Which Weather Apps?

[this_is_nascar]

I'm curious as to everyone's go-to weather app for the phone/tablet. While I know nothing about the weather, how it's predicted or forecasted, I find myself obsessed with having so many weather apps installed on my phone, none of which ever seeming to agree on current conditions or the forecast.

 

[bobpbx]

For what it's worth to your decision, I always use the TV broadcasts in the morning to see what the weather is for the day. It's very reliable. When I'm in the field, I don't care 'except' when there is heavy weather on the horizon. For that, I use the $10 (one time pay) App that Boyd told me about: RadarScope. It's quick to just flip it on to see if storms are on the horizon.

 

[noboat]

 

[Boyd]

I have the weather underground app on my phone, but rarely use it. I check the weather a couple times a day on the National Weather Service website on my computer at home. Like Bob, Radarscope is pretty much the only weather-related app that I use on my phone.

FWIW, the boydsmaps app has a feature that fetches the 5-day forecast for your location on the map from the NWS servers. It also downloads a current radar image from the nearest NEXRAD site (typically KDIX or KDOX in the pines). But the NWS servers are pretty busy and you sometimes need to try a few times to get the forecast. There have also been some issues fetching the radar image, although it's been more reliable recently. Use the button that looks like a sun on the toolbar in the desktop version or main menu on the mobile version.

 

[this_is_nascar]

For what it's worth to your decision, I always use the TV broadcasts in the morning to see what the weather is for the day. It's very reliable. When I'm in the field, I don't care 'except' when there is heavy weather on the horizon. For that, I use the $10 (one time pay) App that Boyd told me about: RadarScope. It's quick to just flip it on to see if storms are on the horizon.

Been using RS for several years, as a Tier-1 subscriber @ $9.99 a year or something like that. Great for radar, but does nothing for forecasting or current weather conditions.

 

[this_is_nascar]

I have the weather underground app on my phone, but rarely use it. I check the weather a couple times a day on the National Weather Service website on my computer at home. Like Bob, Radarscope is pretty much the only weather-related app that I use on my phone.

FWIW, the boydsmaps app has a feature that fetches the 5-day forecast for your location on the map from the NWS servers. It also downloads a current radar image from the nearest NEXRAD site (typically KDIX or KDOX in the pines). But the NWS servers are pretty busy and you sometimes need to try a few times to get the forecast. There have also been some issues fetching the radar image, although it's been more reliable recently. Use the button that looks like a sun on the toolbar in the desktop version or main menu on the mobile version.

View attachment 20658

WU was great, prior to being purchased by TWC sometime back.

 

[this_is_nascar]

These are the current ones I've been dabbling with. I find myself using the built-in Android weather app, along with RS and RadarNow for the most part.

More recently, I've found myself focusing on directly interacting with the NOAA website.

 

[Boyd]

WU was great, prior to being purchased by TWC sometime back.

I don't much care for them anymore either. I used them from just about the beginning, in the 1990's when you would use the unix telnet program to connect to a special address that would spit a text weather forecast back at you (this was before they had a website). We thought that was pretty cool back then. I put an icon on my wife's Mac that would open a terminal window, connect to their telnet server and show the weather. Years later, after we had separated, I set her up on a new laptop. Checked back to see if everything was OK and she said I forgot her "weather icon".

I had no idea what she meant at first, since everybody was using the website by then. When I realized what she meant I chuckled and told her to use the website, but she still wanted her "weather icon"!

Weather Underground has an interesting history, they were eventually acquired by IBM.

Weather Underground (weather service) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[enormiss]

They probably have an app but I use accuweather off web for Doppler radar. Plays past few hours and guestimates the next few. Use it because it seems to load faster than others.