Reliable Weather App

kleinstroker

I have been using WeatherPro for a few years now and even paid the subscription, but recently their forecasts are complete pant. Yesterday for example they completely missed the 8 hr period of rain that hit London at lunchtime, and I got soaked cycling back without mudguards or rain covers etc
My morning routine always includes a check on the app just before I set off to see if I need a rainproof or fit rear mudguards. I mean just how crap do you have to be to miss a 200 mile wide rainstorm 2 hrs before it hits.
Anybody recommend something a bit more reliable, don't mind paying if worthwhile

Cheers

arthur_scrimshaw

kleinstroker wrote:

I have been using WeatherPro for a few years now and even paid the subscription, but recently their forecasts are complete pant. Yesterday for example they completely missed the 8 hr period of rain that hit London at lunchtime, and I got soaked cycling back without mudguards or rain covers etc
My morning routine always includes a check on the app just before I set off to see if I need a rainproof or fit rear mudguards. I mean just how crap do you have to be to miss a 200 mile wide rainstorm 2 hrs before it hits.
Anybody recommend something a bit more reliable, don't mind paying if worthwhile

Cheers

If you are just interested in rain I use rain alarm - shows the rain clouds in a animated form so you can see if they are heading your way and what intensity they are, also sends alerts to your phone of imminent rain showers. Much more reliable than a forecast because it's the actual weather you're seeing. Has annoying ads on the free version but if you're android they are much less troubling and better that on iOS which seem to take up most of the screen (on an ipad, may be better on an iphone).

http://www.rain-alarm.com

hopkinb

I use the Met Office one. It correctly predicted yesterday afternoon's rain, but only after I'd already arrived at the office wearing only summer kit with no gilet in the pocket having been assured of a fine day by the app before I left. At least I'd left the raceblades on.

Not sure if that's a recommendation or not...

lostboysaint

Weatherpro uses it's own mash-up of data from a variety of sources but is predominantly GFS data. This is generally not that accurate.

The met office one is generally accurate, as is the BBC. If you can find one that uses the WRF forecasting methods (some locations on Windguru use it) then this is very, very good.

kleinstroker

lostboysaint wrote:

Weatherpro uses it's own mash-up of data from a variety of sources but is predominantly GFS data. This is generally not that accurate.

The met office one is generally accurate, as is the BBC. If you can find one that uses the WRF forecasting methods (some locations on Windguru use it) then this is very, very good.

I've actually got WindGuru but deleted it since I stopped sea fishing, will dig it out again. Cheers

kleinstroker

hopkinb wrote:

I use the Met Office one. It correctly predicted yesterday afternoon's rain, but only after I'd already arrived at the office wearing only summer kit with no gilet in the pocket having been assured of a fine day by the app before I left. At least I'd left the raceblades on.

Not sure if that's a recommendation or not...

Lucky you had mudguards on the back at least.

lostboysaint

kleinstroker wrote:

lostboysaint wrote:

Weatherpro uses it's own mash-up of data from a variety of sources but is predominantly GFS data. This is generally not that accurate.

The met office one is generally accurate, as is the BBC. If you can find one that uses the WRF forecasting methods (some locations on Windguru use it) then this is very, very good.

I've actually got WindGuru but deleted it since I stopped sea fishing, will dig it out again. Cheers

Not all of the locations on there have WRF, quite a few rely on GFS. When you are in a location like mine where you have both available and can compare it's very noticeable how poor the GFS based forecast is and how good the WRF 9km one is.

schlepcycling

kleinstroker wrote:

I have been using WeatherPro for a few years now and even paid the subscription, but recently their forecasts are complete pant. Yesterday for example they completely missed the 8 hr period of rain that hit London at lunchtime, and I got soaked cycling back without mudguards or rain covers etc
My morning routine always includes a check on the app just before I set off to see if I need a rainproof or fit rear mudguards. I mean just how crap do you have to be to miss a 200 mile wide rainstorm 2 hrs before it hits.
Anybody recommend something a bit more reliable, don't mind paying if worthwhile

Cheers

This is exactly my experience with the WeatherPro paid subscription, it used to be brilliant but recently has gone right down the toilet and like Kleinstroker I got absolutely soaked on my way home last night after the app said that rain wouldn't start until 1800 by which time I'd have been nicely home and dry.

itboffin

I checked every weather services available this morning, no rain until 3pm yet it's been drizzling non stop all day

fenix

Dunno about weather forecasting but what's the harm in having your mudguards on anyway and taking a waterproof ?

davesnothere

I use dark sky. Generally i find it to be the most accurate.

I would say however that the weather has been weird the last 2 weeks and forecasts vary wildly from source to source

N0bodyOfTheGoat

I've not tried the app version, but appears to have one, but recently I been quite impressed at the forecasting from Wunderground.

https://www.wunderground.com/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... r&hl=en_GB

kleinstroker

Fenix wrote:

Dunno about weather forecasting but what's the harm in having your mudguards on anyway and taking a waterproof ?

I have just taken it off for the summer. Bike looks better and doesn't clip my feet when I get on the bike.
It's one of those Swan ones for rear.
Cheers

hopkinb

Fenix wrote:

Dunno about weather forecasting but what's the harm in having your mudguards on anyway and taking a waterproof ?

I leave the guards on all winter. Prefer the look of the bike without them though, so only clip them on if rain is forecast. I normally have a spare gilet thing here at work, or carry one in the rear pocket but had taken it home for a wash and a re-proof. Bag day is only Monday morning and Friday evening, so I travel light. My own fault if I get wet I suppose...

lostboysaint

NitrousOxide wrote:

I've not tried the app version, but appears to have one, but recently I been quite impressed at the forecasting from Wunderground.

https://www.wunderground.com/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... r&hl=en_GB

That's another one that relies heavily on the GFS model. It's passable at best. It's also American. If you want a better GFS model for the UK then you should look at something like Big Salty - https://bigsalty.com/en/

UndercoverElephant

kleinstroker wrote:

lostboysaint wrote:

Weatherpro uses it's own mash-up of data from a variety of sources but is predominantly GFS data. This is generally not that accurate.

The met office one is generally accurate, as is the BBC. If you can find one that uses the WRF forecasting methods (some locations on Windguru use it) then this is very, very good.

I've actually got WindGuru but deleted it since I stopped sea fishing, will dig it out again. Cheers

Search for "Windy" on the App Store. It's a really pretty skin on top of the actually excellent Windguru back end. Really rate it.

warreng

When I finally lose it and purchase an automatic weapon I'll be starting off at the BBC weather centre. Last night was a joke. Wendy Hurrell just stands there "Ooooh, look at me, look at me in my pwetty dwess" and then neglects to tell everyone it's going to absolutely chuck it down

In short - no. I've not found a solution

itboffin

https://www.windy.com/

bendertherobot

Radar, specifically rain today.

If there's rain around, you'll see where it is and what direction it's going.

That's frontal stuff anyway, it's the stuff that just pops up out of nowhere (as it does in the summer months) no app will be that good.

kleinstroker

This is the forecast from yesterday at about 3pm



And this is the radar..



There is no match at all between the two, not sure if the app is faulty, as that is use total bollocks

arthur_scrimshaw

kleinstroker wrote:

This is the forecast from yesterday at about 3pm



And this is the radar..



There is no match at all between the two, not sure if the app is faulty, as that is use total ****

As I said earlier, the rain alarm app gave exactly that result, it was spot on whilst the BBC weather app said it was sunny!

meanredspider

lostboysaint wrote:

NitrousOxide wrote:

I've not tried the app version, but appears to have one, but recently I been quite impressed at the forecasting from Wunderground.

https://www.wunderground.com/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... r&hl=en_GB

That's another one that relies heavily on the GFS model. It's passable at best. It's also American. If you want a better GFS model for the UK then you should look at something like Big Salty - https://bigsalty.com/en/

I've been using Wunderground for I guess about 5 years and I've actually found it extremely good. It has rain radar and local weather station "live" data on wind direction and temperature/humidity. I've been caught by the odd shower over the years but hardly ever.

tgotb

This is one of my favourite sites for reliable weather:
http://www.opodo.com/