Android Weather is SO BAD! the radar 'forecast' is totally off, EVERY TIME!

7 days ago by sanitation to c/android

Your integrated and personalized weather app for Pixel
cupcakezealot 33 points 7 days ago path: 0 25278024, hotness: undefined, score: 33, children: 8
Zak 5 points 7 days ago

I like Breezy, and most of its functionality for most locations works without any API keys (i.e. there's no setup fuss).

Setup fuss tends to scare a lot of people off.

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cupcakezealot 2 points 7 days ago

oh yeah for sure i think the only ones i used a custom api key for is met and pirate weather

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douglasg14b 5 points 6 days ago

Crazy that you need an API key to access data from private entities for data that is publicly funded.

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mrbn 3 points 7 days ago

The only thing I dislike about breezy is that the weather alerts dont seem to show up in the app.

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sbeak 1 point 6 days ago

I think that will depend on where you live / your sources. For instance, in Hong Kong I have alerts working from the HKO, and during my short trip to Germany, alerts worked there as well with Bright Sky

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peetabix 2 points 6 days ago

I love Breezy, so much I contribute to translating it as my coding skills are not very good. But I still think yr.no app is the best non open source app you can get.

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pulsewidth 1 point 7 days ago

Breezy is great, I use it in combination with Quickweather (its also on F-Droid) for the quick radar access.

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warmaster 1 point 6 days ago

I use it without any API key and it works way better than the stock app.

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Emptiness 17 points 7 days ago

https://play.google.com/...

It's the best weather app I've ever used as I can choose details to see but above all you can choose the weather provider that gives you the most correct weather forecast for your location.

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AstralPath 7 points 7 days ago

I also use this. I get my radar from windy.com, however.

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Canconda 4 points 7 days ago

Beauty! Just switched. The widgets are 10x better! Kind of why I use android to begin with. Can't believe I tolerated that crappy default app for so long.

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PlantJam 3 points 7 days ago

I was going to suggest the same thing. I really like that the home screen widgets have several different versions to choose from.

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Shadow 3 points 6 days ago

Just switched over to it, it's great. Any suggestions for a similarly solid calendar app?

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APinkOrange 1 point 6 days ago path: 0 25277978 25281445 25289014, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 1
Shadow 1 point 6 days ago

Open to either, but I use multiple google cals heavily and don't like that most apps seem to need to set an hourly refresh. I want things to update right away as my day changes.

I'll try that one, thanks!

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slothrop 2 points 7 days ago

Agreed. I actually donated....

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codenul 2 points 6 days ago

Been using this app for years now and i really like it. You can upload pictures and if they are approved, they will use it as the background of the app from time to time.

Also i want to say its a 2 man group, developing the app. Husband and wife. Husband works on the app while the wife approves the pictures / other stuff

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brucethemoose 11 points 7 days ago

That’s because, under the hood, almost all apps access a generic weather prediction model spit out by a supercomputer, and these models have “ruts” and gaps where their prediction is bad.

There are a few popular ones, like:

  • GFS, an American prediction model. It’s notoriously hit-or-miss, with a meme being “GFS is like a box of chocolates,” but free, long-horizon, and predicts the whole globe, so it’s the default of many apps.
  • ECWMF, the “Euro” model. Higher resolution, long horizon, tends to be better (sometimes), but requires a subscription for access.
  • Meteoblue, a newer machine-learning based one.
  • Regional ones, like a Canadian one, Japan, higher-resolution Atlantic hurricane models, and so on.

It gets complicated. But if you see two weather apps with identical predictions, this is why.

Hence, the ideal situation is picking access to multiple models, and seeing what they predict and how they agree for yourself. Maybe the ECWMF has a bad season, so you switch to GFS, or maybe the Canadian model is better in your area; whatever the case, it actually lets you see the underlying source of the predictions.

This is what the Windy app does. It has mobile apps, but it’s also a generic web app:

https://www.windy.com/


One caveat: if you’re just looking for “what’s it like right now, or in the next hour?” in a well populated area, sometimes Weather Underground or Weatherbug will outperform other apps because of the sheer locality of crowdsourced stations. Nothing beats two weather stations half a mile from you.

But this isn’t so great for looking hours or days ahead. You want wide access to a supercomputer model for that, ideally interpreted by a real meteorologist who specializes in your area and overlays their tuned predictions on top.

In fact, I tend to look at my local news apps when a prediction is really important, as they know what they are talking about.


Source: when I moved to Florida and experienced hurricanes up close, I got really into DIY weather.

Model picking + local meteorologists is the way. Use data sources professional meteorologists use.

There are also more “raw” sources of these models (like TropicalTidbits), but Windy is an excellent and accessible one.

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Onomatopoeia 1 point 7 days ago

The ones I've used are pretty good. And I'm in a local microclimate that's notably different than the closet city.

Its never going to be perfect, trends are what I need as that enables me to understand what's going on.

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Nurse_Robot 5 points 7 days ago

Can't relate, the default weather app on my Pixel is great, and consistently accurate

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warm 4 points 7 days ago

There's some good apps on F-Droid, like Breezy Weather or WeatherMaster. They mimic Google's weather app.

A lot of the incorrect weather data often comes from Open-Meteo. While it's a great free service and gets the job mostly done, if super accurate weather is important, then you are better off using a local weather service with their API. Apps like Breezy Weather, support this.

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Willdrick 3 points 6 days ago

Breezy weather (nonfree version) is really good, you get a lot of customization and several weather services

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THE_GR8_MIKE 2 points 7 days ago

The most annoying thing about the default weather app on my Zenfone is whenever there is ANYTHING out of the typical, it says "health warning" instead of the temperature. I have to tap on the widget to open the app to see the actual temperature. I live somewhere where the air quality fluctuates a lotso I am often annoyed at the first world problem.

Looks like this thread will be how I finally replace my default.

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steve 2 points 7 days ago

Seems pretty good from my use. Is this the same as trashing the TV weather man because they're always wrong? Try another channel.

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kalpol 1 point 6 days ago

Just use the NOAA app. Actual weather.

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linkinkampf19 1 point 7 days ago

Been using Overmorrow for a little while now, and I really like the aesthetics of the UI. Pulls data by default from open-meteo.

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