Now that almost everyone (my husband excluded) has a smartphone in their pocket or purse, many of us use weather apps to get daily forecasts as well as severe weather notices. But how good are they really? My friend Don Paul in Buffalo, NY, has a new blog post on how well or poorly they work by comparing some of their output to NWS products available on their web site https://www.weather.gov/. I am a big fan of the NWS’ hourly weather forecast graphics, which provide amazing detail about the weather for up to six days ahead. Most apps can’t do nearly as well. You can read Don’s post at https://buffalonews.com/2019/09/25/ill-take-a-grain-of-salt-with-that-weather-app-please/.
Take my word for it as well as Don’s–don’t use your smartphone weather app for important decisions about the weather, because they are often only updated once a day, and so are often based on old data. Use the NWS data or current weather from a nearby network to help give you the most up-to-date information. And don’t forget to use an app that provides location-based severe weather information so you can get flash flood and tornado warnings whenever you are out in bad weather.
