windows 8 weather apps, and how I look at them
Well, I know with the windows world, there are apps for a lot of things, as I am finding out on the laptop I bought weeks before my unfortunate event. and I found the shutterfly one that a friend of mine was looking for, for a while now. but one area that I know is talked about a lot within my circles is the weather app. a lot of apps within the cell-phone world are known as "crap apps" by several people on the "Weatherbrains" show as well as other mets out there. The reason why that description is out there is because, well, the forecast data is suspect on them. And why is that? Well, in order to make the forecasts available to most anywhere in the country and not have tons of mets putting out the forecasts, there are more than a few corners cut.
Thanks, and have a good evening.
- Some of them piggyback off the NWS National Digital Forecast Database, which is a graphical database of forecasts compiled by the various National Weather Service Forecast Offices (read government weather forecast). Generally this is a low-risk strategy, but given the current default/shutdown scenario, who knows what will happen to these programs if a catastrophic computer crash happens in Silver Spring, MD.
- Others will use the forecasts derived off the MOS (Model Output Statistics) products from either the NAM, or more likely the GFS model, or a pre-determined blend of several models. It is efficient in that most of the main forecast points are available in the US and Canada, and you could smooth out the grid for the rest of the areas using either a Cressman or a Nearest-neighbor smoothing technique. But then again, there is the variable of "what if the MOS isn't available on one or more than one model?" You would hope the programmers would be able to solve this with various subroutines, but given how much there is efficiency out there compared to backups, there is the possible problem out there. As well there is the additional risk of "Treating the Models as God", which basically means that they have complete faith that the models are always right. They are better than they used to be in the early to mid 90's when I started out in meteorology. But they still are not perfect. And using their output like they are can be a bit risky.
- Finally, there is the ones that have some human interaction and some human forecasting. And these will have the best forecasts out there for the morning and evening times because someone should be looking at reality and making the right changes. But depending on the company, you may have them lean towards one model or another, and they can also be subject to different biases of the forecasters. If you have the right forecasters and smoothing scheme, these can actually have a good forecast. But get a bunch of people that are more subject to the "model is god/plug' n' chug " complex, and that could rid the grid in which the forecast is based of its accuracy.
- Storm Weather by StormGeo/ImpactWeather: first look at it this evening, the radar screen seems like it's ok. it's not a perfect background to say the least, but it's ok. the clouds and precip charts need a legend, and badly (cartography 101/PSU geog 321). I have an idea on what those amounts/intensities would be instinctively, but to be honest non-met types might have a bit of a hard time dealing with that. And while the temps seem ok (I didn't know they had a heliport with accessible temps/winds in St Paul), the winds are in meters/sec and the rainfall in mms. easily convertible into a more familiar miles per hour in the US (2.23 mph = 1 m/s = 3.6 kph) or inches of rain (25.4mms =1"). But the program should allow you even on the free side to select your units, based on what is familiar to you. As well, trying to get your location in there instead of the standard places isn't that instinctive. There isn't much in the way of blog info or other features. It's simplistic. and in some aspects it's ok. but others, I would like to see a lot better. And I will have to compare forecast confirmations as time goes on. Overall, I'd say out of 5, this one gets like a 2 from a pro-met-side, 2.2 or so if looking as a novice because of the maps and the non-unit selectivity.
- Next is Accu-Weather. the graphics are fairly snazzy. And the forecast from personal experience is one of the human-intervention-based model mix variety, which is a plus. How good the forecasts themselves are, i'll need to see verifications lately (especially on the 25-day forecast, of which I am a bit skeptical on its verification beyond day 7). I do like the varying background based on what is going on observationally as well as text. It may take a bit more resources to do, but it helps in the aesthetics. It is a lot easier to customize when it comes to showing the forecast for where you are. And it does look a lot better with the radar or satellite on top of the Microsoft maps. It has the controls to toggle on and off the map key as well as the opacity of the layer you want. But I would like a better-looking satellite map. And they do have a boundary condition at the Canadian border, which doesn't make sense since they do have a decent radar network up there. As for the stories and videos, I like the pop-up/pop-out nature of the layout of the web-based story as well as the videos. I would like a bit of a better way to get to those features instead of having to right click to get there. But I'll give credit to where credit is due. The guys and gals in State College did a good job, but can make a few tweaks to make it better. I would give it from the pro-side a 3 out of 5, and from the novice side, I'd be willing to go as high as 4.
- Now next we head over to The Weather Channel. Now these guys are the big dogs in their popularity out of Atlanta. And since I last looked at this software, they have stepped up as well. First off, they have all their elements accessible on the front interface, which is a step above Accu-weather where they hide those menus behind a right-click.The video clips are good to excellent, as you would expect from the guys and gals in Atlanta. But I have to admit, I would like to see a link to the weather.com story as well as the video. Makes me wonder a bit how much they are really committing to weather.com on that note. But as for the satellite and radar, I like the quality of the display a lot as well as the keys. But I would like to be able to make the switch between the different map elements on the main interface, not a right-click. As well, they still have the problem of using the US/Canada border as a boundary condition. Just doesn't make scientific sense. Forecast-wise, you can tell it's a mix between the people making the forecast and the models, just like A-W. And accuracy, I'll pass for another day until I see the metrics come out. But overall, the quality of the maps is quite good. As for the warnings, they come through ok. But some of the items like "expecting showers and thunderstorms starting at 6:30pm" are from what I can tell based almost right off the short-range model/forecast grids and not necessarily on the radar, so take those with a grain of salt. Overall, I would give from a pro-side, I would go 3.3 and the novice-side 4.2 out of 5.
- next, let's look a bit abroad again. this time, it's The Weather Network/Pelmorex Media, based out of Oakville. And first off, they suffer from a different problem from a radar and forecast standpoint: they don't include US cities, only the Canadian ones. Now I understand why that is, given how they have a relationship with TWC. As for the news section, it looks fairly simplistic, something I was hoping would be better than it is with text only, as I would think their video would go and work there fairly well. I do like the air quality monitoring as well as the normal temps/wind/etc. But there isn't any radar and satellite on there, which is a big disappointment from the guys and gals there in Oakville, as I know they can do better. given how the app is at the moment for windows 8, I would say its forecast/data is better than StormGeo's product, but the lack of radar/satellite data on the app is a big downer. from a pro-side, i'd say 2, and a novice side 2 to 2.2.
- Next up is Weatherbug, From Earth Networks out of Germantown Md. And upon installing, first thing I notice is the EULA that pops up upon installation. This is the only Win8 store weather app I noticed that does this. But that being said, it was actually quite easy to have it hone in on your location, which is a plus for novices. The only minus for novices and more professional people: you can zoom in, but someone forgot to leave a way to zoom out for a larger picture. That is something I hope can be fixed rather quickly, as that is a big faux pas in most people's books. As well, from what I can tell on the forecast, it looks more like a model forecast with some intervention instead of a purely human-made forecast. But if I learn more, I will update things a lot. There are no blogs on there. and no weather news. But I'm not sure that is their route, even though it might not be a bad idea down the line. Adding cities and such is easy. And the temperature/humidity maps are more contour maps than showing site by site data. There are some pros and cons with all of that. But to be honest, that feature would be a lot better if they allowed you to zoom out to the bigger picture. Overall, I would say the usability is good, and toggling between fields of radar/satellite is good. But please, get the Canadian radar data put in there. But the forecast I'm not sure what they use for source data and i would be cautious. But I can't emphasize enough, why can you zoom in but can't zoom out????? overall score: pro 2.5, novice 3.2.
- and one more is MyRadar, by Acme AtronOmatic. this is more a radar/satellite/warning app than anything else, and for that purpose it actually does a good job. As for how the warnings are shown, I don't know because that is a paid feature, not on the free app. But from what I can tell on the temps over places, it's fairly simplistic in its display and its use. On zoom-up, the map seems to hold up well. but it doesn't have temperatures beyond the "major airports", which is kind of bad from an analysis standpoint. This app, in general, well, is for radar/satellite analysis and that's it. Warnings, well, when I am back working, I'd like to see how they are. For what it is, I would say for radar, 3.0 for a pro standpoint, and 3.8 for novices. But for anything other than at the moment, it's not necessarily worth it.
Thanks, and have a good evening.