Apps We Love: Weather Apps

Apps We Love Weather

It’s that time of year when we (at least those of us in the snowy states) eagerly look out the window each morning to check for signs of spring. Or, if we’re not looking out the window, we’re checking apps to see whether that groundhog made an accurate forecast. We surveyed the CPA Practice Advisor community this month to find out which apps our friends use when they’re trying to stay on top of the weather.

Michelle Walsh, vice president of client services at XCM uses AccuWeather. “It is spot on for accuracy and tells you by the minute what is happening outside.”

Randy Johnston, CEO and founder of Network Management Group, Inc., and executive vice president of K2 Enterprises, recommends Ventusky (small fee), “The best weather app for wind and current conditions at all levels,” and NOAA Weather from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Samantha Mansfield, director of professional development & community at CPA.com, recommends the Weather Channel app.  “The redesign took getting used to, but it’s easy to use and there are many options to look at the forecast.”

Stacy Kildal, founder of Kildal Services, introduced us to Weather Kitty. “You can even add your own cat pics as background. It has a great interface for forecast too. (There’s a Weather Puppy app too!)”

Caleb Jenkins, EA, CQP, uses a combination of Weather Channel and AccuWeather on his phone. “I love the alerts on my phone letting me know when it is predicted to rain during the day, and they also have pretty accurate estimates of the expected rainfall on any given day.”

Sandra Wiley, president of Boomer Consulting, is also a fan of the Weather Channel app. “I just love everything about it from notification to changing in various areas that I am in. It moves with me.”

Roman Kepczyk, director of firm technology strategy at Right Networks, added, “TheWeatherChannel is my quick look at conditions and provides great summary information.” In addition, he uses MyRadar. “It has been one of the applications I have personally used the longest to see a moving weather forecast when I’m in stormy conditions. It lets you see the progress of large storm masses towards your location which can have me delay a bike ride or change travel plans such as going to the airport earlier.”

Rick Richardson, CPA.CITP, CGMA, managing partner at Richardson Media & Technologies, told us, “I have just one weather app. It’s the Yahoo Weather app. I love the ‘feel’ of it. They nailed an elegant user interface and it’s easy to set up favorite cities around the world.”

We’ve had a couple of recommendations for Dark Sky, and, based on reviews, it appears that its usefulness depends on where one is located. Daniel Vidal, head of business development at Expensify, said, “Living in Portland, it starts raining… a lot. On top of a great UI and normal weather app functions, Dark Sky is great for giving you predictions to the minute of when it will start raining/snowing etc.”

Blake Oliver, CPA, accounting technologist at FloQast, concurs. “I’m a big fan of Dark Sky. It doesn’t rain much here in Los Angeles, but when it does, we all really want to know when and where! Dark Sky is a “hyperlocal” weather app that uses your location to tell you exactly when the rain will start or stop, right where you’re standing, not just by zip code.”

My personal favorites are WeatherBug and Weather Underground (although now I have many new apps to try!). I like Weather Underground because you can go backwards and see the weather conditions for the past two days. It sounds crazy, but sometimes you need that information. WeatherBug has some really nice map overlays, so I can see storms, lightening, satellite imagery, and much more.