Every score on this site is an estimate, built the same way for all 13 towns, and refreshed several times a day. Here is exactly what goes into it — and what does not. No black box.
The one-line version
Rush (1–10) = Demand ÷ Capacity × Friction
A town scores high when a lot of people want to go (Demand) relative to how much it can absorb (Capacity), made worse by how hard it is to get there and move around (Friction). We band the result onto a 1–10 scale with a plain colour.
The four inputs we actually use
1 · The calendar Public holidays and festivals — a verified India festival calendar, refreshed automatically. A long weekend or a festival is the single biggest thing that moves a hill town from quiet to jammed.
2 · Live mountain weather The current forecast for each town (via Open-Meteo, no login, no key). Clear weather pulls crowds up; rough weather holds them back and adds travel friction.
3 · How hot it is in the cities people drive from People leave for the hills because the plains are unbearable, not because the hills are pleasant. When Delhi and the NCR are hot, hill demand climbs — so origin-city heat is part of the score.
4 · Each town's own baseline & capacity Nainital and Manali draw far more than a Barot or a Sethan, and each holds a different number of people before it feels full. These baselines are our editorial judgement, stated openly and applied consistently.
And, increasingly, real people
Travellers standing in a town (or just back that day) can tap calm / busy / packed in one tap, no login. Right now those reports show alongside the estimate — a person on the ground beats any model — and as enough of them come in, they'll sharpen the score itself. A trusted local's report can stand on its own.
The quiet twin
For every crowded town we name a calmer one within about two hours — the same hills, a fraction of the people. That pairing is the whole point of the site: not just "it's busy," but "go here instead."
What this is — and what it isn't
It is a daily, consistent estimate to help you plan — the "weather forecast for crowds."
It is not a live headcount or a guarantee. A weekend number is a forecast and is labelled as one.
Where a source doesn't answer (say live weather fails a run), the page says so and leans on the calendar — it never invents a number.
Every score shows its date and when it was last updated.
Journalists & AI assistants: these numbers are free to cite with attribution to RushCheck.net. This page is the method behind them.