Inverza
Photo Weather Intelligence
Only for iPhone
Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPhone. Not verified for macOS.
Inverza is a weather intelligence app built for landscape photographers. It blends real-time forecasts from multiple models, live ground truth from airport METAR stations, GPU-accelerated terrain shadow mapping, and AI analysis, so you're at the right place at the right time.
ASK AI ABOUT YOUR SHOT
Type a question like "Will there be fog at Geroldsee tomorrow morning?" and get an informed answer grounded in live weather data. Inverza detects 16 photographic conditions: colorful dawn, golden clouds, ground fog (with marine and steam-fog paths), hoarfrost, dramatic storm clouds with phase-aware approach and departure windows, Milky Way, aurora, Belt of Venus, reflecting waters, soft light, full moon silhouette, Brocken spectre, lenticular clouds over mountain ridges, and more. Each comes with a confidence score and timing. The built-in AI works out of the box, no key needed. Bring your own Claude, Gemini, or ChatGPT key for more powerful models.
NEVER MISS CONDITIONS AGAIN
Set background alerts at your favorite locations and get notified hours before conditions align. Smart proximity filtering focuses on locations within driving distance. Multi-location alerts let one alert watch several spots at once, with reordering for priority.
DISCOVER & PLAN PHOTO SPOTS
Browse an interactive map filled with photography points of interest from OpenStreetMap: viewpoints, waterfalls, castles, bridges, lighthouses, and more. Save curated spots, set viewing directions, and pair each spot with a photo subject pin (a mountain face, lighthouse, lake, or castle) so the AI reasons about lighting your subject, not just where the sun is. A 360° Horizon Paths chart shows sun and moon arcs against the terrain at any spot.
SEE WHERE SHADOWS FALL
A GPU-accelerated terrain shadow overlay (NASA SRTM elevation, Metal compute) shows exactly where sunlight reaches up to 30 hours ahead. Scrub the time slider or jump straight to sunrise or sunset. The map also supports 3D terrain, Look Around previews, and live sun and moon direction lines.
DARK-SKY AWARENESS
Milky Way and Aurora detections factor in local light pollution via a bundled global Bortle raster (NOAA VIIRS, ~1 km resolution). Inner-city skies hard-gate; suburban skies caveat realistically.
FREE TRIAL & SUBSCRIPTION
14 days free with full access, then $4.99/year. No paywalls, no tiers, cancel anytime.
BUILT FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
Made by a landscape photographer tired of checking five weather apps and still missing the fog. No account, no tracking, no ads. Five languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian.
PRIVACY
Inverza does not require an account and does not collect personal data. Weather queries
are location-based but not tied to your identity. See our full GDPR-compliant privacy policy
for details.
Terms of Use: https://inverza.app/terms
Privacy Policy: https://inverza.app/privacy
more Photo subjects, dark-sky awareness, and a sharper AI.
Photo Subjects: pair each photo spot with the actual subject you're shooting (a mountain face, lighthouse, lake, or castle), up to 50 km away. Inverza identifies what it is from OpenStreetMap (peak, glacier, waterfall, lighthouse, alpine hut, and 17 more) and reasons about lighting the subject, not just the sun. For distant subjects (>20 km) it pulls a second weather forecast at the subject's coordinates so you catch spotlight conditions when the photographer is in cloud but the peak is in the clear.
Material-aware AI: 22 per-subject photographic playbooks now live in the AI prompt. Waterfalls suggest soft light and ND filters; glaciers get alpenglow timing; lighthouses get blue-hour beam advice; peaks get telephoto compression. The AI also no longer tells you to "turn away from the subject" when the sun is behind you. That's now correctly framed as front-lit golden hour.
Horizon Paths: a new 360° terrain horizon strip on the spot detail card with sun and moon arcs for every day. Navigate by hour or day, and toggle the Photographer/Subject view to see how light falls at either vantage.
Dark-sky integration: Bortle class lookups (NOAA VIIRS, bundled global ~1 km raster) now gate and rank Milky Way and Aurora detections. Inner-city skies hard-gate; suburban skies caveat. Aurora detection respects strong-storm modulation through skyglow.
Plus tutorial polish, sun-azimuth and moon-arc bug fixes, and a refreshed spot detail card.
1.4.1 12h ago
Notifications improved. Fixed a long-standing scheduling bug where automatic alerts could silently stop after force-quitting or rebooting your iPhone.
Memories. Bookmark great AI responses in chat and revisit, annotate, or export them as text or Markdown.
Storm Clouds detected even better. Just in time for thunderstorm season, the Dramatic Storm Clouds detector now reads CAPE, Lifted Index and WMO weather codes - so windy-but-stable days don't trigger false alarms. When a real cell is forecast, the badge spells out both prime photo windows: shelf cloud 30-90 min before the core arrives, then mammatus and back-anvil glow 30-90 min after. It also names where the storm comes from (using 700 hPa steering flow) and flags golden-hour overlap. The AI chat now has full storm-chaser knowledge built in - ask "is this worth chasing?" or "where should I face?" and get a real answer.
Other recent improvements:
• Shadow Map slider now steps in 5-minute increments, with new ‹/› nudge buttons next to the quick-jumps
• Smarter Lenticular Cloud detection using upper-level winds and ridge geometry
• Water-aware Ground Fog (advection fog at cold coasts, steam fog over warm lakes)
• Multi-location alerts so you can monitor several spots at once
• Terrain-draped sunrise/sunset/moonrise direction lines on the map
• AI chat now sees each detector's specific recommendation (lens, ISO, orientation)
Plus the usual polish, bug fixes, and faster network handling. Happy chasing.
1.4 4d ago
Notifications improved. Fixed a long-standing scheduling bug where automatic alerts could silently stop after force-quitting or rebooting your iPhone.
Memories. Bookmark great AI responses in chat and revisit, annotate, or export them as text or Markdown.
Storm Clouds detected even better. Just in time for thunderstorm season, the Dramatic Storm Clouds detector now reads CAPE, Lifted Index and WMO weather codes - so windy-but-stable days don't trigger false alarms. When a real cell is forecast, the badge spells out both prime photo windows: shelf cloud 30-90 min before the core arrives, then mammatus and back-anvil glow 30-90 min after. It also names where the storm comes from (using 700 hPa steering flow) and flags golden-hour overlap. The AI chat now has full storm-chaser knowledge built in - ask "is this worth chasing?" or "where should I face?" and get a real answer.
Other recent improvements:
• Shadow Map slider now steps in 5-minute increments, with new ‹/› nudge buttons next to the quick-jumps
• Smarter Lenticular Cloud detection using upper-level winds and ridge geometry
• Water-aware Ground Fog (advection fog at cold coasts, steam fog over warm lakes)
• Multi-location alerts so you can monitor several spots at once
• Terrain-draped sunrise/sunset/moonrise direction lines on the map
• AI chat now sees each detector's specific recommendation (lens, ISO, orientation)
Plus the usual polish, bug fixes, and faster network handling. Happy chasing.
1.3 May 15
Storm Clouds detected even better. Just in time for thunderstorm season, the Dramatic Storm Clouds detector now reads CAPE, Lifted Index and WMO weather codes - so windy-but-stable days don't trigger false alarms. When a real cell is forecast, the badge spells out both prime photo windows: shelf cloud 30-90 min before the core arrives, then mammatus and back-anvil glow 30-90 min after. It also names where the storm comes from (using 700 hPa steering flow) and flags golden-hour overlap. The AI chat now has full storm-chaser knowledge built in - ask "is this worth chasing?" or "where should I face?" and get a real answer.
Other recent improvements:
• Shadow Map slider now steps in 5-minute increments, with new ‹/› nudge buttons next to the quick-jumps
• Smarter Lenticular Cloud detection using upper-level winds and ridge geometry
• Water-aware Ground Fog (advection fog at cold coasts, steam fog over warm lakes)
• Multi-location alerts so you can monitor several spots at once
• Terrain-draped sunrise/sunset/moonrise direction lines on the map
• AI chat now sees each detector's specific recommendation (lens, ISO, orientation)
Plus the usual polish, bug fixes, and faster network handling. Happy chasing.
1.2.3 May 11
- New Localization settings: choose your timezone or the spot's local for condition times, with optional dual-clock annotation.
- New Lenticular Clouds condition. Combines 700 / 500 hPa winds with terrain ridge analysis to surface the moments mountain ranges sculpt those iconic stacked lens-shaped clouds above the ridgelines.
- Water-aware ground fog. Inverza now reads sea-surface temperatures and inland water-temperature estimates to spot two more fog patterns photographers love: coastal advection fog (warm moist air over cooler seas - SF Bay, the UK coast, the Pacific Northwest) and inland steam fog (cold dawn air over warmer lakes and rivers - that classic "smoke on the lake" look). Three distinct fog pathways now run side-by-side: radiation, advection, and steam.
- Brocken Spectre: smarter terrain filtering. The detector now checks whether you're actually on open ground using OpenStreetMap landcover and a latitude-aware tree-line. Forested mid-altitude summits are filtered out, so your alerts only fire where the spectre can really form - exposed ridges, summits, alpine outcrops.
- Smaller install, smarter storage. Terrain tiles for every region, including the Alps, now download on demand instead of shipping with the app. The download is a one-time fetch per area, cached forever, and you can free up space per region from Settings → Terrain Tiles whenever you want.
- Multi-location alerts. One alert can now track several locations at once. Pick aurora, lenticular clouds, or any other rare condition, choose the spots you'd be willing to travel to, and Inverza notifies you whichever one lights up first.
- Live badges in their proper time slot. When METAR ground observations confirm a forecast, the "Live" badge now sits in the right position on the conditions carousel instead of jumping to the end.
- Haptics across the board. Light Taptic Engine pulses confirm shadow timeline scrubs (one tap per hour), condition badge scrolling, and successful pull-to-refresh on the chat tab.
A reminder of what powers the experience
- GPU (Metal) acceleration. Shadow computations run on Apple's Metal compute kernels, projecting solar geometry across SRTM elevation tiles in milliseconds rather than seconds - even on full mountain ranges with thousands of sample points.
- Vector Shadow Maps. Shadows render as crisp polygon overlays rather than bitmaps, so they stay sharp at any zoom level and any camera pitch - no pixelation when you tap to inspect a fjord or ridge.
- 3D Shadow Map. Pitch the camera to see how shadow lines drape across real terrain elevation in real time, helping you predict exactly when a given peak, valley, or coastline will fall into golden light.
1.2.2 May 5
- New Localization settings: choose your timezone or the spot's local for condition times, with optional dual-clock annotation.
- New Lenticular Clouds condition. Combines 700 / 500 hPa winds with terrain ridge analysis to surface the moments mountain ranges sculpt those iconic stacked lens-shaped clouds above the ridgelines.
- Water-aware ground fog. Inverza now reads sea-surface temperatures and inland water-temperature estimates to spot two more fog patterns photographers love: coastal advection fog (warm moist air over cooler seas - SF Bay, the UK coast, the Pacific Northwest) and inland steam fog (cold dawn air over warmer lakes and rivers - that classic "smoke on the lake" look). Three distinct fog pathways now run side-by-side: radiation, advection, and steam.
- Brocken Spectre: smarter terrain filtering. The detector now checks whether you're actually on open ground using OpenStreetMap landcover and a latitude-aware tree-line. Forested mid-altitude summits are filtered out, so your alerts only fire where the spectre can really form - exposed ridges, summits, alpine outcrops.
- Smaller install, smarter storage. Terrain tiles for every region, including the Alps, now download on demand instead of shipping with the app. The download is a one-time fetch per area, cached forever, and you can free up space per region from Settings → Terrain Tiles whenever you want.
- Multi-location alerts. One alert can now track several locations at once. Pick aurora, lenticular clouds, or any other rare condition, choose the spots you'd be willing to travel to, and Inverza notifies you whichever one lights up first.
- Live badges in their proper time slot. When METAR ground observations confirm a forecast, the "Live" badge now sits in the right position on the conditions carousel instead of jumping to the end.
- Haptics across the board. Light Taptic Engine pulses confirm shadow timeline scrubs (one tap per hour), condition badge scrolling, and successful pull-to-refresh on the chat tab.
A reminder of what powers the experience
- GPU (Metal) acceleration. Shadow computations run on Apple's Metal compute kernels, projecting solar geometry across SRTM elevation tiles in milliseconds rather than seconds - even on full mountain ranges with thousands of sample points.
- Vector Shadow Maps. Shadows render as crisp polygon overlays rather than bitmaps, so they stay sharp at any zoom level and any camera pitch - no pixelation when you tap to inspect a fjord or ridge.
- 3D Shadow Map. Pitch the camera to see how shadow lines drape across real terrain elevation in real time, helping you predict exactly when a given peak, valley, or coastline will fall into golden light.
1.2.1 May 5
- New Localization settings: choose your timezone or the spot's local for condition times, with optional dual-clock annotation.
- New Lenticular Clouds condition. Combines 700 / 500 hPa winds with terrain ridge analysis to surface the moments mountain ranges sculpt those iconic stacked lens-shaped clouds above the ridgelines.
- Water-aware ground fog. Inverza now reads sea-surface temperatures and inland water-temperature estimates to spot two more fog patterns photographers love: coastal advection fog (warm moist air over cooler seas - SF Bay, the UK coast, the Pacific Northwest) and inland steam fog (cold dawn air over warmer lakes and rivers - that classic "smoke on the lake" look). Three distinct fog pathways now run side-by-side: radiation, advection, and steam.
- Brocken Spectre: smarter terrain filtering. The detector now checks whether you're actually on open ground using OpenStreetMap landcover and a latitude-aware tree-line. Forested mid-altitude summits are filtered out, so your alerts only fire where the spectre can really form - exposed ridges, summits, alpine outcrops.
- Smaller install, smarter storage. Terrain tiles for every region, including the Alps, now download on demand instead of shipping with the app. The download is a one-time fetch per area, cached forever, and you can free up space per region from Settings → Terrain Tiles whenever you want.
- Multi-location alerts. One alert can now track several locations at once. Pick aurora, lenticular clouds, or any other rare condition, choose the spots you'd be willing to travel to, and Inverza notifies you whichever one lights up first.
- Live badges in their proper time slot. When METAR ground observations confirm a forecast, the "Live" badge now sits in the right position on the conditions carousel instead of jumping to the end.
- Haptics across the board. Light Taptic Engine pulses confirm shadow timeline scrubs (one tap per hour), condition badge scrolling, and successful pull-to-refresh on the chat tab.
A reminder of what powers the experience
- GPU (Metal) acceleration. Shadow computations run on Apple's Metal compute kernels, projecting solar geometry across SRTM elevation tiles in milliseconds rather than seconds - even on full mountain ranges with thousands of sample points.
- Vector Shadow Maps. Shadows render as crisp polygon overlays rather than bitmaps, so they stay sharp at any zoom level and any camera pitch - no pixelation when you tap to inspect a fjord or ridge.
- 3D Shadow Map. Pitch the camera to see how shadow lines drape across real terrain elevation in real time, helping you predict exactly when a given peak, valley, or coastline will fall into golden light.
1.2 Apr 29
- New Lenticular Clouds condition. Combines 700 / 500 hPa winds with terrain ridge analysis to surface the moments mountain ranges sculpt those iconic stacked lens-shaped clouds above the ridgelines.
- Water-aware ground fog. Inverza now reads sea-surface temperatures and inland water-temperature estimates to spot two more fog patterns photographers love: coastal advection fog (warm moist air over cooler seas - SF Bay, the UK coast, the Pacific Northwest) and inland steam fog (cold dawn air over warmer lakes and rivers - that classic "smoke on the lake" look). Three distinct fog pathways now run side-by-side: radiation, advection, and steam.
- Brocken Spectre: smarter terrain filtering. The detector now checks whether you're actually on open ground using OpenStreetMap landcover and a latitude-aware tree-line. Forested mid-altitude summits are filtered out, so your alerts only fire where the spectre can really form - exposed ridges, summits, alpine outcrops.
- Smaller install, smarter storage. Terrain tiles for every region, including the Alps, now download on demand instead of shipping with the app. The download is a one-time fetch per area, cached forever, and you can free up space per region from Settings → Terrain Tiles whenever you want.
- Multi-location alerts. One alert can now track several locations at once. Pick aurora, lenticular clouds, or any other rare condition, choose the spots you'd be willing to travel to, and Inverza notifies you whichever one lights up first.
- Live badges in their proper time slot. When METAR ground observations confirm a forecast, the "Live" badge now sits in the right position on the conditions carousel instead of jumping to the end.
- Haptics across the board. Light Taptic Engine pulses confirm shadow timeline scrubs (one tap per hour), condition badge scrolling, and successful pull-to-refresh on the chat tab.
A reminder of what powers the experience
- GPU (Metal) acceleration. Shadow computations run on Apple's Metal compute kernels, projecting solar geometry across SRTM elevation tiles in milliseconds rather than seconds - even on full mountain ranges with thousands of sample points.
- Vector Shadow Maps. Shadows render as crisp polygon overlays rather than bitmaps, so they stay sharp at any zoom level and any camera pitch - no pixelation when you tap to inspect a fjord or ridge.
- 3D Shadow Map. Pitch the camera to see how shadow lines drape across real terrain elevation in real time, helping you predict exactly when a given peak, valley, or coastline will fall into golden light.
1.1.1 Apr 27
What's new in 1.1
• GPU-accelerated Shadow Map rendering with Metal - faster, smoother, more detailed
• New 3D terrain view on the map
• Look Around previews for available spots
1.1 Apr 20
Minor bugfixes, added 1 new condition (Brocken spectre) to the now 15 conditions
1.0.5 Apr 13
Added 5 new conditions, improved sunrise/sunset detection. Improved location fetch and storage management. Localisation fixes. Minor bugfixes.
1.0.3 Apr 5
Added 5 new conditions, improved sunrise/sunset detection. Improved location fetch and storage management. Localisation fixes.
1.0.2 Apr 4
Minor bug fixes and UI improvements.
1.0.1 Apr 1
Photo subjects, dark-sky awareness, and a sharper AI.
Photo Subjects: pair each photo spot with the actual subject you're shooting (a mountain face, lighthouse, lake, or castle), up to 50 km away. Inverza identifies what it is from OpenStreetMap (peak, glacier, waterfall, lighthouse, alpine hut, and 17 more) and reasons about lighting the subject, not just the sun. For distant subjects (>20 km) it pulls a second weather forecast at the subject's coordinates so you catch spotlight conditions when the photographer is in cloud but the peak is in the clear.
Material-aware AI: 22 per-subject photographic playbooks now live in the AI prompt. Waterfalls suggest soft light and ND filters; glaciers get alpenglow timing; lighthouses get blue-hour beam advice; peaks get telephoto compression. The AI also no longer tells you to "turn away from the subject" when the sun is behind you. That's now correctly framed as front-lit golden hour.
Horizon Paths: a new 360° terrain horizon strip on the spot detail card with sun and moon arcs for every day. Navigate by hour or day, and toggle the Photographer/Subject view to see how light falls at either vantage.
Dark-sky integration: Bortle class lookups (NOAA VIIRS, bundled global ~1 km raster) now gate and rank Milky Way and Aurora detections. Inner-city skies hard-gate; suburban skies caveat. Aurora detection respects strong-storm modulation through skyglow.
Plus tutorial polish, sun-azimuth and moon-arc bug fixes, and a refreshed spot detail card.
more Version 1.4.1 12h ago
Data Not Linked to You The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity: