With the winter season coming up, it's no wonder that weather apps are all the rage these days. They're easily accessible from mobile devices and provide information about forecasts, winds, precipitation, and more right at your fingertips.
With devices like the iPad, many are abandoning their morning news shows that require waiting until the weather segment comes on, and many view the mobile apps as a powerful alternative to some of the most popular weather websites such as Accuweather, Intellicast.com, and Weather Underground. I was shocked when I searched for "weather" in the Apple App Store and found 1484 results for iPad apps and another 4259 results for iPhone apps that contained this term.
While I'm aware that not all of these apps are truly "weather apps" by nature, I still found these figures quite high. After spending some time conducting research, I came up with five apps each with their own strengths and I've discussed them below. As always, I hope you find this helpful and I encourage you to comment and provide some of your favorites in the comments section as well!
At only $0.99, Weather Doodle is a whimsical weather app that features beautiful artwork. While the information is less comprehensive than many of the other apps featured in this article, I found Weather Doodle to be sufficiently informative and a bit more creative than the typical weather app. It comes with animated forecasts that will dazzle you, a seamless user interface, the ability to share your weather findings via Facebook and Twitter, humidity and wind information, the ability to choose between Metric or Imperial units, and the ability to add new themes and select from different weather stations within a city. New themes can be purchased for an additional $0.99, which could add up, but the art and animations are captivating enough to justify their costs. The app is perfect for someone who'd like quick and easy access to weather information coupled with a unique visual experience and social media integration.
If you seek detailed information about the weather, I highly recommend trying Intellicast HD to see if it suits your needs. The app is densely packed with numerous sources of information and unique features. Its feature-packed (though somewhat cluttered) interface will ensure you that you'll be the best-informed amongst your friends and family when it comes to the weather. The app is unique because it boasts real-time weather-tracking in a visual manner. Its SkyTime displays the latest weather for a given location using realistic images of clouds, rain, snow and more. Users will get a kick out of watching raindrops gather and then pushing them off the screen by tilting the device. The app also includes interactive map alerts, push alert notification, real-time storm cell tracking, access to a high definition interactive radar guaranteeing the greatest of accuracy. With the amount of information packed in this free app, it's unlikely you'll need another. All in all, Intellicast HD is a solid and informative weather app if you can look past its ads and cluttered interface. It boasts incredible accuracy and is by far one of the most comprehensive weather apps on the market.
Like Intellicast HD, eWeather HD is an awesome and comprehensive weather app. While the app has a more pleasing interface than Intellicast's, it does come at a cost of $1.99. If cost is not an issue, then there are many reasons why you'd enjoy this app. The app features ten-day and hourly forecasts which are presented in a truly stylish manner. It also contains a built-in barometer which shows atmospheric pressure changes. To keep you alerted to these conditions, the app uses a red warning display that is sure to grab your attention. Additionally, it contains high-definition radar-maps that are zoomable, the option to receive data from Intellicast (United States) or Foreca (Europe), severe weather alerts for the United States, forecasts that utilize more than 15 parameters, earthquake information, and additional location coverage for the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The developer has guaranteed that your $1.99 is all you'll ever pay for access to the app's feature because it has no hidden costs or subscriptions. I was immediately a fan of this app because it packs in a dense amount of data but presents it in a manner that is aesthetically pleasing.
Weather+ is another fine choice for the iPad. It is more informative than Weather Doodle and Weather HD, yet less informative than Intellicast HD and eWeather HD. It's available for $0.99 as a universal app which you can enjoy on all your iOS devices. It boasts a clean, yet striking, interface like Weather HD, but it differs because of its widget-based approach. The app's basic functionality is providing weather and time information for a large number of cities, as well as forecasts, wind direction, and speed information, humidity, precipitation, air pressure, and visibility information. Like its competitors, a swipe across the screen will enable you to move between different cities and promptly check their weather conditions. There's also a world clock that's integrated into this this app. The strengths of the app lie in its full screen videos that depict the day's weather conditions and the ability to change the arrangement of widgets on the screen. It's a universal app which is always wonderful and currently on sale for $0.99. While the app is useful and pleasant, it's worth noting that its videos take up a significant amount of space and its 271 MB size may be a concern for some users.
Despite lacking some of the more advanced features found in apps like Intellicast HD and eWeather HD, Weather HD was worthy of inclusion because of its flawless aesthetics, accuracy, and stability. If weather conditions are your top concern when planning out your day, Weather HD's gorgeous and informative interface is likely to help you ease into your daily routines. Available as a universal app, Weather HD enables you to select multiple cities from its database so that you may monitor conditions such as temperature (highs and lows), hourly forecasts, wind pressure and direction, humidity, and visibility. You can choose to make visible as much or as little information as you'd like by accessing the display settings. You can also choose to select Celsius or Fahrenheit, enable the clock (and set its size and format), enable night mode to dim the screen (ideal for those mornings where it's already so difficult to pry your eyes open), display pressure, visibility, and precipitation information, and set the language. To get you into that holiday spirit (and hopefully help you drown your storm-related sorrows), the developer has chosen to include a Christmas Edition. This is wonderful for many but I do wish the developer also included support for other winter holidays so that no one would feel left out! Even so, the app does a solid job of presenting weather-related data in a manner that's enjoyable.
4 Comments
Weather Underground has an app. wunderground.com is awesome and though the app doesn't completely do it justice, it's nice.
I'm a Weather Doodle fan myself. The art makes me happy, regardless of the forecast.
Those are all great apps. I like the ones that offer very specific local information as well lots of options for the day, week and month. Sometimes I just like to watch a reporter cover whats happening, especially in really harsh conditions. I have the free DISH Remote Access app that lets me connect to my Sling Adapter at home. Together they allow me to stream all my TV channels and DVR recordings right to my phone or tablet. I can put on the local 24 hour news and weather channel or I can put on the actual Weather Channel and watch what they have to say as well. I recommend the app and adapter to everyone!
Can any of these apps show isobars, so I can see what the weather will be like later?
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