The notoriously unpredictable British summer time may be drawing to a close, and even throwing up the occasional 'Indian summer's day' as September takes hold. But ad tech firms are increasingly offering brands the means to advertise their wares based on the climactic conditions.

Currently leading this trend is US-based The Weather Channel, which is currently in the process of pitching its 'weather-driven DSP' WeatherFX that now lets brands buy inventory across several premium exchanges (including DoubleClick, Rubicon Project, OpenX and Millennial Media, among others) from a single point of purchase.

Dubbed WeatherFX Off-Property, The Weather Channel's data-driven proprietary bidder – which uses AppNexus technology – lets advertisers send "weather-triggered messaging" to relevant publishers sites on an automated basis.

The new service has several triggers including when the weather is forecast to contain: 'Rain'; Very high cloud coverage'; and 'Allergy weather', etc.

For instance, a retailer can serve ads for different FMCG products be they based on seasonal norms, or abnormalities in real-time, so they can "go beyond the obvious", according to The Weather Channel.

Ross Webster, The Weather Channel, managing director, UK, told ExchangeWire: "Last month [when the UK was going through unseasonably wet weather] the John Lewis Partnership saw a run on items like remote vegetables and whiskey [items that usually sell in higher volumes in Autumn and Winter]."

Such a scenario would have been an ideal situation for brands to use the new service, which is currently being roadshowed among agencies and brands at present.

Earlier this summer Sizmek's Peer39 announced a similar service that lets advertisers, agencies and trading desks can target programmatic buys using a variety of pre-bid weather data attributes including temperature ranges, presence of various weather events, current conditions, flu severity and, soon, pollen counts.

The services also lets advertisers use weather to determine bid price, or to develop strategies for reporting and optimisation, according to Sizmek.

The launch of The Weather Channel's service builds on its earlier launch of WeatherFX service in November last year, that let brands buy in a similar fashion across it own properties.

Plus it also coincides with the forecast service being "hard baked" into Apple's recently launched iOS8 that will run on the iPhone6 models (replacing Yahoo), which means the company is set to become a "globally recognised brand", according to Webster.

The move also comes as The Weather Channel looks to move into other vertical channels, such as the enterprise segment, such as supplying airlines with information on climactic conditions, or making healthcare firms aware of unseasonable conditions that can affect their patients.

"We're now as much of a data science company as we are a data science company. We can use the data to supply such firms with this information, and then use our media platform to spread awareness," added Webster.