I Rebuilt WeatherTab for a Better New Tab

I rebuilt WeatherTab with a cleaner forecast, full-screen weather photos, and more control over what appears when you open a new tab.

The idea is still simple. Open a tab, check the weather, and get on with whatever you came to do.

This is a preview of WeatherTab 2.0.1. The update is still a Chrome Web Store draft, so the screenshots below show what’s coming.

The New Everyday View

The current temperature sits in the middle, with the conditions and today’s high and low underneath. Search is just below it, followed by the days ahead.

WeatherTab showing sample New York weather at 72 degrees, a browser-default search field, and a five-day forecast over sunlit mountains — The Everyday layout, with Browser default selected as the search provider.

Click a forecast day to open its details on Weather Extension, including the hourly outlook. WeatherTab refreshes the weather about every 30 minutes while the tab is visible and checks for updates when you return. There’s no refresh button to manage.

As Much Weather as You Want

Open Customize in the bottom-right corner and choose a starting point:

Minimal: Current weather and search, with more room for the background.
Everyday: Adds the daily forecast.
Expanded: Adds hourly conditions, wind, humidity, precipitation, and radar.

You can adjust those presets. Turn the clock, search, daily forecast, hourly forecast, weather details, and radar on or off individually. Settings save automatically.

WeatherTab Customize panel with dashboard switches and Browser default search, temperature, and clock preferences over sample New York weather — Choose what appears on your tab, with Browser default selected for search.

The Expanded view puts the next six forecast hours and the days ahead beside an interactive radar map. You can see the forecast and check nearby rain without leaving the tab.

Expanded WeatherTab dashboard with six hourly forecasts, daily conditions, wind and humidity, and a radar map centered on the New York demo location — Hourly weather and the daily forecast sit beside radar in the Expanded layout.

Search the Way You Already Do

Search starts with Browser default, which follows Chrome’s search settings. Choose another web provider under Customize → Your dashboard → Your preferences if you prefer.

This setting only changes the search box inside WeatherTab. Your Chrome address-bar search engine stays as you set it.

Minimal WeatherTab layout with clear night weather, browser-default search, and a starry sky background — Minimal mode with Browser default selected. The forecast panels are switched off.

36 Backgrounds to Choose From

The photo collection now has six images each for sunshine, clouds, rain, snow, mist, and night.

Let the background follow the weather, or pick a favorite and keep it. There’s also a simple blue gradient.

WeatherTab background gallery with six sunshine photographs, golden dunes selected — The Sunshine category, with golden dunes selected from the 36-photo collection.

The photos come bundled with the extension. They’re scenery for your tab, rather than photos of your selected city. All screenshots use New York as a demo location with sample forecast data; the radar is a live view of that demo location.

A Few Smaller Details

Choose Fahrenheit or Celsius and a 12-hour or 24-hour clock. The clock follows the time zone of your weather location.

You can search for a city manually or choose Use my current location. Location access is requested when you choose that option. Your preferences stay in your browser, and WeatherTab doesn’t require an account.

WeatherTab replaces your new-tab page. If you also want the temperature in your toolbar, Weather Extension does that. I’ve been refreshing that extension too.

For weather on your phone, WeatherExt for iPhone and iPad brings forecasts, radar, animated skies, and widgets to iOS, with an Apple Watch companion. Download on the App Store.

You can see the full product page at WeatherTab on Weather Extension or visit its Chrome Web Store listing. The redesign shown here will be available once the update is released.

If you have a feature request or spot something that needs work, send it to [email protected].