TEXT-MESSAGE WEATHER · NO SERVICE REQUIRED
Text your coordinates to Tentcast and get a real NWS forecast back in seconds. Works over the satellite messaging built into your iPhone. Garmin inReach and ZOLEO too. No app. No $400 device.
Do it now, while you have service. Then your first text from a ridge is a tap, not a guessing game.
Install the Shortcut and Tentcast gets seamless. One tap grabs your GPS and writes the whole text for you, straight from your Lock Screen or your watch. No copying numbers off the Compass app with cold hands. No typo that sends you the forecast for the wrong ridge.
Three weeks from now, on a ridge, with cold hands, you type “Tent” instead of trying to remember a number.
Open the Compass app and text us what it shows. Numbers like these are all we need:
45.818198,-110.896455
Your phone's GPS works with zero service. The Compass app shows them, or use our one-tap Shortcut.
Over cell, or over satellite when there's no signal.
Elevation-corrected temps, wind, precip, a 3-day outlook, warnings, and wildfires near you. One text, seconds later.
Real replies, on a real phone. Recordings, not mockups.
$0
The fun question, answered.
$29/year
The whole forecast, anywhere you stand.
$49/year
For people who live out there.
The Shortcut works on every plan. What comes back is what your plan covers.
Every paid keyword works once for free, so you can try the real thing before you pick a plan.
Text Message Today 7:42 PM
You: TENT?
Tentcast: Tentcast: Where is camp? Text your GPS coords (Compass app shows them) and we will tell you if you need the tent. Reply STOP to cancel.
You: 45.818198,-110.896455
Tentcast: Tentcast: Skip the tent - 3% chance of rain tonight. Full forecasts anytime, anywhere - free account: tentcast.com. Reply STOP to cancel.
Text Message Today 6:15 AM
You: wx 45.818198,-110.896455
Tentcast: 45.818,-110.896 el 6201ft Now 54F wind WNW12 clr 12h 54>46>43>42F pcldy wind<=12
Text Message Today 1:08 PM
You: alerts 45.818198,-110.896455
Tentcast: 45.818,-110.896 alerts 25mi: *WINTER WX ADVSY til Thu 6PM (11mi NE) FIRE Sand Creek 35.5kac 36% (13mi SE)
Text Message Today 8:51 PM
You: ask how long do I boil creek water at 9000 ft
Tentcast: Boil 3 minutes at 9000 ft elevation. Higher altitude lowers boiling point so longer time needed.
Text Message Today 9:30 AM
You: river 45.6770,-111.0429
Tentcast: river 25mi: E GALLATIN R BOZEMAN 58cfs - (4mi N) HYALITE C BOZEMAN 36cfs ^ (8mi S) GALLATIN R 355cfs - (17mi SW)
Text Message Today 5:47 AM
You: metar KBZN
Tentcast: KBZN 301856Z 29013KT 10SM BKN080 21/04 A2999 RMK AO2 SLP128 T02110044
Plus fcst, taf, and snow coming soon.
Forecasts for any coordinates. Tomorrow's pass, base camp, the drainage you're headed into. Not just where you're standing.
We don't make forecasts. We deliver the official ones. Every reply comes from the National Weather Service, the same data behind weather.gov.
NWS meteorologists blend the big weather models, then correct them by hand for local terrain. The result is a forecast grid covering the whole country in squares about a mile and a half wide. Each square has its own temps, wind, and precip, adjusted for elevation.
Text your coordinates and you get the forecast for the exact square you're standing in. Not the nearest town. Not the airport 40 miles away and 4,000 feet lower. Yours. That's why every reply shows the elevation it's forecast for.
Warnings are real NWS watches and warnings for your area. Fire info comes from the National Interagency Fire Center's live feed, the same one fire crews use.
No secret algorithm. No black box. The best forecast data in the world, sent to the one place it never reached before. No service required.
Built in on iOS 18 or later. Free. Nothing to sign up for.
Free
No native satellite. Works through T-Satellite.
$10/mo
Free satellite texting on Verizon. Google Messages required.
Free on Verizon
Satellite texting through T-Satellite.
$10/mo
Satellite SOS only out of the box. Real texting needs a carrier.
Free for SOS, $10/mo for texting
Satellite texting through T-Satellite.
$10/mo
Dedicated satellite messengers. Text us like any other number.
Your existing plan
Over normal cell service, everything works everywhere.
Free
Verified 2026-09-01. Phones change every autumn, so we date this. Read the full compatibility guide.
$0
The fun question, answered.
$29/year
The whole forecast, anywhere you stand.
$49/year
For people who live out there.
The Shortcut works on every plan. What comes back is what your plan covers.
Every paid keyword works once for free, so you can try the real thing before you pick a plan.
Yes. If your phone can send a text over satellite, it can reach us. You point the phone at open sky, send the message, and wait. Replies usually land in 15 to 60 seconds.
Nothing about Tentcast needs data. There is no app to load and no page to fetch. It is a text message out and a text message back, which is the only thing that still works when the bars are gone.
iPhone 14 and newer have it built in on iOS 18 or later, free. iPhone 13 and older can get there through T-Satellite for $10 a month on any carrier.
Galaxy S25, S26, Z Fold7 and Z Flip7 get free satellite texting on Verizon, through Google Messages. Galaxy S21 and newer, plus some A-series, work through T-Satellite. Recent Motorola phones do too.
Pixel 9 and 10 are the exception worth reading about below. And any Garmin inReach or ZOLEO already does this out of the box.
Because the satellite feature Google builds into a Pixel is Satellite SOS, and that is exactly what it says: a line to emergency services. It will not send a text to us or to your friends.
The fix is a carrier service. Add Verizon satellite texting or T-Satellite to the same phone and it sends normal texts over satellite, including to us.
Partly. It depends on where you are and what you are using.
Southern Alaska generally works. The far north is unreliable, and we would not plan around it. Satellite texting coverage up there depends on your provider more than your phone, so check before you go and carry a backup.
Tentcast serves the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. In the US the forecast comes from the National Weather Service. Everywhere else it comes from Open-Meteo, with the same short reply.
Getting the text out is the other half. iPhone satellite texting works across the US, Canada and Mexico. Anywhere else on earth, a Garmin inReach or ZOLEO reaches us, and a Pro account can link one with Add a device.
Weather alerts are live in the US and Canada so far. River gauges use US data, so river works at US coordinates only.
The National Weather Service, the same data behind weather.gov. We do not make forecasts. We deliver the official ones for the exact grid square you are standing in, about a mile and a half across, corrected for elevation.
Fire information comes from the National Interagency Fire Center's live feed, the same one fire crews use. Text alerts and you get any fire inside your alert radius with its size, how contained it is, and how far away it is and in which direction.
No. Tentcast is not an emergency service and forecasts can be wrong. Carry the ten essentials and use your own judgment.
In an emergency, text 911. Satellite 911 works on iPhone.
As a supplement, never as your briefing. Tentcast is not a primary source for preflight planning. Get an official weather briefing from an approved source before every flight.
Yes. Every paid keyword works once for free: wx, fcst, alerts, river, ask, metar and taf. You get the full reply, nothing cut down. After that one try, the keyword is part of a plan.
Tentcast is a supplemental resource. It is not a primary source for preflight planning and it is not a weather briefing. Use official briefing sources for every flight. Treat what we send as one more data point, never the deciding one.
Read the aviation guideNo account to make. No app to install. Send a text and see what comes back.
Text TENT? to (406) 333-1298