The Scout Weatherproof Index

Scout computes The Scout Weatherproof Index from its own database of verified places and place intelligence — indoor/outdoor attributes, weather sensitivity, categories, hours and dayparts, prices, audiences and walking effort. It measures resilience to weather disruption, not the quality of a city's climate, and it ignores how many all-weather outings Scout has published: publishing volume is Scout coverage, not a characteristic of the city. Indoor share is never used as the definition of weatherproof — indoor businesses that are not leisure destinations are excluded entirely.

This edition covers 188 cities and 19,744 AI-analyzed places. A city is only ranked once at least 30 of its published places have completed Scout's place-intelligence analysis, at least 25 of them are genuine indoor or all-weather leisure options, four activity categories are represented, and at least four of the standardized weather-fallback plans can be built — otherwise the city is shown as developing research coverage instead of being ranked.

How Scout Builds the Weatherproof Score

Scout identifies meaningful indoor and all-weather leisure places — museums, aquariums, galleries, theaters, indoor recreation and sport, arcades and bowling, classes and workshops, indoor markets and cultural venues, plus cafés, dessert and dining as supporting stops. Indoor businesses that are not leisure destinations, such as offices and service providers, are excluded.

Scout evaluates how deep and how varied that inventory is, on a curve, in absolute terms rather than as a share of Scout's places.

Scout tests nine standardized weather-fallback plans against the city's real inventory: a rainy Saturday, an extreme-heat afternoon, a cold day, a snowy day where relevant, an indoor family day, an indoor date, a four-hour indoor outing, a cheap indoor day and an evening after the outdoor plan is canceled. Each needs distinct places filling distinct roles inside the stated budget.

Scout checks whether fallback options remain available across morning, afternoon, evening and the weekend.

Scout evaluates whether those alternatives work for couples, families, groups and solo visitors, at free through premium budgets, and across active, cultural, entertaining, educational, relaxing and social styles.

Weather conditions are scored separately, and only where they are relevant: cold and snow are marked Not Material in markets where they do not disrupt plans.

The five component scores are normalized onto 0–100 and weighted for comparison across cities.

Weatherproof is not a climate rating

A city with punishing weather can score highly here, because the index measures what happens after Plan A dies. A city with generally pleasant weather can score poorly if it has few good alternatives on the days conditions do turn. This index does not measure how pleasant the climate is, average temperature, annual rainfall, natural-disaster or climate risk, or overall livability.

Fun versus Weatherproof

The Fun Index asks how reliably you can find something good to do. The Weatherproof Index asks how well that ability survives when weather removes the outdoor options — a resilience lens underneath the broader Fun score.

How the score is built

Fallback Plan Feasibility (30%): The centerpiece. Scout tries to build nine standardized weather-fallback outings from the city's own inventory — a rainy Saturday, an extreme-heat afternoon, a cold or freezing day, a snowy day where relevant, an indoor family day, an indoor date, a four-hour indoor outing, a cheap indoor day and an evening after the outdoor plan is canceled. Each needs distinct, practical places filling distinct roles inside the stated budget and daypart. Scout never requires that it has already published such a plan.

Weather-Safe Things To Do (25%): Absolute depth of indoor and all-weather leisure inventory — museums, aquariums, indoor attractions, galleries, bowling, arcades, indoor recreation and sport, theaters, classes and workshops, indoor markets, cultural venues, and cafés and dessert as supporting stops. Indoor businesses that are not leisure destinations, like offices and service providers, never count. Scored on absolute depth with diminishing returns, not as a share of Scout inventory.

Weather Scenario Coverage (20%): Bad weather is not one condition. Scout scores resilience separately against the conditions that actually disrupt plans in that market — extreme heat, rain, cold, snow, wind and sun exposure — and only evaluates the conditions relevant to the city. Conditions that do not materially disrupt local plans are marked Not Material rather than scored.

All-Day Resilience (15%): Whether the fallback inventory stays usable through morning, afternoon, evening and the weekend. A city whose indoor options all close at 5pm cannot score like one with indoor depth after dark.

Accessible Weatherproof Variety (10%): Whether the backup plan works for couples, families, groups and solo visitors, at free through premium budgets, and across active, cultural, entertaining, educational, relaxing and social styles — so that the answer to bad weather is never just "go shopping".

Counts that could simply reward big cities are normalized: social infrastructure, events and bookable inventory are expressed per 100 published places, and variety measures use evenness rather than raw totals.

Scores are recomputed on every refresh, so a city's position moves as coverage deepens or as venues open and close. Underlying place data is verified against Google Places; outings are human- or AI-composed and reviewed before publishing.