[New Grasshopper Plugin] FutureWeather - Generate future climate-adjusted EPW/DDY files in Grasshopper

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Hi everyone,

I recently introduced FutureWeather.co on the announcements board. It’s a platform for generating future climate-adjusted weather files based on a peer-reviewed methodology and the latest generation of climate models. That post covers the science, pricing, and the full platform (web app, API, Python package, Dynamo). I won’t repeat all of that here.

This post is specifically about the Grasshopper plugin, which is now available in the Rhino Package Manager (“futureweather”, v1.0.2).

What the plugin does

FutureWeather is a native Grasshopper plugin (.gha) that generates future climate-adjusted EPW, DDY, and STAT weather files directly on the canvas. You provide a historical EPW, choose a future year (2035-2090) and climate emissions scenario, and the component handles the rest — calling the FutureWeather.co API behind the scenes and returning the future file paths. Processing typically takes under a minute per future weather file.

The Ladybug Tools Academy’s own page on Taking Future Climate Into Account acknowledges the gap between historical weather data and the climate long-lived buildings will actually experience. This plugin provides an integrated solution directly in Grasshopper, without any need to leave the canvas or use external tools.

How it could fit into your workflow

The output is a file path, so it wires directly into downstream components. For climate analysis workflows, pass the future EPW into LB Import EPW. For energy simulation workflows, wire the path straight into HB Model to OSM:

Climate analysis:
[LB Download Weather] → [FW Future Weather] → [LB Import EPW] → rest of workflow
                          (year: 2060)
                          (scenario: SSP2-4.5)

Energy simulation:
[LB Download Weather] → [FW Future Weather] → [HB Model to OSM]

Everything downstream works exactly the same — the only difference is that the EPW now represents future rather than historical climate conditions.

Who this is for

This may be useful if you:

  • run building energy simulations with Honeybee and want to understand future climate impacts
  • perform climate analysis with Ladybug and want to visualize future conditions
  • do HVAC sizing studies and need future design day (DDY) files
  • run parametric studies across multiple climate scenarios
  • work on resilience, overheating, or thermal comfort analysis for long-lived buildings

Components included

The fastest way to get started is with the included example files, which have a pre-wired canvas with all inputs connected. After installing the plugin, you can find them at:

%APPDATA%\McNeel\Rhinoceros\packages\8.0\futureweather\<version>\examples\

For example: C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\packages\8.0\futureweather\1.0.2\examples\. If you’re on Rhino 7, replace 8.0 with 7.0. Open one of the .gh files, replace the placeholder values with your token, file paths, and parameters, and right click Boolean > Set Boolean > True to run.

Main (most users need these):

  • FW Future Weather — submit, wait, and download a future EPW in one step (async — canvas stays responsive)
  • FW Future Weather Batch — generate multiple year/scenario combinations at once (e.g., [2050, 2080] × [ssp245, ssp585] = 4 files)

Utilities:

  • FW Authenticate — validate API key and check credit balance
  • FW List Projects — list projects in your account

Advanced (non-blocking workflow):

  • FW Submit Job — submit and return immediately with a job ID
  • FW Check Status — poll job status (wire to a Timer for auto-polling)
  • FW Download Results — download completed job results

Output files

  • EPW — future-adjusted weather file for annual simulation
  • DDY — future design day file for HVAC sizing (if you provide a historical DDY as input)
  • STAT — climate statistics report

Getting started

  1. Install from the Rhino Package Manager: in Rhino, type PackageManager, search for FutureWeather, and click Install.
  2. Create an account at app.futureweather.co. New users get 5 free credits for testing: https://app.futureweather.co/signup. Send me an email at support@futureweather.co if you want to do more extensive testing, and I’ll add some more free credits to your account.
  3. Create an API Key: in the app, go to API Docs > API Keys and click Create Token. Save this token — you’ll paste it into the (API) “Key” input on the Grasshopper canvas.
  4. Open one of the included example files, such as FW_SingleJob.gh. They each have a pre-wired canvas with all inputs connected and placeholder values. Just replace the placeholders with your Key/PAT (starts with “fw_”), parameters (e.g. year), and input/output file paths, and right click Boolean > Set Boolean > True to run. The example files are the fastest way to get started — everything is already wired up for you.

Example: future-proofing HVAC sizing

Say you’re sizing a cooling system for a new office building using Honeybee. Your typical workflow already looks like this:

[LB Download Weather] → EPW + DDY → [HB Sizing Parameter] → [HB Model to OSM] → results

EnergyPlus uses the DDY’s design days (e.g., 0.4% cooling day at 35°C) to calculate peak cooling load and size the system. But that 35°C design day reflects historical climate — by 2060, the equivalent design day might be 38°C.

With FutureWeather, you insert one component and provide the DDY alongside the EPW:

[LB Download Weather] → [FW Future Weather] → future EPW + future DDY → [HB Sizing Parameter] → [HB Model to OSM]
                          (year: 2060, SSP2-4.5)

The future DDY shifts the design day in lockstep with the morphed EPW, so your sizing calculation and annual simulation are based on a coherent future climate signal. You might find that peak cooling load increases from 30 kW to 36 kW — information that could justify specifying a larger chiller now rather than replacing it in 20 years.

The same approach works for Ladybug climate analysis. Wire the future EPW into LB Import EPW and your sun path, psychrometric chart, and UTCI comfort maps all reflect future conditions — useful for testing whether a passive cooling strategy or outdoor shading design will still work decades from now.

For batch studies, use FW Future Weather Batch to generate files for multiple years and scenarios in one run (e.g., [2050, 2080] × [SSP2-4.5, SSP5-8.5] = 4 files). See the included FW_BatchJob.gh example file.

Technical notes

  • Targets Rhino 7+ and Rhino 8 (Grasshopper)
  • C# .gha plugin — no Python dependencies or pip installs needed
  • Async execution — canvas stays responsive during processing
  • Install via Rhino Package Manager (Yak)

If this sounds useful for your workflow, please check it out. I’d love to hear feedback on how it works for you, what additional features would make it more useful - and any bugs you encounter! For full details on pricing, methodology, and other integration options, see the original announcement post.

You can also contact me directly to inquire about enterprise plans and pricing for your organization.

You can reach me on support@futureweather.co.

Thanks!

Rowan
Head of Product, www.FutureWeather.co
CEO, Radbridge Incorporated, www.radbridge.com

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