Prepare for extreme weather with these radar apps for Android
The weather can be unpredictable and occasionally deadly. If you live in an area that’s prone to flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, fires, or severe thunderstorms, install a weather radar app on your phone that will give you minute-by-minute updates about extreme weather in your area.
Do not rely on weather apps alone for extreme weather updates. Stay tuned to your local news, follow orders from the local emergency management officials, and havea battery-powered radioin case the power goes out. It’s also a good idea to pick up a fewhigh-capacity power banksso your phone will be charged after the bad weather passes.
While there are plenty ofgreat weather apps on Androidthat don’t necessarily provide a good weather radar, it’s worth looking at these five apps for their ability to map out everything in the sky that might rain down on you or blow you away.
1. The Weather Channel: Top extrememe weather app in US
It’s no surprise that the nation’s most-trusted source of the weather also has a great weather app. For an app with such a broad focus, it has a surprisingly robust radar feature.
Unlike most weather apps, which get their information directly from NOAA, The Weather Channel’s app uses data provided by IBM’s proprietary weather technology. This data includes an impressive predictive algorithm, showing a fairly-accurate projection of where storms, rainfall, snowfall, and hurricanes will head in the future. However, it takes a premium subscription to unlock this feature’s full potential.
For those less interested in the future and more interested in the nitty-gritty of the present, the app’s radar features some nifty map layers such as UV Index, “feels like” temperature, and dew point. This app also has hourly forecasts, hyper-local weather alerts, and weather-related videos all rolled into one.
2. WeatherBug: Best free extreme weather app
If you’ve been around tech for a long time, you might associate the name “WeatherBug” with the invasive desktop app that bordered on malware. However, the company has shed its shady past and offers some impressive weather analytics, thanks in no small part to its network of weather stations located at schools across the world.
WeatherBug brings the full power of these stations onto its weather map. It provides the standard radar coverage and also some absurdly detailed local data, such as the exact temperature and air pressure at each of the hundreds of stations it has installed.
3. Flowx: Best extreme weather app with predictive models
Many weather apps strive to do everything at once. Flowx takes a different approach. It puts all its effort into simulating the weather for the upcoming week. You’ll notice this hyper-focus the moment you drag your finger around the screen and realize that you’re not moving themaparound. Instead, you’re movingtimearound.
Using three predictive models (four, if you have an annual subscription), you can see what the weather map willprobablylook like over the course of the next week.
While Flowx isn’t exactly a radar map, it provides an exciting functionality with a similar-enough purpose to warrant a place on this list.
4. MyRadar: Most versatile extreme weather app
MyRadar’s features are pretty standard, showing an animation of the cloud cover and precipitation over the past few hours. The interface can be a bit clunky, but it has nifty features that map power outages, wildfires, air quality, and even satellites in orbit. It also provides fairly accurate alerts about when and where it will start raining.
The app’s most notable feature is the ability to put a radar widget on your homescreen. It’s not perfect. The widget’s radar is notably low-resolution, for one thing. Still, no other weather apps have a comparable feature.
If you want to see the weather radar when you open your phone, MyRadar is the only option available.
5. Clime: Easiest extrememe weather app to customize
It was tempting to avoid adding this app to the list, despite its popularity and its plethora of features. The reason for this is simple. The sheer number of ads that this app subjects you to is ridiculous, and the app is extremely aggressive in trying to get you to sign up for its paid version.
However, the app does a great job of customizing its experience to its users, and its map gives you a comprehensive view of the radar and the local weather without having to fiddle with the layers and settings. It would have been much better if it did all that without pushing an ad almost every time the app switches screens.
Prepare for extreme weather before it comes your way
A good radar app can help you avoid an emergency situation, but it can’t guarantee that you will always be safe. To prepare for when the worst happens, take a look at our guide onhow to set up emergency SOS features on Android.
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