Weather apps - which are the most accurate?

Moped

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When is rain not rain?

When using “The Weather App”, “BBC weather app” or Accuweather they all seem terrible at predicting rain. Various rain radars show rain where we are yet there is none. So their rain radar doplers are clearly faulty. Makes day to day out and about planning problematic. Yes I know we can take waterproofs and brollies with us but even so.

Which weather apps and radars are the most accurate at predicting rain?

I want absolute certainty, not vague percentage chances of or false future radar predictions.
 
BBC seems ok to me, this week anyway.
wed weather.png
 
Moped said:
When is rain not rain?

When using “The Weather App”, “BBC weather app” or Accuweather they all seem terrible at predicting rain. Various rain radars show rain where we are yet there is none. So their rain radar doplers are clearly faulty. Makes day to day out and about planning problematic. Yes I know we can take waterproofs and brollies with us but even so.

Which weather apps and radars are the most accurate at predicting rain?

I want absolute certainty, not vague percentage chances of or false future radar predictions.
Click to expand...
The reason for this is at times its very difficult to predict exactly when and where it will rain. Rain possibilities are given in percentage figures, normally the higher the figure the more likely the rain will occur, but that percentage is not an indicator of the amount of rain. Nor is it a guarantee of rain.
Short term forecasting during the day is easier to forecast and is more accurate.

Also we live in one of the most difficult places on earth to predict weather.
We have three main factors each one capable of dominating weather or a combination of all of them simultaneously. The Atlantic, European, and north eastern all influence our weather. Other parts of the world enjoy more accurate longer term forecasts. When we used to go to the US weather predictions were far more accurate owing to predicting their weather is much simpler than here.
 
Fisherman said:
The reason for this is at times its very difficult to predict exactly when and where it will rain. Rain possibilities are given in percentage figures, normally the higher the figure the more likely the rain will occur, but that percentage is not an indicator of the amount of rain. Nor is it a guarantee of rain.
Short term forecasting during the day is easier to forecast and is more accurate.

Also we live in one of the most difficult places on earth to predict weather.
We have three main factors each one capable of dominating weather or a combination of all of them simultaneously. The Atlantic, European, and north eastern all influence our weather. Other parts of the world enjoy more accurate longer term forecasts. When we used to go to the US weather predictions were far more accurate owing to predicting their weather is much simpler than here.
Click to expand...
With that range of plausible excuses .... Are you entering politics ?
 
jagmanx said:
With that range of plausible excuses .... Are you entering politics ?
Click to expand...
What excuses, I never offered any excuses, just an explanation as to why forecasting weather in the U.K. even today with all the modern technology is more difficult than other parts of the world. No excuses offered, and as for the political insult, we are not allowed to discuss that on here.;)
 
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I use the met office one, the weather channel App, weather and radar, abd BBC weather. Forecasting is important to us, as we go up the Scottish hills all year round, and getting an accurate forecast is important. I scan a week ahead pick out what looks like the best day. Then check again the evening before. But we have ventured out only to find the forecasts were wrong. But most of the time they are fairly accurate.
 
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Just to add I am in Spain at the moment and the apps and radars mentioned above all seem hopeless. Yes I do check what the BBC say as they claim to offer global forecasts but I am questioning the accuracy of all given that Spain has allegedly a more stable and predictable climate rain wise (and even sun wise) than the U.K.

I don’t think the BBC use the met office anymore so maybe I should check out the U.K. met office app. Just curious but is there a Spanish weather app that is reliable?
 
Fisherman said:
What excuses, I never offered any excuses, just an explanation as to why forecasting weather in the U.K. even today with all the modern technology is more difficult than other parts of the world. No excuses offered, and as for the political insult, we are not allowed to discuss that on here.;)
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I fear your sense of humour went astray hopefully only briefly.
No insult intended or indeed given !
 
There is OpenWeather for Android.

I use the OpenWeather API. By feeding my Lat and Lng from the GPS connected to my Victron GX (RPi) with "large image" I use the 24 hour cloud forecast to control todays DoD when running the inverter. This is still work in progress as I need summer days to get faster charging.

Link

How accurate is it? Not sure I can really give an answer.

Screenshot 2022-03-16 11.53.58.png
 
Try Windy. Either windy.com or their app for iphone or android. Used by many sailors but also v good for land-based forecasts too.

Windy shows each of the seven different weather forecasting models used in UK and Europe (to which the UK Met Office contributes to one - ECMWF). You don't need all seven but you can find the one that seems most accurate for your area. Or there is a screen that compares each model - so if they all agree it is pretty certain - if not then you can go back to using seaweed. I've found ECMWF most accurate.

Many phone apps use the GFS model (one of those seven) because it is free. But because it is an American model it doesn't do so well in Europe. Europe has a more complex coastline and mountain ranges. Mountains often make it very hard for all the apps.
 
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Moped said:
Just to add I am in Spain at the moment and the apps and radars mentioned above all seem hopeless. Yes I do check what the BBC say as they claim to offer global forecasts but I am questioning the accuracy of all given that Spain has allegedly a more stable and predictable climate rain wise (and even sun wise) than the U.K.

I don’t think the BBC use the met office anymore so maybe I should check out the U.K. met office app. Just curious but is there a Spanish weather app that is reliable?
Click to expand...
We find meteobleu good but we try aemet and see if they agree.
 
Moped said:
When is rain not rain?

When using “The Weather App”, “BBC weather app” or Accuweather they all seem terrible at predicting rain. Various rain radars show rain where we are yet there is none. So their rain radar doplers are clearly faulty. Makes day to day out and about planning problematic. Yes I know we can take waterproofs and brollies with us but even so.

Which weather apps and radars are the most accurate at predicting rain?

I want absolute certainty, not vague percentage chances of or false future radar predictions.
Click to expand...
Try "Ventusky" its very good, comprehensive and usually accurate. Also "weather Line" is another good one and "Dark Sky" both pretty accurate too
 
I use the XCWeather app and find it very accurate, it shows hour by hour forecast and plenty other info. No intrusive adverts.
 
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