Dr. Hopps

Because the danger sign looks like contentment

Heat Watch

Rabbits die of heat, not of weather fronts — and the posture they take while overheating looks exactly like a rabbit relaxing. This reads the forecast where you are and tells you which days your rabbit cannot cope with.

Which weather should I read?

The forecast is only useful for the place your rabbit actually lives. Your position is rounded to about 11 kilometres before anything is requested or stored — the forecast for a whole town is one number, so nothing here needs your street.

Why this exists

The overheating rabbit looks like a relaxed rabbit

This is the one danger you cannot catch by looking, and it is measured: at 31.1 °C rabbits spent half their time sprawled on their side, almost stopped grooming, and were inactive 92% of the time. Stretched out and still is exactly what a contented rabbit looks like. It is also the last quiet stage before one stops coping.

30 °C

where real heat stress starts for a rabbit — a temperature most people call a nice day

35 °C

where a rabbit can no longer hold its own body temperature at all

+34%

blowfly strike risk for every 1 °C warmer — which is why the daily check matters

What it does

  • Reads the forecast where you are and tells you which of the next three days your rabbit cannot cope with.
  • Uses the thresholds from the veterinary literature: comfortable to 25 °C, real heat stress from 30 °C, unable to hold its temperature at all from 35 °C.
  • Counts humidity, because still damp air defeats the only cooling system a rabbit has.
  • Adjusts for your rabbit: a lop's ears lie against its body, so the radiator it cools itself with barely works.
  • Reminds you to check the back end daily while it is warm — blowfly strike risk rises about 34% for every 1 °C.

What it will not do

This reads the weather, not your rabbit. A rabbit that is already breathing fast, wobbly or unresponsive needs a vet now, whatever the forecast says — and never cool one with ice or cold water.

A forecast, not a thermometer

By the time a rabbit shows you heat stress, the dangerous part has already started, and the textbook prognosis once it reaches seizures is frankly poor. Everything that works happens before that — shade moved, airflow opened, the rabbit brought indoors. All of it needs a day's notice, which is why this is a forecast and not a monitor.

Already too hot? Run the emergency check

Free, and it reads the forecast where you are — the useful warning is the evening before, not the afternoon of.