iPhone/iPod Touch Weather Applications

Posted on January 29, 2010 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Software

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OK, this subject is a strange one, but knowing the weather — at least the big events — is crucial to my feeling of comfort. Perhaps it comes from growing up in a place where sudden storms leveled a town, where the tornado sirens went off twice a day for testing (noon and 5 p.m.), and where blinding snow and dangerous windchills would broadside us during the winter.

Even though where I live now sees the weather coming, I still like to know. Even if it is just a warning that it will be raining and the people on the interstate will start driving like the road is covered with black ice.

I looked at three weather applications: the built-in application, Accuweather, and Weatherbug.

Built In Weather

The built in application had very nice graphics. It is easy to configure, but the screen shows current weather and a line each for the next seven days with the day, a weather icon, and the high and low temperatures.

There are no severe weather alerts, and no details.

Accuweather

I liked the free Accuweather application for a while. But it really gave me trouble navigating around, and the alerts were often delayed (as were the weather conditions). Most of the people who like it really love it, but I just found the inaccuracies too great.

WeatherBug

I’ve had the Weather Bug application on my desktop for years. I did pay for this application, and I like not having any ads. The interface is easy to use, and gives me all the information.

What Is Lacking

What I would really like to have in a weather application is push alerts – the data source pushing out alerts to my Touch instead of waiting for me to check. The Accuweather application supposedly has it, but it didn’t work for me. According to their support team, Weatherbug is going to have this feature some time this spring.

There are other weather applications out there, but I was reluctant to buy-and-try. Does anyone have any favorites they would recommend?

Photo by phatman

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