2 months ago
The horrible winter of 2026 is down america successful New England; now we’ve moved connected to nan play wherever there’s a threat of rainfall fundamentally each day. Given that, nan updated Storm Radar app from The Weather Company (owners of nan Weather Channel app) caught my eye. There are tons of bully upwind apps retired there, and I’m nan benignant of nerd that likes to effort them all, and Storm Radar feels beautiful unsocial to me.
The main interface is, arsenic you’d expect, your section radar. Tapping connected immoderate constituent of nan representation calls up a elaborate forecast for that nonstop point, pinch information coming via The Weather Company’s “gridded forecast connected demand” (FOD) system. The default position is precipitation, but location are aggregate different layers you tin adhd including temperature, unreality cover, adjacent lighting strikes, upwind and truthful forth. There are besides overlays for large wind cells being tracked; you tin pat connected those and spot things for illustration nan direction, velocity and scope of nan storm.
In summation to that modular radar view, Storm Radar has conscionable added thing called high-res azygous tract radar. As nan sanction suggests, it pulls information specifically from a azygous upwind position successful overmuch greater item than nan emblematic radar map; The Weather Company says nan modular position is based connected its FOD strategy which uses a assortment of sources, including nan company’s ain APIs.
The single-site radar, connected nan different hand, includes reflectivity data, which measures nan magnitude of power returned to a radar receiver from precipitation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says reflectivity is “he astir often utilized merchandise by forecasters to bespeak wherever precipitation and terrible upwind is occurring.” That's a level of specificity I find delightful.
Naturally, there’s immoderate AI baked into nan updated app arsenic well. In my testing, it responds beautiful intelligibly to earthy connection questions for illustration “what’s nan champion clip to spell for a run.”There’s a much conversational constituent to nan AI acquisition that should beryllium rolling retired successful nan coming weeks, arsenic well.
Like nan modular Weather Channel app, you tin usage Storm Radar for free, but its astir precocious featuers require a premium subscription. $4 a period aliases $20 per twelvemonth unlocks each of Storm Radar’s features; you tin besides get a Weather Channel Premium Pro subscription for $5 a period aliases $30 a twelvemonth which includes Storm Radar arsenic good arsenic removing ads and providing much elaborate information (like hourly forecasts for 8 days alternatively than two). That pricing is astir successful statement pinch what other upwind apps are charging for premium features these days. So if nan basal iPhone upwind app isn’t cutting it, Storm Radar whitethorn beryllium worthy a look. It’s only connected iOS for now, but it’ll yet travel to Android too.
