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Thread: Weather apps

  1. #1
    Master
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    Weather apps

    Tell me a decent one. The BBC often conflicts with the Met Office and usually both are inaccurate anyway. I don’t need to know the nearest cloud but accuracy within reason surely can’t be that difficult these days.

  2. #2
    Grand Master SimonK's Avatar
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    Ventusky is pretty good. Otherwise The Weather Channel.

  3. #3
    Master MakeColdplayHistory's Avatar
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    I use yr.no for forecast and meteoradar for rainfall radar.

  4. #4
    Grand Master thieuster's Avatar
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    windfinder.com and windy.com

  5. #5
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    Netweather's rainfall radar app is excellent, and free. It gives you a image (refreshed every 5 minutes) of any approaching rain.

  6. #6
    Grand Master wileeeeeey's Avatar
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    I mostly use BBC but do check do use the Rain Alarm app to check for rain when going out on the bike. Good app.

  7. #7
    Grand Master Sinnlover's Avatar
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    I also use Windy.com
    I was totally glued to it few weeks ago whilst stuck in the middle of the 'Medicaine' on Kefalonia.
    It was very accurate and clear. - it told me it was blowing a gale and peeing down, when I looked outside, it was correct and the road was under a meter of water...

  8. #8
    Master stoneyloon's Avatar
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    I use AccuWeather and found it pretty good all over the world...

    Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk

  9. #9
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    I tend to use the BBC app as it seems to be much more accurate than the one on my iPhone.

  10. #10
    Master vRSG60's Avatar
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    Look out of the window. Most of them couldn't prdict it goin g dark at night. Not fit for purpose.

  11. #11
    Master MakeColdplayHistory's Avatar
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    One thing I'm interested in (and don't know the answer to) is which of them have their own data/modelling and which just buy it in and present it.

  12. #12
    Master Christian's Avatar
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    Look at the apps by meteoblue.

    As an ex-flyer, I use WeatherPro. Very accurate and the rainfall radar in it is very good too. To get full functionality, you need to buy a premium subscription which is £8.99 a year.

    Raintoday...another meteoblue powered tool is great too.

    Alternatively, learn how to read a METAR/TAF (it’s not difficult) and download Aeroweather. If you select the nearest airfield to your location, you’ll get the weather as written by the met forecaster.

    Claiming met apps and met forecasters are useless betrays a complete lack of understanding and I’m flabbergasted anyone thinks that the time it goes dark can’t accurately be predicted!

  13. #13
    Craftsman
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    Dark Sky app is ok.


    Sent from my iPad using TZ-UK mobile app

  14. #14
    Master PhilipK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by damperman View Post
    Dark Sky app is ok.
    Since it was bought by Apple, it no longer works on Android.

  15. #15
    Journeyman Longwool's Avatar
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    YR.no is one of my favourites. But I find I need to look at 2 or 3 different apps and use a bit of intuition to get the greatest reliability.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  16. #16
    Master Christian's Avatar
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    It’s not one I use myself, but I’ve seen other pilots use it. They also have an app.

    https://www.windy.com/

  17. #17
    Meteoblue. Pay the 1 euro a year to lose the ads. There isn’t a better app in my opinion


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  18. #18
    Grand Master oldoakknives's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by damperman View Post
    Dark Sky app is ok.


    Sent from my iPad using TZ-UK mobile app
    Yup use the Dark Sky app. Works pretty well for me.

    Quote Originally Posted by PhilipK View Post
    Since it was bought by Apple, it no longer works on Android.
    Oh dear.
    Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.

  19. #19
    Master Skier's Avatar
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    As Christian said, for pilots (former in my case) weather and weather forecasts are hugely important. I haven't flown professionally since 2004 but still use AeroWeather Pro as it is far more accurate than other apps. It displays information in TAF/METAR terms but if these terms mean nothing to you don't worry, just select 'Decoded' and the explanation is in pain English.

  20. #20
    Has anyone mentioned the Windy app?

  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by oldoakknives View Post
    Yup use the Dark Sky app. Works pretty well for me.



    Oh dear.
    I've seen people buy Apple because of Dark Sky not being on Android any more.

    Instead, I use their web browser page (on Android)

  22. #22
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    At one point the met office had one of the top 50 world super computers. It’s definitely not perfect but I don’t see how other apps would compete

  23. #23
    Craftsman Jackwibble's Avatar
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    The BBC weather is now supplied by Météo-France I tend to use the Met office and Home and Dry for short term forecasts they do 2hr radar which is pretty good

  24. #24
    Master Jon Kenney's Avatar
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    Download WTForecast and thank me later.

  25. #25
    Grand Master thieuster's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Kenney View Post
    Download WTForecast and thank me later.
    Yeah, sadly you have to pay for their jokes. But still, funny from time to time

  26. #26
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    I do a lot of outdoor pursuits so I feel that I am particularly aware of the weather, and I have found that the BBC weather app is particularly unreliable and inaccurate. When that was my go-to app, I got caught out many times. I really can’t explain how it can be so poor when the other two apps I now use are almost always exactly correct (MetOffice / Accuweather). I still use it just to compare to the other two apps, for interest, and it remains largely inaccurate.

  27. #27
    Master westy's Avatar
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    Another vote for Dark Sky here.

  28. #28
    Master Jon Kenney's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by thieuster View Post
    Yeah, sadly you have to pay for their jokes. But still, funny from time to time
    How do you mean? The App is free... or it is to me.

  29. #29
    XC is my preferred one
    I’m told it aggregates predictions from several Western Europe agencies
    Also rely on it if sailing..

  30. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by GOAT View Post
    XC is my preferred one
    I’m told it aggregates predictions from several Western Europe agencies
    Also rely on it if sailing..
    XC weather is what I use most. Much more accurate than BBC. When I was working our climbers used this a lot for the Highlands and Islands

    Tim

    Sent from my G3121 using Tapatalk

  31. #31
    Grand Master thieuster's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Kenney View Post
    How do you mean? The App is free... or it is to me.
    In-app purchases.

    The website gives a lot of info regarding the OP's question: http://weather.mailasail.com

  32. #32
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    Weawow. Have used it for a while now and it's good. Free, if you don't want to donate, and you have a choice of weather forecast providers including Dark Sky which I use. I wanted an app that showed not just rain probability but precipitation too as that's not important to me.
    Last edited by deepreddave; 17th October 2020 at 08:05.

  33. #33
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    I use Weather Bug (as well as Dark Sky) it’s useful for 10 day forecasts.


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  34. #34
    Grand Master Rod's Avatar
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    I use YoWindow and Met Office, they are pretty accurate.

  35. #35
    Master PhilipK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MakeColdplayHistory View Post
    One thing I'm interested in (and don't know the answer to) is which of them have their own data/modelling and which just buy it in and present it.
    I'd also like to know this. It's all very well having apps that display pretty pictures and have great user interfaces, but if the underlying data isn't accurate then it's pretty pointless.

    It can't be cheap to collect the data (I know that some apps try to use crowdsourcing for this), or to analyse it (e.g. the vast sums that the Met Office have spent on supercomputers).

  36. #36
    Master Christian's Avatar
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    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeteoGroup

    Quite a big player for forecasting.

  37. #37
    Master Jon Kenney's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by thieuster View Post
    In-app purchases.

    The website gives a lot of info regarding the OP's question: http://weather.mailasail.com
    We may have our wires crossed. My question was in regard to WTForecast App. The only in-App purchases are Remove ads and Extra voices.

  38. #38
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    WeatherPro and darksky seem to be the best for me

  39. #39
    Craftsman
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    Another good app is AccuWeather. It’s free too.


    Sent from my iPad using TZ-UK mobile app

  40. #40
    Craftsman
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    I've been using accuweather too, found it too be ok but if sitting st work I do tend to double check it against bbc Scotland weather. Also windy Wilson if on FB

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