Baadal: I Built an App That Teaches You to Read the Sky Again

Description and use

Baadal is a web app that lets users photograph the sky, receive a 3‑hour rain probability, and learn to read clouds for future weather prediction.

Problem

People rely on generic weather apps that give a 40% chance of rain, but they do not use the most immediate source of weather information – the sky itself.

Outcome

Baadal provides a 30‑second interaction that compares a rain probability derived from the sky with one derived from weather data alone, demonstrating the added value of visual cloud analysis. In three test photos, the app correctly identified cloud types and produced low rain probabilities that matched the actual weather outcomes.

Workflow

• Look up and take a photo or upload one
• Gemma 4 analyzes the photo and outputs cloud type, coverage, towering, confidence
• TabPFN combines the cloud analysis with live humidity, pressure, 3‑hour pressure trend to predict rain probability
• Gemma presents a two‑sentence explanation and a tip for future sky reading
• User logs whether it rained or stayed dry after 3 hours to keep an honest score

Evidence

Gemma 4 reads the clouds. It names the cloud type (cumulus, stratus, cirrus and the rest of the 10 WMO genera), estimates how much of the sky is covered, and checks for towering growth.

Source

TabPFN does the forecasting. It combines what you saw with live humidity, pressure and the 3-hour pressure trend, and returns a rain probability.

Source

The result screen shows two bars side by side: "With your eyes" (your photo + weather data) and "Weather data only".

Source

Gemma named a different cloud type for each sky, and the low numbers fit a dry October evening and night.

Source