13 ms·

It's crazy the people download these ad-laden apps to simply get a weather forecast. https://mobile.weather.gov https://mobile.weather.gov is really nice light

It's crazy the people download these ad-laden apps to simply get a weather forecast. https://mobile.weather.gov https://mobile.weather.gov is really nice lightweight website with no ads.

wnevets 8y ago
but the icons aren't as pretty
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  You're being sarcastic (I think), but the first thing I thought of when I looked at this site was "This could never be my go-to weather source, those icons are much too ugly."
  - wnevets 8y ago
    more facetious than sarcastic. A lot of people care about the icons
    - ascagnel_ 8y ago
      An API is available, so you could theoretically write your own app to consume the API and style it as you wish.
unholythree 8y ago
Funny you mention it, forecast.weather.gov is now the first link on my phone browser's start page. I made the switch after the wunderground app started refusing to update and otherwise glitched out constantly. The only downside is I have to actively think check the weather in the morning rather than just have it presented.
- dawnerd 8y ago
  It sucks how badly wunderground has gotten. I run my own weather station and it only syncs to WU. Almost tempted to intercept the api calls and store the data locally...
  - Ice_cream_suit 8y ago
    Weather Underground is yet another IBM company. So is Weather Channel. "On October 28, 2015 IBM officially announced an agreement to acquire The Weather Company’s business-to-business, mobile and cloud-based web properties, including Weather Underground, WSI, weather.com, and also the Weather Company brand." IBM buys firms and then proceeds to eviscerate them. Value destruction is their strong suit.
    - mistrial9 8y ago
      I suspect that a company the size of IBM can do positive things, too.. so, lets not curse the situation, eh?
      - bleriot 8y ago
        Well, as a patent troll and supplier to the Nazis, their positives would have to be pretty big to outweigh their negatives.
    - jrnichols 8y ago
      "Storm" used to be a GREAT weather app, until they basically just ruined it and then forced people over to the Wunderground app. Which is also pretty bad.
computerex 8y ago
Right, when I just ask Google what the weather is like.
Wowfunhappy 8y ago
Do they have an API? I'm surprised more apps don't plug into this. Most watch-faces on my Pebble required me to get a personal Weather Underground API key (and now have stopped working). :(
- baroffoos 8y ago
  From what I understand pretty much all countries have a government run weather service and they all have an API. The problem is they are all different organizations that have different APIs so all the weather api services do is combine every single one of the apis in to one that only requires one api key.
  - flukus 8y ago
    I've found apps that use these global API's are inferior to local apps connecting directly to local API's, the data is a lot more current, more accurate and includes a lot of features like radar images. Not sure if it's an issue with some countries missing a lot of data that mine (Aus) offer or it's missing for some other reason. Phone OEM's always have to include a crappy global one for some reason.
    - baroffoos 8y ago
      Well that tends to be the case that generic interfaces to multiple APIs only provide the features that everyone provides.
- niij 8y ago
  Yes NWS has an API with quite a lot of data in XML format. Weather Underground api was supposed to shut off on December 31, but has been extended to Feb 15th of this year. Good riddance, it was very flaky, would return occasional bad data, and all around a bad experience.
- _trampeltier 8y ago
  Meteo API for Switzerland: https://opendata.swiss/de/organization/bundesamt-fur-meteorologie-und-klimatologie-meteoschweiz https://opendata.swiss/de/organization/bundesamt-fur-meteoro...
sbr464 8y ago
Thanks for sharing.
tptacek 8y ago
A pretty heft chunk of Michael Lewis's mini-book on corruption in the Trump administration centered on Accuweather's role at NOAA, and how companies like Accuweather do little more than repackage data generated by the federal government and pretend to be gatekeepers for it. Supposedly, companies like Accuweather have been working for years to eliminate government weather services that are readily usable by consumers.
- metaphor 8y ago
  In support of the parent's remark, I highly recommend everyone read this excellent Bloomberg article[1] from last year which elaborates on the finer points. It surely made my blood boil at first blush. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-pick-to-lead-weather-agency-spent-30-years-fighting-it https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-p...
  - floatingatoll 8y ago
    Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15464755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15464755
- pnathan 8y ago
  Talking to people who had worked at higher levels of the weather world in government and academia, this is a generally common view of that kind of company.
- tk75x 8y ago
  Companies like Intuit have been working for years to prevent the government from having easy to use tax filing services. What else is new?
metaphor 8y ago
Not entire crazy given popular perception of mobile as being an app-driven platform. And not at all coincidental given former CEO of AccuWeather Barry Myer's direct involvement in crafting policy which prohibits NOAA from developing mobile apps[1]: In 2008, AccuWeather named Conrad Lautenbacher, a recently departed NOAA administrator appointed by President George W. Bush, to its board. Myers was soon appointed to a NOAA working group that gave him a role in shaping policy. He helped fashion one in 2012 that restricted the organization’s ability to develop mobile apps for the public. This is the same guy nominated by the Trump adminstration and currently awaiting Senate confirmation as the head honcho of NOAA. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-pick-to-lead-weather-agency-spent-30-years-fighting-it https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-p...
firebones 8y ago
I love this 3-day graph the best: https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=<your https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=<your latitude goes here>&lon=-<your longitude goes here>&unit=0&lg=english&FcstType=graphical is my favorite. Just substitute your XX.XXXX latitude and your YY.YYYY longitude (negative from 0 if you're in the US) for the <> and their contents as variables. There's also a tabular form of this. Very dense in terms of hourly forecasts. I tend to plug in various lat/long changes to figure out when a storm is going to blow into the kid's sporting event clear across town. Each degree of latitude or longitude is 68.3 miles, so you can usually just adjust the URL to get a pinpoint forecast...which is useful in metro areas where you might be traveling 40-45 miles to an event.
- plopz 8y ago
  > Each degree of latitude or longitude is 68.3 miles That's only for latitude, longitude depends on latitude, so lon = cosine(lat) * 69.172
ergothus 8y ago
I am clearly a minority (based on incidents ranging from this, to how weather bug was the first killer app of the web, or how my grandfathers tv was permanently on the weather channel), but I've never understood the attraction of weather info. I mean, the forecast isn't accurate far enough in advance to make most plans, and the weather today is usually obvious from any window, at least as far as I can actually use the info (which is how warmly to dress), but realistically I never pay attention and just dress for the season and it never seems like the difference day-to-day matters. I definitely value forecasting hurricanes/blizzards/tornadoes, but that doesnt seem to be the general attraction.
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  > I mean, the forecast isn't accurate far enough in advance to make most plans. This isn't the case for me in NYC. Anything within the next two days is fairly accurate. I use the day's temperature info to decide what to wear in the morning. I use the UV index to decide if I need sunscreen. And while I don't use umbrella's, I know coworkers use the weather to decide if they should bring an umbrella.
  - ergothus 8y ago
    > Anything within the next two days is fairly accurate. Plans that involve the outdoors rarely involve only two days notice for me - plans are either spontaneous or in more than a week. Then again, my plans rarely involve the outdoors. > UV index to decide if I need sunscreen My skin tone is known as "fish belly", so I always need sunblock, but unless I'm planning to be outside at length (which I largely dont do) I dont really do so. > decide what to wear in the morning I may be odd, but my day to day wear doesn't really vary other than by season. When I lived in Pennsylvania and Virginia the weather changed dramatically enough over the day that dressing lighter or warmer was an invitation for problems. Now that I'm in Seattle, the weather is fairly consistent over the day, but I've never found myself wishing I had known the forecast when I dressed. > I don't use umbrella's Mostly the same, particularly here in Seattle. Before, if it was raining hard the need was obvious, and if it wasn't I didn't want to carry around something is just lose before I needed it. I'm not trying to poop on your feedback (really!), it's just these are largely the arguments I've heard that dont seem to apply to me. Do people really spend that much more time outside than I do? Am I some sort of sky-avoiding freak?
kevin_b_er 8y ago
If you like it, do understand the Republican Party just last year nominated and voted in Berry Myers, the co-owner of AccuWeather, who spent years trying to prevent the NWS from publishing forecasts to you and the rest of the public, to head the agency in change of the NWS. Your favored website may soon enough be taken down in order to enrich the Myers family, but it will be packaged as reducing costs or not "competing with industry" aka AccuWeather.
- red_phone 8y ago
  If it gets taken down, he'll probably be able to find another one.
  - abootstrapper 8y ago
    Accuweather perhaps?
- vvanders 8y ago
  Damn, I had no idea that happened. Stuff like this and the shenanigans at the FCC w/ Net Neutrality really makes me rethink the concept of these types appointments not having more public involvement.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - drited 8y ago
    There's a great Audible original piece on this topic written by Michael Lewis called 'The coming storm':
H1Supreme 8y ago
OMG, they have a mobile version?! Man, I've been using the regular one and just pinching and zooming everywhere to find things. But, honestly, I love weather.gov. The local forecast (at least for the Pittsburgh area) is plain text, easy to understand (if you read the definitions), and updated multiple times per day. Plus, it has in depth forecasting for rain/snow/etc. I stopped using weather.com because it would routinely crash my mobile browser. I suspect because it ran out of memory.
subraizada3 8y ago
I really like the NWS's hourly forecast charts, and use those as my primary weather source. You can see an example here (scroll right if on mobile): https://subraizada.com/weather/kmdw https://subraizada.com/weather/kmdw (A previous version used to show the normal weather forecast in an iframe to the left of the charts, too) It's just a single HTML page, I've put a script to make them over here: https://bitbucket.org/subraizada3/weather-generator/src https://bitbucket.org/subraizada3/weather-generator/src
briandear 8y ago
The damned weather app in iOS is pretty useful too.

It's crazy the people download these ad-laden apps to simply get a weather forecast. https://mobile.weather.gov https://mobile.weather.gov is really nice lightweight website with no ads.

wnevets 8y ago

but the icons aren't as pretty

Wowfunhappy 8y ago
You're being sarcastic (I think), but the first thing I thought of when I looked at this site was "This could never be my go-to weather source, those icons are much too ugly."
- wnevets 8y ago
  more facetious than sarcastic. A lot of people care about the icons
  - ascagnel_ 8y ago
    An API is available, so you could theoretically write your own app to consume the API and style it as you wish.

unholythree 8y ago

Funny you mention it, forecast.weather.gov is now the first link on my phone browser's start page. I made the switch after the wunderground app started refusing to update and otherwise glitched out constantly. The only downside is I have to actively think check the weather in the morning rather than just have it presented.

dawnerd 8y ago
It sucks how badly wunderground has gotten. I run my own weather station and it only syncs to WU. Almost tempted to intercept the api calls and store the data locally...
- Ice_cream_suit 8y ago
  Weather Underground is yet another IBM company. So is Weather Channel. "On October 28, 2015 IBM officially announced an agreement to acquire The Weather Company’s business-to-business, mobile and cloud-based web properties, including Weather Underground, WSI, weather.com, and also the Weather Company brand." IBM buys firms and then proceeds to eviscerate them. Value destruction is their strong suit.
  - mistrial9 8y ago
    I suspect that a company the size of IBM can do positive things, too.. so, lets not curse the situation, eh?
    - bleriot 8y ago
      Well, as a patent troll and supplier to the Nazis, their positives would have to be pretty big to outweigh their negatives.
  - jrnichols 8y ago
    "Storm" used to be a GREAT weather app, until they basically just ruined it and then forced people over to the Wunderground app. Which is also pretty bad.

computerex 8y ago

Right, when I just ask Google what the weather is like.

Wowfunhappy 8y ago

Do they have an API? I'm surprised more apps don't plug into this. Most watch-faces on my Pebble required me to get a personal Weather Underground API key (and now have stopped working). :(

baroffoos 8y ago
From what I understand pretty much all countries have a government run weather service and they all have an API. The problem is they are all different organizations that have different APIs so all the weather api services do is combine every single one of the apis in to one that only requires one api key.
- flukus 8y ago
  I've found apps that use these global API's are inferior to local apps connecting directly to local API's, the data is a lot more current, more accurate and includes a lot of features like radar images. Not sure if it's an issue with some countries missing a lot of data that mine (Aus) offer or it's missing for some other reason. Phone OEM's always have to include a crappy global one for some reason.
  - baroffoos 8y ago
    Well that tends to be the case that generic interfaces to multiple APIs only provide the features that everyone provides.
niij 8y ago
Yes NWS has an API with quite a lot of data in XML format. Weather Underground api was supposed to shut off on December 31, but has been extended to Feb 15th of this year. Good riddance, it was very flaky, would return occasional bad data, and all around a bad experience.
_trampeltier 8y ago
Meteo API for Switzerland: https://opendata.swiss/de/organization/bundesamt-fur-meteorologie-und-klimatologie-meteoschweiz https://opendata.swiss/de/organization/bundesamt-fur-meteoro...

sbr464 8y ago

Thanks for sharing.

tptacek 8y ago

A pretty heft chunk of Michael Lewis's mini-book on corruption in the Trump administration centered on Accuweather's role at NOAA, and how companies like Accuweather do little more than repackage data generated by the federal government and pretend to be gatekeepers for it. Supposedly, companies like Accuweather have been working for years to eliminate government weather services that are readily usable by consumers.

metaphor 8y ago
In support of the parent's remark, I highly recommend everyone read this excellent Bloomberg article[1] from last year which elaborates on the finer points. It surely made my blood boil at first blush. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-pick-to-lead-weather-agency-spent-30-years-fighting-it https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-p...
- floatingatoll 8y ago
  Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15464755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15464755
pnathan 8y ago
Talking to people who had worked at higher levels of the weather world in government and academia, this is a generally common view of that kind of company.
tk75x 8y ago
Companies like Intuit have been working for years to prevent the government from having easy to use tax filing services. What else is new?

metaphor 8y ago

Not entire crazy given popular perception of mobile as being an app-driven platform. And not at all coincidental given former CEO of AccuWeather Barry Myer's direct involvement in crafting policy which prohibits NOAA from developing mobile apps[1]: In 2008, AccuWeather named Conrad Lautenbacher, a recently departed NOAA administrator appointed by President George W. Bush, to its board. Myers was soon appointed to a NOAA working group that gave him a role in shaping policy. He helped fashion one in 2012 that restricted the organization’s ability to develop mobile apps for the public. This is the same guy nominated by the Trump adminstration and currently awaiting Senate confirmation as the head honcho of NOAA. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-pick-to-lead-weather-agency-spent-30-years-fighting-it https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-p...

firebones 8y ago

I love this 3-day graph the best: https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=<your https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=<your latitude goes here>&lon=-<your longitude goes here>&unit=0&lg=english&FcstType=graphical is my favorite. Just substitute your XX.XXXX latitude and your YY.YYYY longitude (negative from 0 if you're in the US) for the <> and their contents as variables. There's also a tabular form of this. Very dense in terms of hourly forecasts. I tend to plug in various lat/long changes to figure out when a storm is going to blow into the kid's sporting event clear across town. Each degree of latitude or longitude is 68.3 miles, so you can usually just adjust the URL to get a pinpoint forecast...which is useful in metro areas where you might be traveling 40-45 miles to an event.

plopz 8y ago
> Each degree of latitude or longitude is 68.3 miles That's only for latitude, longitude depends on latitude, so lon = cosine(lat) * 69.172

ergothus 8y ago

I am clearly a minority (based on incidents ranging from this, to how weather bug was the first killer app of the web, or how my grandfathers tv was permanently on the weather channel), but I've never understood the attraction of weather info. I mean, the forecast isn't accurate far enough in advance to make most plans, and the weather today is usually obvious from any window, at least as far as I can actually use the info (which is how warmly to dress), but realistically I never pay attention and just dress for the season and it never seems like the difference day-to-day matters. I definitely value forecasting hurricanes/blizzards/tornadoes, but that doesnt seem to be the general attraction.

Wowfunhappy 8y ago
> I mean, the forecast isn't accurate far enough in advance to make most plans. This isn't the case for me in NYC. Anything within the next two days is fairly accurate. I use the day's temperature info to decide what to wear in the morning. I use the UV index to decide if I need sunscreen. And while I don't use umbrella's, I know coworkers use the weather to decide if they should bring an umbrella.
- ergothus 8y ago
  > Anything within the next two days is fairly accurate. Plans that involve the outdoors rarely involve only two days notice for me - plans are either spontaneous or in more than a week. Then again, my plans rarely involve the outdoors. > UV index to decide if I need sunscreen My skin tone is known as "fish belly", so I always need sunblock, but unless I'm planning to be outside at length (which I largely dont do) I dont really do so. > decide what to wear in the morning I may be odd, but my day to day wear doesn't really vary other than by season. When I lived in Pennsylvania and Virginia the weather changed dramatically enough over the day that dressing lighter or warmer was an invitation for problems. Now that I'm in Seattle, the weather is fairly consistent over the day, but I've never found myself wishing I had known the forecast when I dressed. > I don't use umbrella's Mostly the same, particularly here in Seattle. Before, if it was raining hard the need was obvious, and if it wasn't I didn't want to carry around something is just lose before I needed it. I'm not trying to poop on your feedback (really!), it's just these are largely the arguments I've heard that dont seem to apply to me. Do people really spend that much more time outside than I do? Am I some sort of sky-avoiding freak?

kevin_b_er 8y ago

If you like it, do understand the Republican Party just last year nominated and voted in Berry Myers, the co-owner of AccuWeather, who spent years trying to prevent the NWS from publishing forecasts to you and the rest of the public, to head the agency in change of the NWS. Your favored website may soon enough be taken down in order to enrich the Myers family, but it will be packaged as reducing costs or not "competing with industry" aka AccuWeather.

red_phone 8y ago
If it gets taken down, he'll probably be able to find another one.
- abootstrapper 8y ago
  Accuweather perhaps?
vvanders 8y ago
Damn, I had no idea that happened. Stuff like this and the shenanigans at the FCC w/ Net Neutrality really makes me rethink the concept of these types appointments not having more public involvement.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- drited 8y ago
  There's a great Audible original piece on this topic written by Michael Lewis called 'The coming storm':

H1Supreme 8y ago

OMG, they have a mobile version?! Man, I've been using the regular one and just pinching and zooming everywhere to find things. But, honestly, I love weather.gov. The local forecast (at least for the Pittsburgh area) is plain text, easy to understand (if you read the definitions), and updated multiple times per day. Plus, it has in depth forecasting for rain/snow/etc. I stopped using weather.com because it would routinely crash my mobile browser. I suspect because it ran out of memory.

subraizada3 8y ago

I really like the NWS's hourly forecast charts, and use those as my primary weather source. You can see an example here (scroll right if on mobile): https://subraizada.com/weather/kmdw https://subraizada.com/weather/kmdw (A previous version used to show the normal weather forecast in an iframe to the left of the charts, too) It's just a single HTML page, I've put a script to make them over here: https://bitbucket.org/subraizada3/weather-generator/src https://bitbucket.org/subraizada3/weather-generator/src

briandear 8y ago

The damned weather app in iOS is pretty useful too.