Your weather forecast is showing clear skies, light winds – and drops of the Nineties.
The Weather Channel has launched a nostalgic new website that provides forecast updates in its former cable TV style, complete simple graphics and smooth jazz.
The retro mode, harking back to the 80s and 90s, launched April 1 but is not an April Fools’ joke, the Weather Channel confirmed on social media.
“This is not an April Fool’s joke. You’ve asked (a lot) and we’ve listened. Go to weather.com on web — click the top left button, ‘RetroCast Now,’ and enjoy local forecasts in the way you know and love,” the channel posted on Instagram.
The new site opens to a rotating compass and a countdown to the RetroCast. Users who click through find live, real-time weather updates in a throwback style. A meteorologist’s voiceover says: “Coming up, a look at your local radar. But first, the current local conditions.”
The Retrocast features current weather conditions in a user’s local area and other major U.S. cities. It also provides a 36-hour forecast, an extended forecast, regional forecast and current local radar.
Weather Channel enthusiasts and those craving some 90s nostalgia were quick to laud the throwback interface — and begged the channel to keep the new service. Some social media users even begged the channel to bring back its old format on TV.
“Please bring back the old school format! We want local on the 8’s every 10 minutes. We want the jazz. We want 24/7 weather like it used to be, with weather center, travel-wise, your tropical update, so on and so forth,” one user wrote under the Instagram post. “Weather Channel was such a vibe back then.”
Another Instagram user added: “I’ve prayed for times like these.”
The RetroCast can be accessed on weather.com/retro.
