Okay. I'm needing suggestions for a good indie Android weather app. Before anyone goes crazy, it's for my second phone. 😀

#android #apps #weatherapps

Many who know me know that I have a thing for #WeatherApps. I have many for various reasons. For instance, the #StormShieldApp for #iOS I have solely for its lightning alerts which cost $0.99 a month. They were reliable and thus I kept the app even though it was by and large an #Inaccessible mess when using #VoiceOver. However, now the price is about to rise to $4.99 a month and they gave users or at least this user less than a month's notice. So it's buh bye to this one. It makes me even more grateful to the developer of #WeatherGods not only for his implementation and offering of a subscription that includes Lightning alerts but also for his commitment to #Accessibility throughout the whole of his app. So, if lightning alerts are important to you, you might wish to consider supporting Weather Gods and its developer. I have no afiliation beyond being a happy user.

So, since I was having this chat with friends about extended forecasts in #WeatherApps #WXApps it gave me a chance to revisit some in my current rotation and some who've lost their standing to be so. I'm glad to report that the #Wunderground app has decent #Accessibility when using #VoiceOver. By contrast The #WeatherChannel app has degraded as their daily forecasts don't read well at all. And the worst offender is still #WeatherBug which used to be a very #Accessible app but now hardly anything on the screen reads well with #Voiceover at all. Shameful really because it used to be such a good app.

Weather tracking has become vital in some areas of the country. Learn why meteorologists say to ditch the weather apps and use the right website instead.

#WeatherTracking #WeatherApps https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/beware-the-weather-apps-how-meteorologists-gauge-california-s-heat/ar-BB1pubs0

Reading Time: 2 minutes

For five years it was sunny almost every day in Switzerland. It was sunny so often that the water tables declined and village fountains dried up, as did fields. Clouds of dust could be seen rising when tractors worked the fields. It’s because of this excellent weather, for years in a row, that I stopped looking at weather apps.

Now, weather is interesting again. Two or three weeks ago Geneva flooded. A few days ago Zermatt flooded, and, now Morges has flooded too. So many places are flooding. This is due to weather weirding on one side, but also climate change on the other. With more heat the clouds can store more water, and when they meet a cold front a deluge may ensue.

The other issue is that villages are replacing villas with apartment buildings. Where there was grass, and gardens, and trees, you have tarmac and cement. The result is that water can no longer drain into the soil. It runs down hill until it finds basements, garages and other places.

it flooded the streets of Morges yesterday, and parkings in Geneva a few weeks ago, and the streets of Zermatt just a few days ago. Because of the droughts people forgot that water needs to be able to flee, to go into empty fields, and rivers, and gardens.

A tree captures water before it hits the ground. A few weeks ago I was hiking in a forest and the trees kept us dry. It might have been raining but the leaf canopy kept us dry.

If you remove trees you increase not only the speed with which rain hits the ground but also the speed at which it runs off from the ground. That runoff looks like nothing higher up but once it hits Morges, or Geneva, it floods.

Gardens with trees also help to slow down the flow of water. A garden can absorb rain, and if it can’t absord it then puddles form. Trees suck up some of that moisture and store it. The rain might be heavy but it has plenty of places where it can be buffered.

In contrast, as villages replace every green space in villages with apartments and tarmac parkings, so the opportunity for rain to flee, to be absorbed is gone. That’s when flooding occurs. That’s when underground parkings and ground floors flood.

## And Finally

Although it is frustrating to have rain forecast for every weekend this summer it is nice to see how nature is thriving, thanks to the rain. For years nature was on survival mode. I noticed that the dirt under an underpass has now been replaced with nature thriving. Nature has really benefitted from all the rain that has fallen this year.

https://www.main-vision.com/richard/blog/watching-the-weather-again/

#heat #rain #sun #weather #weatherApps #weatherForecast

Check out "Ventusky: Weather Maps & Radar"

It's not open source, but it is nice, and extremely detailed. It even has a "Probability of Aurora" view.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.ackee.ventusky

#weather #WeatherApps #Android #AndroidApps

Been testing a couple of iPhone #WeatherApps head to head just for myself. Saw something in the #Apple app I never saw before. It told me the rain would stop in about 12 minutes, and it was more or less right!

The other app had some other inaccurate calls the Apple #Weather app got right at home and during travel…

#Impressed - whatever else you think of Apple, this is a new level of awesome, for people who live where the weather actually changes a lot.

Hello makers of #weatherapps:
Instead of making us Americans choose between F and C, why not let us display both side by side?
That's how you help Americans adapt to #metric and maybe eventually you won't have to offer a choice.
#foss #apps #developers #UX

‘We used to check every day, now it’s every minute’: how we got addicted to weather apps
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/17/weather-apps-addiction-climate-crisis-anxiety?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
#WeatherApps

One of my favourite Android weather apps has been forked!

Breezy Weather is a fork of Geometric Weather and it is just as good as I remember, if not better!
https://github.com/breezy-weather/breezy-weather

#WeatherApps #WeatherApp #BreezyWeather #GeometricWeather #Android #fdroid

I wrote a blog post about how I still can't believe that I wrote a weather app and how it made me a better developer.

#PleaseDontRain #SwiftUI #iOSDev #WeatherApps #WeatherKit

https://chriswu.com/posts/swiftui/disbelief/

I learned so much about weather building a weather app. @malin and @kaidombrowski gave me a heads up that in some parts of the world for a period of time there are days where there is no sunrise. @PleaseDontRain would have shown a happy sun on those days. Now I handle them!

#PleaseDontRain #WeatherApps

This Your Local Weather app from F-Droid just sucks.
After asking for all kinds of permissions, it won't show me any data! 😭

#WeatherApps

Casualty of Tech: The death of TV meteorologists

Plenty of areas in the US are under severe weather conditions this week. TV meteorologists have become oracles of truth. What I find fascinating, however, is that the weather apps available via today's smartphones are almost exact replicas of the reports given by meteorologists. With the availability of such information - up to the hour, in the case of some apps - why is so much trust and reliance given to TV meteorologists?

#weatherapps #tech