Weather apps

[ericm979]

The weather app I have used for the last couple years, Dark Sky, got bought and is shutting down tomorrow. I like it for a number of reasons. Many weather apps default you to the nearest town. Because of geography the weather down there is way different from the weather up here at home. DS let me set my home as one of the list of locations I check weather at. It's rain prediction is also reasonably good for my location. So I can plan to get some more firewood when it's not raining too hard. Another thing I like is that it forecasts temperature, rain and a bunch of other stuff on an hourly basis for the next week. Many apps just show daily low and high and the daily chance of rain. Of course its a forecast not a prediction but its still useful to know that on day X it will probably be raining in the afternoon but not the morning. Some apps will show you the weather for your location but you can't get the weather for that location when you're somewhere else. So I can't see the weather at home when I'm away.

I've found a replacement app that has most of the same features called carrot. (the new naming trend is to use a common word that means something unrelated, making search more difficult. But I guess it's better than the last naming trend of words missing vowels and ending with the letter 'r'). It has a lot of the features I like once it's set up properly. Which is kind of a pain, its more configureable than any app I have seen. The near term rain forecasts are not as accurate as DS's were even when set to use DS's servers for data. And it won't show me the weather for my home when I'm elsewhere but that may be something I can fix with configuration.

 

[ponytug]

Thanks for the tip! I'm always looking for better localized forecasts.

We also live in geography that makes "nearby" weather forecasts unreliable. I have gone to using the hourly forecast from NOAA, accessible from the bottom of the geography specific forecast page;
e.g. National Weather Service
(Tip: put in your closest city, and then use the map to get the nearest forecast region. (2x2mile?)

The hourly forecasts are available in 48 hour segments out about a week.

All the best,

Peter

 

[/pine]

Just remember...They all get their basic data from the same sources...
IMO the NWS is the best option and far and away the least invasive...Although they are invasive local market TV apps often have better radar than the NWS provides...
...IMO sites like 'The Weather Channel' 'Weather Underground' etc., etc... are horrible for running scripts and mining personal data either by browser or phone apps etc...

 

[Cougsfan]

I use "The Weather Channel App". My Wife uses "Weather Bug". They don't agree 100% but both are reasonably accurate.
Both give current, hourly, daily, 10 day or longer forecast, and both can give you weather at any remote location that you select including small towns out in the boondocks. Most small town airports have weather stations, even if the airport is just used for crop dusting. But I am sure there are locations that don't have weather reporting stations. I find it funny because my wife will trust Weather Bug's reported current temperature compared to the thermometer right outside of our house, even thought the airport is 10 miles away.

 

[Cougsfan]

For those of you interested, here is an article that appeared today concerning Dark Sky's death, and weather apps in general.

It Changed How We Get the Weather. Meteorologists Hated It. It’s About to Disappear Forever.

I accepted your imperfections. You gave me some perfect storms.

slate.com

 

[scootr]

I have used weather underground form many years Winchester, CA Weather Conditions | Weather Underground

 

[IXLR8]

I used Weather Underground until IBM bought them out and commercialized them. IBM did the same thing with The Weather Channel and Intellicast. On my phone I use Weatherbug. It seems to do a pretty good job and can create a list of locations you want to keep and eye on and select a default location.

 

[RjCorazza]

I use Weather Bug, The Weather Channel, and "Snow Forecast" for winter forecasts. Once snow is likely, I use the NWS winter weather page for snowfall potential. They have some useful estimates on % chance of greater than, or less than snow amounts than the forecast amount. This is the data that I send out to my snow plow customers.
https://www.weather.gov/lwx/winter

 

[Cycledude]

When traveling I often use this.

50CC - 100CCC ( JAX To SDO ) Weather - Greg Rice

greg rice, gregory, rice, BMW, R1200RT, RT, weather, Iron, Butt, Rally, 100CCC, 50CC, weather, IBA, IBR, Iron Butt, BBG, Iron Butt Rally, Trifecta, 2015, B2B, Motorcycle, Endurance, Gold Wing, Honda, Rally, 1500

www.gregrice.com

 

[scootr]

And sometimes when I get tired of all the apps and weather guessers... Go outside and look around