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Worthless weather alerts

M

Michael CM1

macrumors 603
Original poster
Feb 4, 2008
5,682
277
I think (well, know) I've had it with Weather.com's texted weather alerts. I wanted to get something akin to alerts you'd get from a weather radio on my iPhone, and this was the only thing I found that was free. But almost every text comes after it starts raining or I hear lightning, and most just say "significant weather alert." In other words, it's like FEMA developed this. :)

Does anybody have a good place to get decent weather alerts from on the iPhone for free? I have both the weather.com and Weatherbug Web apps, but those don't do what I'm talking about. You'd think something like this would be so darn simple! :)
 
michaelmaxwell2 said:
ummm have you ever thought of the weather icon that comes with the phone?
Click to expand...

You mean that mostly worthless thing that does nothing other than flash a local TV news five-day forecast image on my screen? Yeah. I want something that will tell me if I'm about to be blown to Oz BEFORE it happens. You know, like one of those weather radios does. I saw that Weatherbug does something for $2.99/month, but I'd really like something free and useful (if it exists).
 
I'd love to have the Weather icon change red or orange when there is a watch / warning in the area.
 
The weather icon is only nice for looking at lil pictures of the sun or something. It's RARELY accurate where I live.
 
Check your local TV stations. Some of them may offer a mobile weather alert service. For example, WCVB in Boston does that. Not sure how good the quality is, but at least it's an alternative.
 
Michael CM1 said:
You mean that mostly worthless thing that does nothing other than flash a local TV news five-day forecast image on my screen? Yeah. I want something that will tell me if I'm about to be blown to Oz BEFORE it happens. You know, like one of those weather radios does. I saw that Weatherbug does something for $2.99/month, but I'd really like something free and useful (if it exists).
Click to expand...

Well I never had a problem with that program it was actually accurate maybe the area you live in the weather is unpredictable?
 
michaelmaxwell2 said:
ummm have you ever thought of the weather icon that comes with the phone?
Click to expand...

The weather app is really limited and wrong way too much. I feel your pain, but I don't know of anything much better. I always liked i.wund.com for weather, but I'm not sure what kind of alerts that they can send. I think they do some kind of email alert.

Have you tried http://www.weatherusa.net/alerts/ ? I haven't tried it, but it showed up in a search. The problem with lots of these alert systems is that they don't let you customize them enough to exclude information that you might not want to receive. I find that with weather radios, also. It sometimes gives information for areas that aren't close enough to raise concern where I am.
 
michaelmaxwell2 said:
Well I never had a problem with that program it was actually accurate maybe the area you live in the weather is unpredictable?
Click to expand...

A tornado ripped a hole in the Georgia Dome before anybody inside knew about it. Yah, I think it can be unpredictable. :)

To the others, I am looking around. I hesitate to do anything with our local TV stations because, well, I hate local TV news. But I might try it. Hopefully someone will address this with an app.
 
Michael CM1 said:
A tornado ripped a hole in the Georgia Dome before anybody inside knew about it. Yah, I think it can be unpredictable. :)

To the others, I am looking around. I hesitate to do anything with our local TV stations because, well, I hate local TV news. But I might try it. Hopefully someone will address this with an app.
Click to expand...

Well...... most likely the yahoo weathers widget what we have on the iphone is probably taking the information from your local broadcaster you should check that out one day and see if the 7 day forecast of the high and lows are the same.
 
I think the weather app is great, and is very accurate for me.

Did you know that you can tap the "Y!" in the bottom left corner and it takes you to Yahoo Weather for that town? Maybe useful if you're after a more detailed summary?
 
I know where I live we have small electronic weather stations at the various high schools and middle schools. I propose an app that pulls data from the national weather service and also from these local weather stations and gives you an up to date situation on the current weather and weather moving in on your current location based on where you are (via gps). Animated radar and all that would be sweet as well.
 
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