Six beaches, one van, the right one each morning

Harper sells gelato from a little blue van in Sydney. She has six beaches to choose from, and only one van. Every morning she checks three weather apps and picks a beach on a hunch. Pick a beach under cloud, and the gelato goes home unsold. Last summer she counted eleven days like that, and a whole week of takings melted with them. With xMap Flows, Harper built Lighthouse. Every morning at six, Lighthouse reads her six favourite beaches, checks today’s forecast at each one, keeps the dry ones at twenty-six degrees or warmer, puts the warmest first, and sends her the pick on WhatsApp before her coffee. Today, Lighthouse says Cronulla: thirty-one degrees and no rain, while cloud sits over Manly. Harper drives south, parks by the sand, and sells out by three. This summer she has had two slow days, not eleven. Harper no longer chases the sun. It tells her where to park.

The story in words