Best menu bar weather app?

[jon08]

I'm currently using Meteo, which I find to be a great app, especially for having the option of cycling whichever cities you want. The only issue that it has is that it hasn't been updated in quite a while, so it's sometimes buggy - for example sometimes when it's updating the weather conditions it just won't update so you'd have to quit and restart the app.

Also, what I find slightly irritating is that it only uses Weather.com server. The problem is they only update weather conditions every couple of hours, while for something as unstable as the weather can be, they should at least be offering hourly updates. Therefore, the temp. Meteo displays according to the Weather.com website might lag for a couple of hrs, which can be annoying.

Does anyone recommend any other such apps?

[netdog]

WeatherDock

[jc1350]

Originally Posted by netdog

WeatherDock

I agree - weatherdock is excellent.

If you are also looking for a full website, www.wunderground.com is by far the best I've seen.

[jon08]

I've tried WeatherDock, but it's inconvenient because it doesn't offer the "city-cycling" option, i.e. it will only display the weather conditions for 1 city at a time, so no.

Anything else?


P.S.: yeah, I do know Wunderground as well, but what I'm looking for is a neat weather app for my menubar. It's kind of pointless having to go to the website each time you wanted to check the temp. etc.

[aaronw1986]

Use the built in widget?

[gr8tfly]

I've been using "Meteo" for many years. It's getting a bit long-in-the-tooth, but seems stable enough.

[ziggyonice]

WeatherDock is excellent. Very good.

(Still room for improvement.)

[waffles123]

Which one takes up the least RAM and CPU resources?

[gr8tfly]

Originally Posted by waffles123

Which one takes up the least RAM and CPU resources?

I'm only running Meteorologist, so can't comment on the other, but its resources are trivial. RSIZE 14.5MB. No CPU, unless doing an update - then, a couple precent is all for a few seconds. You'll never notice.

edit update: I found a slew of Dock error messages in system.log. I finally tracked them down to Meteo. They don't seem to cause any system problems or problems with Meteo, but it does show some SL incompatibility. The errors happen every time the Dock is updated, which happens when you enter and exit Expose and/or Spaces.

WeatherDock is nice, but doesn't entirely sleep between updates. I doubt it makes a difference in the real world, but it's a nit with me (it's only 0.1%CPU).

So, I've found WeatherVane. It's been updated for SL, sleeps soundly between updates, and works. BUT, it's a very simple app - only one city at a time, and not very customizable. Otherwise, it does the job if you want current conditions and temp in your MenuBar.

[jon08]

Has anyone found any new weather menubar apps? I'm really growing impatient with Meteo because it's pretty much at least once a day that I must quit and restart the app to work properly again (because it will get stuck at Loading... when trying to update weather conditions).

I'm looking for a weather app that has the city-cycling option and displays at least the city name + temperature...

[Outrigger]

Originally Posted by jon08

Has anyone found any new weather menubar apps? I'm really growing impatient with Meteo because it's pretty much at least once a day that I must quit and restart the app to work properly again (because it will get stuck at Loading... when trying to update weather conditions).

I'm looking for a weather app that has the city-cycling option and displays at least the city name + temperature...

Try weathersnitch. its cycling through 3 cities on mine right now showing weather and temp. takes tiny space. and it works with SL.

[jon08]

Originally Posted by Outrigger

Try weathersnitch. its cycling through 3 cities on mine right now showing weather and temp. takes tiny space. and it works with SL.

Yeah man I've tried that one too, but it doesn't look neat in the menubar... the fonts are too small in the city name + temperature option.

[testcard]

Not exactly what you're looking for, but if you use Firefox take a look at Forecastfox.

[polobreaka]

i use weatherbug.

[blesav1]

My favorite is "Outside 3.0"

http://www.outside.grkov.com/
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/26003/outside

It has 6 day forecast, hour by hour reports, radar and satellite images that you can play

[plaintiger]

i prefer MenuWeather over WeatherDock, if only because it can switch which city's weather it displays based on your current location, rather than WeatherDock's comparatively lame-o ability to switch based only on a schedule pre-entered by the user.

users have been complaining about problems with the paid update to 3.2 though, so i'd stick with MenuWeather Lite, which is free and doesn't seem to have the problems the paid version does.

[shakeman0]

Originally Posted by plaintiger

i prefer MenuWeather over WeatherDock, if only because it can switch which city's weather it displays based on your current location, rather than WeatherDock's comparatively lame-o ability to switch based only on a schedule pre-entered by the user.

users have been complaining about problems with the paid update to 3.2 though, so i'd stick with MenuWeather Lite, which is free and doesn't seem to have the problems the paid version does.

Thanks for bringing the thread back! I need a nice weather app.

[djc6]

WeatherSnitch and WeatherDock both no longer work since the weather.com feeds they were using have been discontinued:

http://www.colourful-apps.com/news/i..._end_of_an_Era

http://sofweb.com/weathersnitch.php

What else is everyone using? Preferably free.

EDIT: I see Meteo uses weather.com as well, I wonder if it too will stop working on Nov 15th. Developer's website doesn't say anything.

http://heat-meteo.sourceforge.net/

WeatherMan Lite seems decent so far:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weath...21337962?mt=12

[briandesmond]

Living Earth HD just came out for Mac, and it's quite nice: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/livin...39362919?mt=12

[cjred]

Originally Posted by briandesmond

Living Earth HD just came out for Mac, and it's quite nice: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/livin...39362919?mt=12

yep Living Earth is very nice! especially in rMBP

[SumoHamster]

Originally Posted by djc6

EDIT: I see Meteo uses weather.com as well, I wonder if it too will stop working on Nov 15th. Developer's website doesn't say anything.

I hope it doesn't stop working as that is what I use. Every time I try something different, I just find something missing or not to my liking compared to Meteo.

[Weaselboy]

I have used just about every product listed here and settled on MenuWeather from the app store for $1.99. Rather than relying on free weather data (which I think it at the root of the problem with most of these apps), the dev. uses a paid service called CustomWeather.

[plaintiger]

i use MenuWeather too. it's just a little oddly-designed - every time there's a special weather alert, for example, i have to stop and think for a second before i remember how to locate and read the actual alert - and the app has had other problems in the past, but - touch wood - they appear to have been largely ironed out now. the app's been very well-behaved for me for some months, and MenuWeather's automatic location function, when it works, is one of the finest features any weather app could have (at least for those running it on laptops that they actually travel with).

it would be great - for those times when automatic location detection doesn't work for one reason or another - to have a means of choosing a city quickly and easily from right within the menus, instead of having to open the prefs, go to the locations tab, and drag and drop the cities to reorder them, which is a very clunky process. but this is a minor complaint in light of how often i actually have to do it, and in light of all MenuWeather's positive features.

that's what *i* think, at least. take it fwiw.

[Zach23]

Originally Posted by cjred

yep Living Earth is very nice! especially in rMBP

The thing with Living Earth is that it forces the computer to use the NVIDIA graphics card always. I'm trying to find a new weather app to keep the integrated graphics on to conserve battery.

[cjred]

Originally Posted by Zach23

The thing with Living Earth is that it forces the computer to use the NVIDIA graphics card always. I'm trying to find a new weather app to keep the integrated graphics on to conserve battery.

Then use thermometer.app