounding their workouts, including metrics Garmin's activity weather display does not provide, such as dew point, heat stress (WBGT), and air density.
Have Garmin activities in Strava? Use Klimat to add richer weather to your training history.