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Karl asked: “I love the show. Listen every Saturday from an undisclosed location on my mail route. That’s the reason I’m calling. I need an accurate weather app on my Samsung Galaxy S6 phone so I can see the current conditions for the weather. I’ve used some of the local Detroit weather station apps and they’re not so accurate. In the past I’ve used some national weather station apps and they seem to be memory hogs.”
Karl, the first thing we should mention is that hyperlocal weather forecasts are only as dependable as the weather stations they’re getting their reports from.
Hyperlocal weather apps tend to get their data from consumer-level stations, since the National Weather Service doesn’t really bother to put a few reporting stations on every neighborhood imaginable. So, don’t expect the forecast to always be flawless.
That disclaimer aside, you can give Dark Sky a shot. It has been a very popular weather app on iOS devices since it launched and it has since been ported to Android, so it should work just fine on your S6. Dark Sky will give you an estimate of how many minutes into the future it will start or stop raining around you, which you might appreciate if you’re constantly exposed to the elements on your route.
We also like the NOAA High-Def Radar App
Arcus Weather has gotten less attention but it does pretty much exactly the same thing Dark Sky does, but Dark Sky will cost you $2.99/year, while Arcus Weather offers a Pro, ad-free version, but doesn’t require it.
We also like the NOAA High-Def Radar App, available both for iPhone and Android. It’s $2 on iPhone and $3 on Android, but it’s well worth the price. It feeds live satellite information showing you what’s in your area, where and how fast it is moving.
We’ve only used the iPhone version ourselves and the Android version is a bit older, but the screens all look the same so hopefully it works just as well. In our experience the NOAA High-Def Radar App has been accurate and reliable.