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2024-10-08 20:02:20

Ingalls Weather on Nostr: Weather apps are often seen as the bane of a meteorologist’s existence but I ...

Weather apps are often seen as the bane of a meteorologist’s existence but I don’t think this necessarily needs to be the case. There are a lot of good apps out there for both iOS and Android that provide useful information at a quick glance.

I use several weather apps myself depending on what information I am looking for. Below are five weather apps (in no particular order), plus one earthquake app, that I like to use on a regular basis. There are plenty of other useful apps out there as well.

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None of these weather apps replace the expert opinion of an educated meteorologist. In severe weather (like tornadoes and hurricanes) or a situation with a lot of nuance (like snow when the temperature is forecast to be near freezing), every weather app will produce disappointing results. Never use a weather app to make lifesaving decisions.

Note that I have been a long-time iPhone user. When available, I will provide links to the Android version as well. Some are free, some have a cost or subscription. I will note this but not include specific cost information because prices vary slightly by country and because they can change.

I am not being paid by any of these apps for their inclusion in this article (but if any of them want to pay me I wouldn’t turn them down).Windy(Windy)

Apple • Android • Browser
Cost: Free, paid subscription for premium features.

Windy is an extremely versatile app that aggregates weather model data and presents it both on a map and as a time series for a single point. I have been a user of Windy for several years and have enjoyed watching it grow by adding new weather models and additional parameters.

Despite being termed as a forecast in the app, it is important to understand that the data in Windy is model data. Models are always wrong in some way or another, but they are a critical tool in predicting weather.

Users can toggle between different weather models, parameters, and altitude levels easily. One can also change the color tables, which I have done for my account. As of late-2024, weather models currently available on Windy for North America are the ECMWF, GFS, ICON, NAM, HRRR, and HRDPS. Each have different strengths and weaknesses.

One parameter I wish they would include is total precipitable water. Having it would be useful for visualizing atmospheric river and monsoon events. There are multiple apps named Windy, my preference is the one run by windy.com.RadarOmega(RadarOmega)

Apple • Android
Cost: Initial base app cost, additional add ons by paid subscription.

RadarOmega displays real-time weather radar data for the United States, Canada, Australia, and Germany. U.S. owned radars in Japan and South Korea are also included. Many weather nerds use RadarScope, which is also good, but I made the switch because RadarOmega’s base app includes more features.

This app presents raw radar data. It will appear more pixelated and grainy than many other weather apps because those apps smooth out the data. Smoothing the data removes fine details.

Depending on the radar’s capabilities, users can view reflectivity (most commonly used for precipitation), velocity (how fast detected particles are moving), and more expert things like correlation coefficient and vertically integrated liquid. Lightning data, weather alerts, METARs, and other non-radar information can also be presented.

There is no weather radar coverage in the Canadian territories. If you live there or in another large radar gap, you have no need for this app because it will have nothing to show you.My Lightning Tracker(My Lightning Tracker)

Apple • Android
Cost: Free with ads, one time fee for ad-free.

My Lightning Tracker is by far the best free/cheap source of lightning data that I’ve found. It aggregates multiple commercial sources to present the locations of lightning strikes over the last hour.

It shows lightning strikes from around the world. I have used this in forecasting for Central Oregon storms because even when radar coverage is poor the lightning data show where storms are and where they are moving.

Because of how lightning is detected, it even covers remote regions like the middle of the ocean and the Canadian Arctic. There is a radar overlay function, but I don’t use this because I get my radar data from another source (RadarOmega).

I appreciate the lightning notifications it offers, even on the free version. I have it set to notify me of lightning strikes within 80 km of my current location but the range can be set anywhere between 1 and 320 km (or 1 to 200 miles).Wildfire Info(Wildfire Info)

Apple • Android
Cost: Free, paid subscription for premium features.

Wildfire Info has a ton of different options for displaying fire data. Note that it presents data that is received by automated or semi-automated systems. It is not like Watch Duty, which has human reporters who collaborate and gather data on ongoing wildfires in the Western United States.

My favorite tool on this app is the hotspot map, which shows locations where satellites have detected hotspots over the last 24 hours. Hotspots don’t necessarily mean a fire is present, however. I have also used the hotspot map to track lava flows in Hawaii and Iceland.

Also on the app are fire perimeters inputted by authorities working on wildfires. These come from sources like InciWeb and the state of California.Apple Weather(Apple)

Cost: Included with Apple devices.

There will certainly be some in the meteorological community who judge me for using the generic weather app on my phone but I don’t care. Ever since purchasing DarkSky, the Apple weather app is superior for at-a-glance conditions, such as temperature, precipitation, and winds. It also sends notifications for weather alerts issued by the National Weather Service and Environment Canada.

The issue that comes from relying on this and other generic weather apps is due to people taking it at face value. It is important to remember that these “forecasts” are actually just weather model outputs. Sure, they are advanced weather models, but it’s still a model with no human input into the forecast.

It being a model isn’t a problem under most weather conditions. Where it becomes problematic is a scenario where the forecast is difficult. This and other generic weather apps will not tell you the nuance of a forecast that could produce light rain or moderate snow if the temperature deviates slightly.

While it gives weather alerts from government agencies, it shouldn’t be relied on for lifesaving data. It won’t tell you where a tornado is or how much flooding a hurricane might bring.

For everyday weather it’s totally fine and reasonable. Could I make a better forecast? Probably, but I’d spend at least 30 minutes doing it. Do I really need to do that to be a degree or two better than Apple when I’m just deciding if my kid needs a sweater or not? No, I don’t think so.QuakeFeed(QuakeFeed)

Apple
Cost: Free; paid subscription model for premium and ad-free features.

As a bonus, here’s the app I use to track earthquakes. It takes in data from the USGS, Natural Resources Canada, and European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre. Earthquakes can be plotted on a map or in a list view.

I really like the notification feature on this app. I have mine set to all earthquakes in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, as well as large earthquakes globally. I get maybe 6-10 earthquake notifications a day with this setting.

On individual earthquakes, there are direct links to web pages offering more data. For earthquakes that came from the USGS it also has a direct link to the relevant “Did You Feel It?” page.Honorable mentions

There are a few other weather apps that I use less frequently. Storm Shield has a good push notification interface for weather alerts, WillyWeather provides the National Weather Service point forecast, and Paku shows air quality data from PurpleAir.

Volcano Up! is a good one for accessing volcano updates from the USGS, Smithsonian, and New Zealand’s government. Of course volcanoes, like earthquakes, are not weather but are still earth science.

Do you have any favorite weather apps that I missed? Let me know by dropping a comment.Subscribe

The featured image is a stock image of an iPhone sitting on a keyboard. (SimonWaldherr/Wikimedia)

https://ingallswx.com/2024/10/08/five-weather-apps-that-i-find-useful-as-a-meteorologist/

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