Transcript: WeatherFast for Windows tour, with JAWS

Times are positions in WeatherFast-audio-tour-JAWS-v2.mp3; a demo's time is where its audio starts, after the chime.

Demo lines are what JAWS said in each recording, as far as it could be heard: checked with speech recognition and worded the way JAWS's own Speech History logged it. '...' marks speech cut off by the next key press. JAWS also says some keys as they are pressed (Enter, Space, Alt N); those are included. The weather was live, just after midnight Central on October 28, 2026.

• Download WeatherFast for Windows tour, with JAWS (MP3, 21 MB)
• Back to the tour on the audio tours page

Welcome (0:00)

River: Welcome to a guided tour of WeatherFast for Windows. I'm River.

Maya: And I'm Maya. WeatherFast is a free weather program, built to be quick to use with a screen reader. Every piece of weather is its own line you can arrow to. Over the next twenty minutes or so, we'll show you what that sounds like.

River: Here's how this works. Every demo is the real program, running on a Windows test machine, with JAWS reading it. It's the next version of WeatherFast, three point oh point two, recorded just before its release. JAWS is the screen reader from Freedom Scientific, using its standard voice, Eloquence. We changed a few settings so the demos aren't too wordy: punctuation is set to some, the speech is a little faster than standard, typing is spoken as words, and the tutor and access key messages are turned off. You'll also hear JAWS say some of the keys as they're pressed.

Maya: We're AI voices, but JAWS isn't. A script pressed the keys, and we recorded exactly what JAWS said. Afterwards we added a soft click for each key press, evened out the volume, and shortened long pauses. JAWS's words weren't changed.

River: And the weather is real, too. The test machine was online, and these demos were recorded in the small hours of October twenty eighth, twenty twenty six. So it's night in America, the temperatures are real, and so are the warnings you'll hear for Miami.

Starting WeatherFast (1:15)

Maya: Let's start WeatherFast and just listen.

[Demo, 1:18, JAWS] Your Cities list box. Madison, Wisconsin, United States - Loading... 1 of 6. Madison, Wisconsin, United States - 55°F, Clear sky (High: 72°F, Low: 48°F). Madison, Wisconsin, United States - 55°F, Clear sky (High: 72°F, Low: 48...

River: WeatherFast opened straight onto its list of cities. JAWS read the first one while its weather was still on the way: Madison, loading, one of six. A moment later the weather arrived, and JAWS read the line again: fifty five degrees, clear sky, with today's high of seventy two and low of forty eight.

Maya: There's no account to make and no key to type in. The weather comes from Open-Meteo, a free weather service, and the city search from OpenStreetMap.

Your list of cities (2:08)

River: Now let's arrow down through the list.

[Demo, 2:11, JAWS] Seattle, Washington, United States - 48°F, Overcast (High: 55°F... Miami, Florida, United States - 77°F, Partly cloudy (High: 80°F, Low: 75°F) [SEVERE: Coastal Flood Warning, +1 more]. 3 of 6. Denver, Colorado, United States - 43°F, Clear sky (High: 62°F... London, England, United Kingdom - 48°F, Partly cloudy (High: 60°F... Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - 69°F, Mainly clear (High: 74°F... Home. Madison, Wisconsin, United States - 55°F, Clear sky (High: 72°F, Low: 48°F). 1 of 6.

Maya: One line per city, and each line is a complete summary: the temperature right now, a word for the sky, and today's high and low. You can hear the whole list in a few seconds.

River: Did you catch Miami? After the high and low, it said severe, coastal flood warning, plus one more. For places in the United States, WeatherFast checks the National Weather Service, and puts the most serious warning right on the city's line.

Maya: And Home took us straight back to Madison at the top.

Full Weather: everything about one place (3:25)

River: Let's find out what those Miami warnings are. Enter on a city opens Full Weather.

[Demo, 3:31, JAWS] Enter. Miami, Florida, United States - Full Weather - WeatherFast. Weather report list box. Not selected. Loading... Report for Miami, Florida, United States. Report for Miami... ALERTS. 2 of 62. SEVERE: Coastal Flood Warning - Coastal Flood Warning issued October 27 at 1:22AM EDT until October 28 at 8:00PM EDT by NWS Miami FL - until Wed Oct 2... MODERATE: Rip Current Statement - Rip Current Statement issued October 27 at 1:22AM EDT until October 28 at 8:00PM EDT by NWS Miami F... CURRENT. 5 of 62. Condition: Overcast. 6 of 62. Temp: 76.8°F. 7... Feels Like: 79.7°F... Humidity: 83%. 9 of 62. Wind: 13.9 mph... TODAY'S OUTLOOK. 11 of 62. High UV today (max 7). 12 of 62. HOURLY. 13 of 62. 01:00 AM: 77°F. 14 of... 02:00 AM: 77°F. 15... 03:00 AM: 77°F. 16 of 62.

Maya: The report is a list called Weather report, one fact per line. It said loading for a moment, then read the heading, report for Miami, twice as the forecast and the warnings arrived.

River: Then ALERTS, with the most serious first: a coastal flood warning until Wednesday at eight PM, and a rip current statement. We moved on before JAWS finished the longer ones, which you can always do.

Maya: Then CURRENT: overcast, seventy six point eight degrees, feels like seventy nine point seven, humidity eighty three percent, and the wind at thirteen point nine miles an hour.

River: Then TODAY'S OUTLOOK, in plain words. Here, high UV today. Then HOURLY, starting with this hour, one AM, at seventy seven degrees.

Maya: Every heading is in capitals, so it's easy to tell where a section starts. And if the check for alerts ever fails, the report says it couldn't check, rather than saying there are none.

Reading a whole alert (5:38)

River: An alert line in the report is a summary. Enter on it opens the whole thing.

[Demo, 5:43, JAWS] Enter. Weather Alert - Coastal Flood Warning dialog. Alert list box. SEVERE - Coastal Flood Warning. 1 of 14. Coastal Flood Warning issued October 27 at 1:22AM EDT until October 28 at 8:00PM EDT by... Affected Areas: Coastal Broward County; Coastal Miami Dade County, FL. 3 of 14. Valid: Tue Oct 27 01:22 AM - Wed Oct 28 08:00 PM. 4 of 14. Details:. 5 of 14. View on NWS Website button. Escape. SEVERE ALERT - Miami, Florida, United States - Full Weather - WeatherFast. Weather report list box. SEVERE: Coastal Flood Warning - Coastal Flood Warning issued October 27 at 1:22AM...

Maya: That opened a Weather Alert window, with its own list called Alert. Severe, coastal flood warning. Then who issued it and when, then the affected areas, coastal Broward County and coastal Miami-Dade County, then the period it's valid, and then the details.

River: Tab reached a button, View on NWS Website, for the official page. And Escape closed the alert and put us back on the same line of the report.

Other days (6:53)

Maya: Full Weather isn't just today. At the top of it are buttons for the previous day, today and the next day. This time we're in Madison's report.

[Demo, 7:03, JAWS] Configure button. Next Day button. Enter. Madison, Wisconsin, United States - +1 day - WeatherFast. Weather report list box. Weather for Madison, Wisconsin, United States. 1 of 30. 2026-10-29 (+1 day). 2 of 30. SUMMARY. 3 of 30. Thu Oct 29: High 65°F Low 46°F Overcast. 4 of 30. HOURLY. 5 of 30. 12:00 AM: 64°F 25% chance. Escape. My Cities - WeatherFast. Your Cities list box. Madison, Wisconsin, United States - 55°F, Clear sky (High: 72°F, Low:...

River: Shift tab twice took us to Next Day, and Enter pressed it. JAWS read the new window title: Madison, plus one day.

Maya: Focus stayed on the button, so we tabbed back to the report, which now started with Weather for Madison, then the date, then a summary: Thursday October twenty ninth, high sixty five, low forty six, overcast. Then that day's hours, starting at midnight, sixty four degrees with a twenty five percent chance of rain.

River: You can go about a week back and a week ahead. And Escape went back to the list of cities, on the same city, with today's high and low just as they were.

Adding a city (8:22)

River: Adding a place. Alt N jumps to the search box. You can type a city, a zip code, a street address, or a place like an airport.

[Demo, 8:30, JAWS] Alt N. Add New City edit. City name or zip code. Duluth Minnesota. Enter. Search Results dialog. 1 result for 'Duluth Minnesota'. Press Enter to add it, or Escape to cancel. List box. Duluth, Minnesota, United States. 1 of 1. Enter. My Cities - WeatherFast. Your Cities list box. Duluth, Minnesota, United States - Loading... 7 of 7. Duluth, Minnesota, United States - 50°F...

Maya: We typed Duluth Minnesota and pressed Enter. A Search Results window opened, and told us there was one result, with the instruction: press Enter to add it, or Escape to cancel.

River: Even with one match, you get to hear it before it's added. We pressed Enter, and we landed right on Duluth in our list, seven of seven: loading for a moment, then fifty degrees.

Adding several cities at once (9:23)

Maya: If you want a lot of places, there's a faster way: Browse Cities by State or Country, a button right after the search box.

[Demo, 9:32, JAWS] Enter. Browse Cities by Location dialog. Select a U.S. State: combo box. -- Select a State -- 1 of 51. Washington. 48 of 51. West Virginia. 49 of 51. Wisconsin. 50 of 51. Load Cities button. Space. Select cities to add (check multiple cities): list view. Algoma, Wisconsin, United States - Loading... not checked. Space. Checked. Allouez, Wisconsin, United States - 54°F, Overcast (High: 71°F... Space. Checked. Algoma, Wisconsin, United States - 53°F, Overcast (High: 60°F... checked. Select All button. Deselect All button. Add Selected Cities button. Space. My Cities - WeatherFast. Add New City, Browse Cities by State/Country button. OK button. Enter. My Cities - WeatherFast. Add New City, Browse Cities by State/Country button.

River: It opened on the U.S. States tab. In the state box, W three times went from Washington to West Virginia to Wisconsin. Load Cities took us straight to the list of Wisconsin cities.

Maya: And each city reads just like a line in your own list. Algoma said loading, because its weather was still on the way. Space checked it, and JAWS said checked. Down Arrow to Allouez: fifty four degrees, overcast, with a high of seventy one, and Space checked that too. Up Arrow back to Algoma, and now it had its weather: fifty three, overcast, high of sixty.

River: Then Add Selected Cities added them to the list. The Sort box can order the list by name, north to south, east to west, or temperature. There's also an International tab, with about twenty cities each for more than ninety countries, and a Favorites tab for regions you come back to.

Units, and what you see (11:13)

Maya: Alt C opens Configure. The first three tabs choose what the report shows, for Current, Hourly and Daily: things like dew point, pressure, UV, the chance of rain, or sunrise and sunset. The last tab is Units.

[Demo, 11:28, JAWS] Alt C. Configure Weather Display dialog. Current tab selected. Hourly tab selected. Daily tab selected. Units tab selected. Temperature, Fahrenheit (°F) radio button checked. 1 of 2. Temperature, Celsius (°C) radio button checked. 2 of 2. Enter. My Cities - WeatherFast. Your Cities list box. Madison, Wisconsin, United States - 55°F, Clear sky (High: 72°F... Seattle, Washington, United States - 9°C, Slight rain [Rain] (High: 13°C, Low: 8°C). Madison, Wisconsin, United States - 13°C, Clear sky (High: 22°C, Low: 9°C). 1 of 6.

River: Control tab moved through the tabs, Current, Hourly, Daily and Units. On Units, each measure is a group of radio buttons, and JAWS read the group's name with each one: temperature, Fahrenheit, then Down Arrow to Celsius, checked.

Maya: Enter pressed OK, and the list changed straight away. Seattle, nine degrees Celsius, with slight rain. Madison, thirteen degrees Celsius.

The Weather menu (12:36)

River: Beyond the list and the report, there's a Weather menu, Alt W, with seven extra reports for the city you've selected. Let's start with Expected Precipitation, for Seattle, where it's raining.

[Demo, 12:47, JAWS] Seattle, Washington, United States - 48°F, Slight rain [Rain] (High: 55°F, Low: 4... Weather Alerts... Expected Precipitation... Leaving menus. Your Cities list box. Seattle, Washington, United States - 48°F, Slight rain [Rain] (High: 55°F, Low: 47°F). Next hour (15-minute steps):. 2 of 8. Now: Light (0.02"). 3 of 8. +15 min: Light (0.01"). 4 of 8. +30 min: None. 5 of 8. Escape. My Cities - WeatherFast. Your Cities list box. Seattle, Washington, United States - 48°F, Slight rain [Rain] (High: 55°F...

Maya: Seattle's line said slight rain, with a rain marker. Then the next hour, in fifteen minute steps. Now: light. Plus fifteen minutes: light. Plus thirty minutes: none. So the rain is about to stop.

River: And Escape closed it and put us back on Seattle.

Weather Around Me (13:43)

Maya: Next, Weather Around Me. It compares the weather around a city, in every direction.

[Demo, 13:50, JAWS] Weather Alerts... Expected Precipitation... Weather Around Me... Leaving menus. Your Cities list box. Madison, Wisconsin, United States - 55°F, Clear... Radius: combo box. 100 mi. 2 of 7. Load Weather Around Me button. Space. Weather around list box. Not selected. Weather around... Center: Madison, Wisconsin, United States - 55°F, Clear... N (100.0 mi): Town of Stockton, Wisconsin - 50°F, Mainly clear. 2 of 9. NE (100.0 mi): Town of Rockland, Wisconsin - 54°F, Overcast. 3 of 9. E (100.0 mi): Milwaukee County, Wisconsin - 60°F, Overcast. 4 of 9. SE (100.0 mi): Cook County, Illinois - 54°F, Overcast. 5 of 9.

River: We kept the radius at a hundred miles and pressed Load. The first time, it looks up the place names, which takes a few seconds. Then focus moved to the results, a list called Weather around.

Maya: The center first, Madison, fifty five and clear. Then north, a hundred miles, the Town of Stockton, fifty, mainly clear. Northeast, the Town of Rockland, fifty four, overcast. East, Milwaukee County, sixty. Southeast, Cook County, Illinois, fifty four.

River: There's a second tab, the Directional Explorer, that lists the cities along one direction, so you can find out what's coming your way.

Historical weather (15:23)

Maya: Historical Weather looks back as far as nineteen forty. It has three tabs, and we went to Multi-Year: the same day of the year, across past years.

[Demo, 15:33, JAWS] Weather Alerts... Leaving menus. Your Cities list box. Madison, Wisconsin, United States - 54°F, Clear... Multi-Year tab selected. Calendar day: date edit. 10/28/2026. Years back: edit spin box. 20. Load button. Space. Multi-year results list box. 2025-10-28: High 56°F Low 41°F Max wind 11.5 mph Overcast. 1 of 20. 2024-10-28: High 64°F Low 44°F 0.01" pre... 2023-10-28: High 43°F Low 36°F Max wind 11.7... 2022-10-28: High 56°F Low 36°F Max wind 6.0... 2021-10-28: High 53°F Low 46°F 0.28" precip Max wind 12.3 mph Slight rain. 5 of...

River: The calendar day was today, October twenty eighth, and years back was twenty. Load gave a list called Multi-year results, one line per year. Twenty twenty five, a high of fifty six and a low of forty one. Twenty twenty four, sixty four and forty four. Twenty twenty three, a cold forty three and thirty six.

Maya: So a high of seventy two in Madison today is well above the usual. There's also a single day tab, and a daily browse tab that lists up to a month of days in a row.

The moon (17:06)

River: One more from the Weather menu: Astronomy. Its access key is T.

[Demo, 17:11, JAWS] Weather Alerts... Leaving menus. Your Cities list box. Madison, Wisconsin, United States - 54°F, Clear sky (High: 72°F... Phase: Waning Gibbous. 2 of 6. Illumination: 95%. 3 of 6. Moon age: 16.8 days. 4 of 6. Next new moon: 2026-11-10. 5 of 6. Next full moon: 2026-11-25. 6 of 6.

Maya: Phase, waning gibbous. Illumination, ninety five percent. Moon age, sixteen point eight days. The next new moon is November tenth, and the next full moon November twenty fifth.

River: The Weather menu also has My Data, where you choose your own readings from a long list, including air quality and pollen, and a Marine Forecast for places on the coast.

Browsing every alert (18:06)

Maya: Weather Alerts don't have to be for a city in your list. On the Cities menu, Alt I, Browse Weather Alerts shows every active alert in the United States or Canada.

[Demo, 18:17, JAWS] Add City. Browse Cities by State/Country... Add My Location. Browse Weather Alerts... Leaving menus. Your Cities list box. Madison, Wisconsin, United States - 54°F, Clear sky (High: 72°F, Low: 48°F). Enter. Loading alerts... list box. Loading... 1 of 24. 24 alert types, 303 areas (severity: All) list box. [Severe] Coastal Flood Warning - 7 areas (soonest until Wed Oct 28 05:00 AM). 1 of 24. [Severe] Coastal Flood Warning - 7 areas... [Severe] Flood Warning - 5 areas (soonest until Wed Oct 28 11:00 AM). 2 of 24. Enter. [Severe] Flood Warning - 5 areas list box. Lake, FL; Volusia, FL (until Wed Oct 28 11:00 AM). 1 of 5. Lake, FL; Volusia, FL (until Wed Oct 28 02:00 PM). 2 of 5. Enter. Alert list box. SEVERE - Flood Warning. 1 of 21. Flood Warning issued October 27 at 9:03PM EDT until October 28 at 2:00PM EDT by NWS Melbourne FL. 2 of 21. Affected Areas: Lake, FL; Volusia, FL. 3 of 21. Escape. My Cities - WeatherFast. Your Cities list box. Madison, Wisconsin, United States - 54°F, Clear sky (High: 72°F...

River: We chose the United States. While it loaded, JAWS said loading, and then it read the list as soon as it filled: twenty four alert types across three hundred and three areas, starting with severe, coastal flood warning, seven areas.

Maya: Down Arrow gave severe, flood warning, five areas. Enter listed the places it covers: Lake and Volusia counties in Florida. And Enter on one of those opened the full alert, from the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida.

River: Above that list are filters for severity and hazard type, and a button to save them as your default. And Escape closed the whole thing.

Tidying the list (20:13)

Maya: Last, keeping your list in order. Alt U moves a city up, Alt D moves it down, and Delete removes it.

[Demo, 20:20, JAWS] Denver, Colorado, United States - 42°F, Clear sky (High: 62°F, Low: 38°F)... Alt U. Denver, Colorado, United States - 42°F, Clear sky (High: 62°F, Low: 3... Seattle, Washington, United States - 48°F, Dense drizzle [Rain] (High: 55°F... Denver, Colorado, United States - 42°F, Clear sky (High: 62°F... Delete. Confirm dialog. Remove Denver, Colorado, United States? Yes button. Enter. My Cities - WeatherFast. Your Cities list box. Denver, Colorado, United States - 42°F... London, England, United Kingdom - 47°F, Clear sky (High: 60°F... Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - 68°F, Mainly clear (High: 74°F, Low: 57°F). 5 of 5.

River: Alt U moved Denver up one, above Miami. Then Delete asked, remove Denver, Colorado, United States, with a Yes button, and Enter said yes.

Maya: We stayed at the same place in the list, now London, and every city kept its weather: London, forty seven degrees and clear. Down Arrow, Sydney, sixty eight, five of five.

Summing up, and where to get WeatherFast (21:28)

River: So, to sum up. One line per city, with warnings right on the line. Enter for the full report, one fact at a time, with alerts first. Next Day and Previous Day. Alt N to search for any place, or browse a whole state, with every city's weather. Alt C for what you see and in which units. And the Weather menu for precipitation, the weather around you, history and the moon.

Maya: WeatherFast is free, and F1 opens its user guide. Download links are under the WeatherFast heading of Kelly Ford's project page, at the idea place dot net, slash projects. That's the idea place, all one word, dot net, slash projects.

River: Thanks for listening. I'm River.

Maya: And I'm Maya. Stay dry out there.