Calls you hear
Tap Heard and tap where the call came from. The map draws where the bull is likely to swing to get your wind.
Made to order for your ground · on the stand and on the move
The forecast is a guess. Sharpen it.
Groundwind runs a real wind model at ground level: Environment Canada's high-resolution forecast, worked over the LiDAR terrain and through the trees and the season's leaves. Puff your powder and tap where it went, and your check corrects the model around you. Your scent cone shows where your scent is really going, with or without bars.
It's made for your phone. Point the camera here to open it there, then add it to your home screen.
One check, and the cone follows.
Every forecast is off where you sit.
Forecasts are made for open ground. Under the canopy the air slows down, trees and slots turn it, and at dawn and dusk it can run against the forecast altogether. You already carry powder for this. Groundwind makes every puff count.
And it goes where you go. Most hunting apps are built around a stand on a property line. Groundwind works just as hard on the move: angling in on a bull, working round a bluff, still-hunting an edge.
10 mThe height a wind forecast is made for, over open ground.
1.5 mWhere your scent leaves you, under the trees.
The wind model
A wind model, not an arrow.
The forecast's 2.5 km grid can't see a ridge, a bog, a spruce stand or the lee of a lake. Groundwind works it down to the air at head height on a 30 m grid, for any minute of the week, on the phone. Each layer changes where your scent goes.
30 m grid · head height · any minute · offline
- ForecastECCC's HRDPS at 10 and 80 m, so it knows when the ground air comes loose from the wind above on a clear, cold night.
- TerrainA mass-consistent wind solve over the 1 m LiDAR ground: faster over the bluff, slack in its lee.
- Heat and coldCold air draining downhill at dusk, warm air rising upslope by day, lake and land breezes.
- Trees and leavesStand height and closure from the LiDAR point cloud, the hardwoods' leaves coming down by date, wind channelled down the slots between stands.
- Gusts and swirlThe forecast's gusts widen the cone, and the air tumbles behind tree lines and in openings.
- Your checksEach puff corrects the model near you and teaches it how that kind of air behaves at your spot.
Made to order
Not an app for everywhere. Built for your spot.
An app that runs anywhere can only give you the forecast arrow. The wind at your head depends on your ridge, your stands and your shoreline, and getting it right takes 1 m LiDAR, the forest inventory and a wind model solved over that exact ground. So we don't fake it everywhere. You send us your spot, and we build it.
10×10kmBuilt around your spot: the ground, the bush and the air over it.
48hFrom your request to the map on your phone.
- Send your spotCoordinates from your GPS or Google Maps, or the name of the lake.
- We build itThe 1 m LiDAR ground and bush, every forest stand, the ground wind solved over the terrain, the moose scores and the routes, built and checked by hand for that block.
- It's on your phoneWe email you when it's ready. Save it once at camp and all of it works with no service.
- Ontario and QuébecToday. Elsewhere in Canada, ask: a new province takes us longer, because its forest and LiDAR come from different places.
Forecast
A forecast that works with no bars.
Environment Canada's 2.5 km HRDPS model for the next two days, with a seven-day outlook behind it, saved on your phone at camp. Walk out of service and it's still there, with its age shown, as your best guess until a check sharpens it.
HRDPS 2.5 km · a new run 4× a day · 7-day outlook
How it works
Groundwind asks for each new HRDPS run by name as it lands and drops it into the seven-day blend. The wind is fetched over a grid across your area, so the lee of a lake still shows. A ground model then brings the 10 m wind down to head height: the canopy, the slots between stands, morning and evening thermals, and the still layer that settles on a clear night.
Wind checks
Sharpen the wind. Trust the cone.
Puff your powder and tap the way it went. Your check goes into the wind model: the ground wind around you is pulled toward what you felt, and your scent cone moves with it. It also teaches the model how that kind of air behaves where you hunt, so the next sit starts closer.
Scored in your hunt log: forecast vs map, check by check
How it works
A check pulls the ground wind inside its ring toward what you felt and fades with time, more slowly if you say the wind has held. It also becomes a lesson for its kind of air, like cold air draining, a lake breeze or a slot in the trees: a turn and a speed correction the model applies wherever that air turns up, forgotten over about two weeks. Each check saves what the forecast and the model said beside what you felt, so the hunt log shows how often each was right.
Habitat and weather
Where they'll be, day by day.
Habitat, weather and the season all move animals. Groundwind scores moose, deer, grouse and bear across your area, hour by hour for the week ahead, weighing the last ten days of weather, the wind, the rut and the leaves, and what you've logged yourself. Tap a spot for its score, Dig in for the reasons, and turn the knobs if you know better.
- MooseBrowse 5 to 20 years after a cut or burn, close to cover. Shores in the rut. Bedded through a warm spell, moving on the first cool day.
- DeerSouth-facing aspen and hazel near cuts, lakes and roads.
- GrouseYoung aspen over alder, or spruce and jack pine for spruce grouse. Tight in wind and rain, out on the roads at dawn and dusk.
- BearBerries in 6 to 20-year cuts and burns through September, then denning cover.
How it works
The rules come from Ontario's habitat guides and published field studies, scored on a 30 m grid. Weather moves them hour by hour: temperature (below), wind and heavy rain cutting calling range, a 5 °C drop with the wind easing, and overcast cool days that stretch the morning. The rut follows the calendar, peaking from 25 September to 5 October. Your sightings pull the map toward them for about a week, and blank sits push it down. Every score shows its arithmetic, and every rule is a knob from off to double.
Behaviour
A warm week beds them. The first cold morning moves them.
Groundwind reads the last ten days of highs beside the forecast, because moose feel heat early. Every hour's score carries the temperature, and the scoring tells you in so many words when the game is lying up and when the break is coming.
- Moose, deerHeat stress starts near 14 °C. By the third day of highs over 18 °C they bed through the heat and move at night. The first cool day after is the one to be out.
- GrouseTight in wind over 25 km/h and in rain. Calm, cool mornings and the two hours before dark.
- BearLess bothered by heat. On the berries through September, then into denning cover after mid-October.
As a table
| Temperature | Moose activity |
|---|---|
| 10 °C or under | Full |
| 10 to 14 °C | 80% |
| 14 to 20 °C | Half |
| Over 20 °C | About a third |
An example week, in the app's words
- Mon19°
- Tue21°
- Wed22°
- Thu13°
warm spell, day 3: bedded through the heat, moving at night
first cool day after 3 warm ones: expect movement
Bush and range
See the bush before you're in it.
Bush thickness at eye level, from the LiDAR point cloud: open, light, thick or thicket. It decides how far you'll see, how loud the walk is, and where a moose can stand unseen.
- BushThe Bush view colours the brush between 0.5 and 3 m, from open to thicket.
- RangeThe Bow view is your range: open lanes stay clear and thick bush goes dark, so you know where you'll be able to see and shoot.
- Sight linesDig in on any spot for how far you'll see in eight directions, in metres.
- GoingRoutes and the moose scores both read it: thick bush is slow and loud to walk, and it's cover.
How it works
Eye-level cover isn't the canopy. A closed canopy shades the brush out, while a cut or a burn fills in with suckers and saplings. Groundwind counts the LiDAR returns between 0.5 and 3 m against everything below 3 m, cell by 10 m cell. Where the point cloud hasn't been fetched yet, it estimates the brush from each stand's age and makeup.
Party scent
Tonight, two of you.
Set the time to the evening hunt and drop two sitters. Both cones show on the evening wind, numbered, with whose scent drifts over whom. Move them until neither of you is on the way he'll come in.
Cones at 1.5 m · or from a 4 or 6 m stand · added up
How it works
The cones run on the forecast for that hour, brought down to head height, including the cold air that starts draining toward dusk. The scent card adds them up, with lines like "2 sitters · scent over 5.2 ha" and "1's scent drifts over you". The old rule still holds: put the caller 40 to 50 m upwind of the shooter, so a bull circling downwind of the calls walks into the shooter.
On the move
What's the wind doing over that bluff?
A lot of moose hunting is moving: angling in on a bull you've heard, still-hunting an edge, working round a bluff. That's where a forecast is least use. Before you step round the corner, see what the air is doing there and how far you'll see.
- AngleLog his grunts with Heard. The map draws his line and where he'd swing to get your wind, so you can angle in from the right side.
- WindThe streaks run at head height: over the bluff, down the draw, round the edge of the stand.
- ScentDrop a cone at the corner ahead and see where you'd blow before you get there.
- RangeBefore you step out, Bow and the sight lines tell you how far you'll see from the next spot.
How it works
The ground wind is solved over the terrain, then slowed and turned by the bush: tree lines, slots between stands, the lee of a ridge. Eye-level cover isn't the canopy, so Groundwind reads the brush from each stand's age and makeup and from the LiDAR's height and density, which is what sets the sight lines.
Also in the beta
Routes in
Three ways in on foot over the LiDAR: the easiest walk, and hunt routes that skirt the best ground and keep your scent off it.
A log that keeps itself
Your track, the calls you heard and your wind checks, grouped into outings. It all works offline once the area is saved.
Built so far.
- Pickle LakeNear White River, ON · WMU 21B
- Lac BaileyQuébec · zone 18
Open the beta and both are there to try: it's what your own spot will look like.
Open the betaPut it on your phone
On an iPhone, open the link in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. On Android, open it in Chrome and choose Install app. Before you lose signal, save the area in Settings, under Maps on this phone.
Questions
What does it cost?
Nothing during the beta.
iPhone or Android?
Both. Groundwind runs in your phone's browser and goes on the home screen like any app: on an iPhone, Safari's Share, then Add to Home Screen; on Android, Chrome's Install app. No app store and no account.
Does it work with no service?
Yes, once your area is saved on the phone (Settings, then Maps on this phone). The forecast you saved at camp keeps working with its age shown, and your track, calls and wind checks are kept as you go.
Where does it work?
Where we've built it, on purpose. Each area is a 10 × 10 km block built around someone's spot: Pickle Lake near White River and Lac Bailey in Québec so far. Request yours and it's ready within 48 hours.
Why not everywhere?
Because a map of everywhere can only show you the forecast arrow. The wind at your head depends on your ridge, your stands and your shoreline, and modelling that takes 1 m LiDAR, the forest inventory and a wind solve over that exact ground. We'd rather do your spot properly than the whole country badly.
What happens to my data?
Your track, pins, hunt log and wind checks stay on your phone. Nothing comes to us unless you send it: a spot you share, or a log you upload when something's wrong. The forecast is fetched from Open-Meteo for your area.
How right is the ground wind?
It's a model, and every model is wrong somewhere. That's why the checks exist: a puff of powder at your spot beats any forecast, and the hunt log keeps score of how often the forecast and the model matched what you felt.