How MapPack Weather works

The panel

Every day we run the same 500 Google Maps searches: 25 common local industries (plumber, dentist, personal injury lawyer, HVAC repair, roofer and more) in the 20 largest US metros, from a fixed map point in each city center. We record the top 20 businesses for each search.

The score

For each search we compare today's top 20 with the previous day's. A business that moves gets a penalty based on how far it moved (capped at 10 positions). A business that enters or leaves the top 20 gets the full penalty. Positions near the top count more than lower ones, so a shake-up in the 3-pack matters more than a reshuffle at #18.

That gives each search a 0–100 score. We average them for the overall score, for each industry (across 20 cities), and for each city (across 25 industries).

0–15 Calm · 15–30 Breezy · 30–45 Windy · 45–60 Stormy · 60+ Severe Storm. We'll tune these bands as history builds up.

What it is not

This is not Google data, and it can't tell you why a single business moved. It tells you whether the whole local ecosystem is moving. Data comes from a licensed SERP data provider; we don't scrape Google directly. MapPack Weather is independent and not affiliated with Google.