My Split-Flap Display Now Shows the Weather

The seven-digit split-flap display in my studio used to count the hours since I was born. Now it shows the forecast: 4077069, a 40% chance of rain, a high of 77°F, and a low of 69°F. I made it a Life Clock last year, counting up the hours of my life. I still like that idea (I even reprogrammed it to show my daughter’s days of life this spring after she was born). But a number that only ever ticks up, slowly, slowly loses attention. I wanted the display to tell me something I’d actually act on when I glance up from my desk. The weather can be that thing for a while. Packing a forecast into seven digits The display shows exactly seven digits and nothing else, so I had to encode a whole forecast into a single number. I split the seven digits into three fields: Digits Meaning 1 Rain likelihood, 0–9 2–4 High temperature, °F 5–7 Low temperature, °F The rain digit is just the chance of rain divided by ten and floored, so a 45% chance becomes 4 and a 90% chance becomes 9. One digit is plenty…