News and Reviews > Best Weather Monitor Tool

some comments after using some of the programs

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momonan:
Since you haven’t receive much interest in your proposal for a weather program review, I’ll add a little something, in case you still plan to do it.  I have WeatherBug, so I’m real familiar with it and have used it as a standard against which to measure the others.  In addition to WeatherBug, I only seriously looked at Weather Watcher, Weather1, Cli-mate and Froggy.  The others either irritated me or had detailed information that I did not appreciate.

Froggy is cute, I must admit, but it falls far short of the others.  The most serious flaw is that it is far too general and does not provide access to cities near where I live.  Something a couple of hundred miles away just doesn’t do it.  A link to meteoXpress takes you to a website with a lot of words and no information.  The only useful button is the exit button.

I couldn’t get Cli-mate to give me any information.  Something I was doing wrong, I suspect, but still . . .  I didn’t have this problem with the other programs.

Weather1 is amazingly customizable.  It is almost entirely text, but allows several locations, which can be switched with ease.  Alerts are simple, detailed information is given, such as highs and lows and record highs and lows.  You can even get the temperature spoken to you each time you open the program.  In addition to providing weather from nearby cities, there are many local personal weather sites listed, which can be added as optional locations.  A satellite picture of the moon completes the picture, and the program can be minimized to a bar that can be easily expanded at any time.  Very specific international locations and a great program if you have idle curiosity about what’s going on, weather wise, in other parts of the world..  Full registration costs $18, but the unregistered version is still useful.

WeatherWatcher is simple, clear, and you can easily switch from current conditions, to hourly forecast, to daily forecast.  Very fun maps option of maps, which provide satellite pictures of every imaginable place in the world.  International information is readily available, and in many formats.  If you should want to get a picture of the way things look over Argentina or India, for example, no problem.  And you can get far more detailed information about many of the areas.  Take Mexico as an example.  You have many choices, like temperature and humidity, including animated satellite photos of wind movement, temperature change, and storm progress.  Even if you don’t care about the information, the pictures are awesome.  One problem with this program is that it gets its information from Weather.com, which only updates once every hour.  You don’t really get real-time information.  It’s 12:01 am where I am right now, for example, and refreshing the information only brought me up to 11:13 pm. 

Which brings me to WeatherBug.  WeatherBug is beautiful, picturesque, and super easy to use.  Even though it is a little annoying to deal with the advertisement screen when first logging on, I don’t find the little ads distracting and dealing with them initially is a small price to pay for such fun.  You can get any basic information you want here, from current temperature, humidity, etc. to dew points and wind velocity.  The greatest thing, though, is that it’s completely live.  You can watch the little wind velocity/direction dial move as the wind shifts, the temperature changes before your eyes.  Best yet is that the weather station used is the one closest to you, often only 15 or 20 miles away – and you can find a live camera shot from the station, with an animated version, if you want.   This is the one program to have if you really want to know what’s happening right that minute in your actual area of the world.  Nice alerts and sweet graphics.  U.S. only.

In summary, I love WeatherBug and wouldn’t be without it and its cute little bug icon.  I’m considering purchasing Weather 1, though, as a complement to get more complete information about what’s going on elsewhere.  And I’ll probably keep Weather Watcher, too, for its amazing satellite pictures, since I don’t particularly care if the information isn’t completely current.

mouser:
thanks for that great post - very helpful actually.
i also got the impression that weatherbug might have the best combination of features.. the advertising really turned me off though, and the non-advertising version requires a regular subscription which i think it unacceptable.

weatherwatcher is the one i currently use, but you're points about weather.com not updating frequently enough is good.

momonan:
 I know you already know all the features of weather watcher, but, if not, check out the little globe of maps.  You can see the radar of your area, pictures of weather alerts, approaching storms, etc.  I can see at a glance, what the conditions are anywhere -- in a picture.  Find out what's happening over the head of a friend.

Okay, not entirely current or live, like WeatherBug, but fun anyway -- and anywhere in the world.  I'm beginning to like it more, as I explore the possibilities buried in the little globe.  It seems like this type of program is something most of your active users, understandably, have no interest in.  I didn't think I did, either, until I got into looking over the programs.  I like the idea of alternating serious programs with fun stuff.  It gives the reviewers -- and the loyal readers -- a break.
 

mouser:
the maps are definitely fun - but there are so many its a little overwhelming.
the map history menu is useful, but a "favorite maps" menu where you could choose what to put in there might be more useful.

mouser:
have you tried weather pulse yet?

it's listed in part 1 of our weather tray review
https://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/WeatherTray/index_p1.html

its very similar to weather watcher, but it has a special page for maps, and has some animated maps too.
they are organized a little differently.

definietly worth checking out though.

still i would say they arent perfect.

does anyone who loves looking at such map know any other weather tools that are really good at letting you navigate around weather maps?

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