Weather heads-ups that fit your house

Handyman watches the forecast for each of your homes and tells you what's coming in time to do something about it, with tips for the house you actually have, not a generic list.

A forecast tells you it will rain. It doesn't tell you to close the skylight you mentioned, or that tonight's frost means disconnecting the garden hose. Handyman's weather heads-ups do the second part, for each home you have, on that home's clock.

What a heads-up tells you

Rain, heavy rain, storms, strong wind, freezing rain and frost, each with what to do about it at your home. The tips follow what Handyman knows about the house: no advice about patio cushions for a home with no patio on record, never an air-conditioner cover beside a heat pump, and freezing rain gets tips of its own. Where it isn't sure (it doesn't know whether you have a deck), it says so rather than assuming.

When they arrive

• In the morning: today's weather worth knowing about, once.
• Coming soon: rain or a storm a few hours away, early enough to act on.
• Tonight: an evening note about weather on the way overnight, before you go to bed.
• Frost: the afternoon before, so there's time to bring in the hose and cover the plants.
• Updates: a note if the timing moves a lot, and an all clear when it's no longer expected.

Never a pest

Heads-ups keep to quiet hours: nothing goes out after 9 p.m. There are at most two in a day, the same weather isn't news twice, and if you have several homes you get one note that names them all, not one per house.

Where they come

Everyday heads-ups come in the app and by email. A serious warning, a storm or a hard freeze, comes by text as well, to people who have texts switched on. You choose in your notification settings, and you can ask for every heads-up by text if you'd rather.

Rolling out this fall

Weather heads-ups are rolling out to homes this fall, free like the rest of Handyman. Add your home and they'll start as soon as they reach it.