Hello,
Not sure what’s happening for you but Weather Line has a today widget. Simple for free and temperature graph for paid…
Regards,
SMF
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Really enjoyed the episode - I too am a weather app nerd and junkie…
Some thoughts -
Weather Underground used to be about my favorite but the recent “upgrade” has drastically made the app worse. Much poorer UI, dropped the widget, dropped the watch app and greatly increased the price. Just about deleted it from my phone.
Some to try -
BeWeather: Some will remember it from the Blackberry but it’s really made the transition to iOS. Lots of information, nice customization, not too expensive. It’s been my favorite since I rediscovered it a year or so ago.
WeatherHD: One of the first I purchased. It was on my home screen for years and was supplanted by BeWeather but I still like it…maybe because it was my first weather love…
Deep Weather: Text based weather using National Weather Service data. A ton of text based information from the weather service on the location you choose. Really a great app to understand everything about the forecast for your preferred location in a discussion format.
Thanks for covering the topic on the show.
Regards,
SMF
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I think it depend on where you live. Carrot Weather & Dark Skies is not very accurate in my area, so I cannot really use them. They must get their weather info from a neighboring area, as the weather is always a bit off. It is a shame, since I really like Dark Skies too. In my local area Weather Bug and Apple Weather are the best apps to use.
Yup, I see it now. Thanks for the correction!
In South Africa and Lesotho we tend to rely on other services that are mostly not mentioned here. I have found over the years of using various services and apps in the world of aviation that the best one is the Norweigan service yr.no (Ive been told this is pronounced ‘you’ ‘re’). It has very specific places mentioned. Like tiny mission stations and dirt airstrips that are in the middle of no where. I dont know how they get their data but its amazing.
The next super useful tool, esspecially with flying, is Windy. Great ipad app and seems to run on donations.
Minute forecasts obviously dont work here, but they sound great!
We have also placed a Dyacon weather station in a remote spot in the mountains. This is an airstrip where the wind plays a big part in our ability to land safely, so its pretty vital. This system is self contained, and has an anemometer, temp and dew point, as well as a solar panel and a sim card slot. The cell network is good in Lesotho, as so we can just open the browser on our particular weather stations page, and see what the wind it doing. Its a great system and more rugged than the normal home weather stations.
@ismh should ring the bell when @MacSparky mentions file management on the Ipad.
Thanks for a great show.
Another enjoyable episode. I know there are myriad weather apps available. Living most of the year in the Caribbean, a solid, weather app is always on my main screen. My “go to” app was acquired and being far less useful, I went in search of a substitute a few months ago. Like many, I also want to be kept apprised of our family and home in the US while staying up to date with local conditions. Weather Mate Pro makes this task and so much more easy.
I admit to not having tried Carrot (I don’t need snark with my weather; I need rich, solid, weather data With detailed radar and underlying data.) After extensive reviewing and testing I discovered Weather Mate Pro. I don’t gush about apps often, but this is a fabulous tool!
It has every data element you could want, radar layers which can be life saving for anyone in high risk areas. Really nice UI design for iPad; iPhone and I Watch (including a complication center which is unique to my eyes). The developer has taken the time to optimize their app for each platform in extremely throughtful and useful ways.
The developer is responsive and the price ($5) a very fair value. Privacy policies are easily viewed and edited. This app is for individuals wanting serious weather data presented in highly customizable, timely, fashion.
Weather Mate Pro simply rarely seems to get the much deserved accolades it deserves. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/weather-mate-pro-forecast/id608515289, 4.7 rating). I just felt compelled to bring this to this forum’s attention. Highly recommended.
Thanks to all in this community for stimulating, civil, discourse. I enjoy stopping in and learning from you all.
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Stephen’s bell should be for anything Disney to include Star Wars!
For daily use, the stock weather app does the job. After all, I just need to know in what range the temperatures will be and if precipitation is expected (thin jacket, thick jacket). I don’t need any notifications if rain is expected in 2 minutes or whatever.
But, depending on what I plan to do in my free time, I use different apps that aggregate data useful for that specific activity. And since I am waxing my skis and will hit the road on friday for a week of skiing, right now my “weather” app is “bergfex Ski”.
Weather, lifts in operation, webcams, snow conditions,… everything in one place. WindFinder has already been mentioned, SurfLine is another one I use…and others for other activities. For the average work day…iOS weather app.
Hi everyone. Long time listener, first time poster. I really enjoyed this episode. I live 140 miles west of Stephen in Arkansas, so I very much sympathize with his need to know exact information on tornadoes and thunderstorms. I decided to subscribe to the Tier 3 Carrot Weather subscription to see storm cells and lightning information on the radar. Interested to see how well it works!
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Fun episode. I lost track of how many weather apps I’ve downloaded over the years. Suffice it to say I have a folder on my iOS home screen named Weather. No matter how many apps I try I come back to Dark Sky. On the Watch I use Apple’s temperature, chance of rain, and wind speed complications for cycling workouts.
HomePod. After I installed iOS 13.0, my HomePod no longer responds to ‘hey Siri what’s the weather like’ or other variations of that. S/he tells me ‘I can’t do that on HomePod, please try that on your iPhone’ grrrr. However, HomePod will answer specific questions such as ’ what’s the temperature’ and ‘will it rain today’ and ‘what’s the wind speed’. So smart and yet so dumb.
I have zero problems speaking to HomePod with la gauge like yours. HomePod has been updated several times since the version you refer, most recently yesterday. Consult your Home app about updates.
Dark Sky licenses its API/data to other weather apps. Since I was usually bouncing between Dark Sky and The Weather Channel I went with Hello_Weather, because it offers both (IAP) and I prefer its interface to Dark Sky.
Thanks, bowline, I’ll give Hello_weather a try.
Re. HomePod. As a risk-taking, first-day updater, I keep all my devices up to date with the latest interim updates, including this morning’s. I never had a problem asking for the weather report until 13.0. And just now I finally fixed it. Turns out that the Shortcuts changes introduced by 13.0 was the culprit. I discovered the problem when I asked Siri on the iPhone for weather out of range of my HomePod. The iPhone brought up the Shortcuts app where I had a custom shortcut called Weather (it transfers a file of historical weather data from iCloud into CSV Touch.) After deleting that shortcut my HomePod now gives the expected weather report.
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Hi all
Long post but this is my area of expertise. I’ve got a meteorology degree from Penn State and work part-time as professional weather forecaster. I’ve got a lot of thoughts on this show, which I’ll split up into a couple of posts. I welcome questions.
First, as to the point that these weather apps are worth paying for. Yes, they are. Absolutely, and I don’t want to stop a developer from making a buck, but the comment in the show that the data itself is expensive is at best misleading, at least as to US weather data. (A lot of these comments are not true as to non-US data, but as most listeners of the show are I expect American, I am focusing on that).
Weather data is widely available from many, many sources, apps, websites, etc., but at the end of the day, it is almost all generated by (in the US) the National Weather Service (or its equivalent agency in other countries). In the US, the NWS operates:
*an extensive network of weather observation stations (generally at airports)
*the only nationwide weather radar network using Doppler radar, located at NWS offices throughout the country
*a network of 102 locations that launch weather balloons twice a day (at 0000 and 1200 UTC, coordinated with other launches worldwide)
*multiple computer models providing the numerical forecasts used by meteorologists to generate actual forecasts (the models are known as the GFS, NAM, HRRR, and others)
Unlike most other countries, the output of the taxpayer-funded NWS is available for free, on the internet, in many formats, to anyone who wants it. (In Europe, the taxpayer-funded weather services turn around and charge a large amount of money to give access to that data). In the US, multiple private companies (such as IBM/the Weather channel, WDT,Accuweather, or Dark Sky, or others) take this freely-available data and repackage it, sometimes with value added such as Weather Underground’s network of personal weather stations, but the surface observations, upper air (balloon) observations, radar data and model data are really nothing but the same thing you can get for free in a wide variety of formats. IBM, Accuweather, WDT, and Dark Sky and others who sell weather data do not run their own computer models on any large scale; do not collect their own observations; and do not run their own radar networks. They are just repackaging the data available for free from the US Government.
So a developer who chooses to pay for access to Accuweather or IBM’s data for current observations, or model forecasts, is perhaps taking the easy way out. 100% of model data, and 100% of observational data, and 100% of the radar data, is freely available from the NWS/NOAA in many different machine readable formats that can be input into a computer program. I’m not a developer, so I expect that the Accuweather or IBM APIs might be easier, but it is disingenuous to say that the only way to get this data into an app is by the developer subscribing to it. I personally use numerous programs that suck in that free NWS data and provide a tremendous level of flexibility to the end user in terms of displaying observations and forecasts, and these rely on data downloaded directly from government servers.
Another point in here which is extremely important. No app is more or less accurate than any other in terms of forecasts, unless they have a human forecaster interpreting the model output. Otherwise, all they are doing is pulling forecasts from computer-generated models, from the NWS, that, while generally are pretty good, all have flaws. They are all relying on the same models and just displaying them differently, and understand that they are just computer models, not a forecast by a professional meteorologist bringing their education and experience into play.
A third point, and this cannot be overemphasized enough - any forecast for more than 5 - 7 days in the future claiming to be able to forecast exact temperatures or precipitation is pure hogwash. It has no scientific validity. You’re better off checking out Old Richard’s Almanac or a Ouiji board than you are relying on a 30 day or 90 day forecast of high or low temperature or chance of precipitation (Accuweather offers both, which is scientifically 100% not valid). While weather forecasting has gotten much better over the past decades, the science is just not there to make statistically-relevant forecasts more than 5-7 days into the future at a specific point on the earth for a precise high or low or chance of precipitation. So any app that offers long-range forecasts as a feature should be ignored.
More to come, and I welcome questions.
(As an aside, weather data from non-US areas is much harder to come by for free, so it’s completely rational for a developer to pay for access to that, but understand that in all cases, the data is all sourced from the local governments, and weather models providing forecasts are still all generally from the US NWS’s GFS model, as the other major model, the Euro, is stunningly expensive. Also, weather observation data from less developed parts of the world is generally suspect at best, and far fewer observation locations exist, and since the models all rely on observational input, the models provide forecasts that are less reliable in such parts of the world.)
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As to specific apps, I have a few guidelines that I use. Any app I use for weather
*Must display wind speed in knots or m/s as an option. All weather forecasters use knots for wind speed (or m/s). If they don’t display this, it clearly indicates that there was no meteorologist involved in developing the app, which is a red flag.
*Must identify the source of their data - this is even more true internationally than in the US
*Must NOT offer forecasts more than 14 days into the future. Again, if they do, they clearly do not have a good meteorologist working for them, and you are getting junk data, junk science
*Must display radar so you can see which radar location you’re viewing (rather than a display of a ‘mosaic’ radar compiling all the various radar locations into a single image nationwide). Radar projects its signal out in a circular pattern, and the further you are from a radar dome, due to the curvature of the earth and the nature of radar, the less likely it is for radar to pick up low-level precipitation, tornadoes, hail & the like. If you are 100 miles from the radar dome, you need to understand that you are not seeing anything in the first several thousand feet above ground and thus can be missing important precipitation. The best way to correct for this is to show where the radar towers are - look for circular patterns around a neutral dot or circle. If it looks smooth, if you cannot tell where the radar locations are, then be suspicious.
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So down to brass tacks:
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Every professional meteorologist I know uses RadarScope for radar imagery. It’s not cheap but it’s worth it - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/radarscope/id288419283
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I keep DarkSky and Carrot Weather on my iPhone as well
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I actually check the local NWS office’s forecast. They take the data and then have a professional, with a minimum of a bachelor’s and often a master’s or PhD in meteorology and years of experience, use that data to forecast. That’s what’s actually valuable, as Stenti1 pointed out above. I bookmark https://mobile.weather.gov/
(Incidentally, the NWS is banned by law from developing their own mobile Apps - so any app with “NWS” in the title or description is not from them. The commercial weather industry got Congress to ban them from developing an app because they didn’t want competition - so the mobile website URL above is the closest you will get.)
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Great series of posts, Matt. Thank you.
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Does anyone know of a Watch complication that shows whether the high temperature is in the future or not? The stock complication with the high and the low and the current temperature on a curved line between the two would be perfect if it did this. Carrot and Weathermate Pro don’t seem to offer this.
It’s an interesting site and I’ll definitely take a closer look, but their methodology is not one of the traditional ways of judging forecast accuracy.
Normally for a deterministic point forecast of something like temperature, you’d look to the mean absolute error to judge forecast accuracy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_absolute_error For a probabilistic forecast like chance of precipitation, a scientist would use something known as a Brier Score to assess accuracy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brier_score. This site seems to be using a percentage error. This might make sense with a deterministic forecast like temperature but I don’t think it works for a probabilistic forecast like probability of precipitation.
Think about it. If you forecast a 70% chance of rain, the outcome is either 100% (I.e. it does rain) or o% (it does not rain). It never rains “70%” for the day - it either rains or it doesn’t. So clearly you need to judge forecast accuracy different for a ‘percentage chance’ forecast than you do for a numeric forecast - where you might forecast a high of 45 and it actually goes to 43.
Let me report back once I’ve looked at this more.
I don’t usually think about setting up a screen icon for a bookmark but for me NWS forecasting is the one exception. Details: https://www.weather.gov/wrn/mobile-phone. It’s… ugly but functional.
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