New Custom Color Scales in Ventusky: Customize Maps Your Way
Another major new feature is coming to the Ventusky website. You can now customize color scales for all weather parameters and decide exactly how values are displayed on the map.
Create Your Own Color Scale
Color scales determine how individual values appear on the map. You can change colors, opacity and the position of individual values, add or remove values, or completely redesign the scale.
This is not just about changing colors. You can also decide which part of the scale gets the most detail. Values that matter less can use wider intervals, while an important range can use much smaller increments.
This lets you highlight extremes, important thresholds or subtle differences — whether you are tracking temperatures, strong winds, heavy precipitation, or simply creating your own customized weather maps.
Example 1: Extreme Heat Scale
Our Extreme Heat Scale is designed to make unusually high temperatures stand out. Cooler and moderate temperatures are visually suppressed, while temperatures above 30 °C are shown in 1 °C increments with increasingly strong colors.
This makes the difference between 32 °C, 35 °C, 40 °C and even higher temperatures much easier to see during heatwaves.
Both sides show exactly the same temperature forecast. The Extreme Heat Scale on the left concentrates its colors and detail on high temperatures, while the standard scale on the right covers the full temperature range.
(49,#3A0002,91%),
(48,#4A0004,90%),
(47,#5B0006,89%),
(46,#6D0008,88%),
(45,#7F000A,87%),
(44,#91000D,86%),
(43,#A30010,85%),
(42,#B50014,84%),
(41,#C40018,83%),
(40,#D1001C,82%),
(39,#DD0B1A,81%),
(38,#E51C16,80%),
(37,#EC2C12,79%),
(36,#F13C10,78%),
(35,#F64C0E,77%),
(34,#FA6211,74%),
(33,#FC7818,72%),
(32,#FD8F21,70%),
(31,#FEA52C,68%),
(30,#FFBA38,66%),
(29,#FFC64A,60%),
(28,#FFD25E,54%),
(27,#FFDE73,48%),
(26,#FFE88B,42%),
(25,#FFF1A8,36%),
(24,#D6D1C8,24%),
(20,#BDB8B0,22%),
(15,#9B9690,24%),
(10,#7B7671,28%),
(5,#595551,32%),
(0,#2D2B2A,42%),
(-5,#171616,50%),
(-10,#0B0B0B,56%)
Just copy and paste the lines above. Temperature scale in °C, ready to import into the Temperature layer. It concentrates detail above 30 °C, using 1 °C increments to make extreme heat easier to identify. If you use °F, convert the temperature values before importing.
Example 2: Freezing Point Scale
The Freezing Point Scale uses the same idea for a very different purpose. Most of its visual detail is concentrated around 0 °C, with strong contrast between slightly positive and slightly negative temperatures.
This makes the freezing boundary much easier to see and can be useful for winter weather, icy conditions, rain-to-snow transitions or mountain forecasts.
The custom scale on the left emphasizes small differences around 0 °C. The standard scale on the right gives a broader overview but much less detail around the freezing point.
(10,#D5D5D5,20%),
(6,#D5D5D5,18%),
(4,#E6D976,35%),
(3,#EAA43E,50%),
(2,#E98F43,60%),
(1,#E97B48,70%),
(0,#F4F6F8,85%),
(-1,#40A0B4,75%),
(-2,#3988C7,68%),
(-3,#4369C4,62%),
(-4,#5057B8,55%),
(-6,#52478D,40%),
(-10,#2E2270,25%),
(-20,#2E2270,20%),
(-80,#2E2270,15%)
Temperature scale in °C, ready to import into the Temperature layer. It concentrates colors and smaller increments around 0 °C to clearly separate temperatures just above and below freezing. If you use °F, convert the values before importing.
The two examples use exactly the same forecast data. Only the scale changes. One gives most of its detail to extreme heat, while the other concentrates it around a single important threshold. You can customize any map and even multiple maps, be it Wind, UV index or Waves.
Import Custom Color Scales
You don’t have to set every value manually. Ventusky allows you to import an entire scale at once. You can create one yourself, prepare it in an external tool, or have one generated or modified using AI.
The format is simple:
(46,#8A0000,65%)
Each line contains a value in the corresponding units, a HEX color, and an opacity value.
This makes scales easy to edit and share. AI tools can also change colors, opacity or intervals, generate more detail for a specific range, or convert values between units. For example, a temperature scale in °C can be converted to °F simply by asking AI to convert the first value on each line.
Always check which units a scale uses before importing it.
Synchronization Across Devices
(we are preparing it for September 2026): Custom color scales are linked to your Ventusky account. When signed in, your changes are automatically synchronized across all your signed-in devices, so you only need to create or modify a scale once.
Custom color scales give you control not only over how your weather maps look, but also over which values and ranges receive the most visual detail.
