Crackberry guide to weather apps

Become a mobile Weather Personality with these weather apps!

Your Mom always said to dress for the weather. Of course that occasionally meant that you were forced to dress for -40 Celsius weather, even if others were out in their bathing suits. At least you’re prepared for a sudden snowfall…in the dog days of Summer. Despite all of our technological advances, our daily plans (for the most part) are still dependent upon the forecast. Out here, in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, we typically expect the cold, rainy season soon. This year, we are expecting a colder, snowier time…sigh.

So how do you weather the weather? Do you leave it to chance? Stick your head out of the window? Devote your eyes and ears to the cheesy local TV weather personality? Oh, of course, you use your BlackBerry! But now you have to decide to make use of an app or the internet. Well you know where I stand. Welcome to the CrackBerry Guide to Weather Apps! We take a look at some of the most popular applications available that help you choose between flip flops or rain boots. Let’s see which apps fellow BlackBerry Users and Abusers have chosen.

BerryWeather

This is, arguably, one of the most popular BlackBerry weather applications available. It’s also been voted the best news/weather app of 2010 by CrackBerry. The application provides an amazingly beautiful look at the forecast for over 72000 locations globally – with the ability to track up to 10 locations simultaneously. BerryWeather enables users to view the 7 day forecast, as well as (for U.S. customers) alerts and advisories. The information provided comes from Weather Underground. The home screen icon gives you basic weather information simply by highlighting it. If you have OS 4.7 or higher, your wallpaper can be used to reflect the current weather. By opening of the application gives you data such as; POP, wind, humidity, dew point and the “feels like” temperature.

BerryWeather also features GPS/AGPS location tracking, animated radar maps (US), adding media links to locations and accessing Twitter to tweet the weather (it’s hailing in this mo fo!).

BerryWeather is available for a one-time fee of $9.95. There is an alternative called BeWeather Free (found within BlackBerry App World). This free version can track up to 3 location simultaneously, and display the current conditions or a 5 day forecast.

CrackBerry App Store Rating – 4/5

BlackBerry App World Rating – 3.5/5

More information on BerryWeather

More information on BeWeather Free

Ace Weather Forecasts

This application is another contender for the title of Master of Meteorology. As with Berry Weather, Ace Weather Forecasts provides a wealth of knowledge, while requiring little effort to access it. The home screen icon does reflect the current conditions and temperature, but it doesn’t always work properly (sometimes, no data can be seen). As I said before, Ace Weather Forecast is jam packed with weather details, which include; visibility, humidity and wind speed/direction.

Ace Weather Forecasts focuses less on UI and screen resolution and more on the information it provides. This may tend to ward off potential users, but those who want “just the facts ma’am” will be satisfied. In this day and age, I think an application also needs to dress to impress if it wants to survive. Hopefully an update is coming. The application does have other views besides the text view- you can see basic hourly and 7 day charts detailing what you should expect.

The application is one of the more costly weather applications available – currently on sale for $9.95 from $19.90. There is a free trial available, so I strongly suggest trying it out before purchasing. To the developers, I would suggest making the current sale price the new regular price – before it gets blown away by gale force winds.

CrackBerry App Store Rating – 5/5

BlackBerry App World Rating – not available on App World

More information on Ace Weather Forecasts

WeatherBug

When you hear the term weather bug, I would think of a bug in a weather app. This isn’t the case here. WeatherBug is a name that has been thrown around for a while, and with good reason. Going back to 1992, WeatherBug provides detailed info for over 32 million people on a monthly basis.

On the BlackBerry side, WeatherBug isn’t slacking when it comes to reporting on the weather either. It taps into thousand of US weather stations to keep users up to date on local and severe weather (NWS), forecasts and various camera views. If you are using a GPS –enabled BlackBerry, WeatherBug can give you more personalized forecasts based on your location. Weather information is extended to other apps – in BlackBerry Maps, users can view weather information on a location by simply touching the specific area.

There are more features available in the free WeatherBug app. By switching to WeatherBug Elite, you get even more! Stay in the know with real-time delivery of alerts pushed right to your device. Weather Maps include multiple layers displaying numerous weather details. WeatherBug also keeps track of plotted lightning strike points and NWS watches- Necessary, if you are looking to generate 1.21 Jiggawatts for whatever reason. WeatherBug is nicely priced at $4.99

CrackBerry App Store Rating – Not available in the App Store

BlackBerry App World Rating – 3/5 (Elite version) 3.5/5 (free version)

More information on WeatherBug

More information on WeatherBug Elite

iHazWeather

For some, simple is better. You don’t understand most of the meteological terms and you don’t need to. You simply want to know if you should wear pants or a speedo. First off, never, EVER go with the speedo. Trust me on that one, dude. Secondly, check out iHazWeather. The application gives you what you need; the current conditions and the 3 day forecast. That’s it. Honest. Okay maybe not.

iHazWeather can use your GPS location or allow you to manually enter in a location of your own. The application also lets you choose what your refresh rate will be (choose between 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or 1 to 3 hours). It is the basic weather facts presented crisply and clearly. All this can be your for the low price of $0.99.

CrackBerry App Store Rating – 5/5

BlackBerry App World Rating – 2.5/5

More information on iHazWeather

WeatherEye

For as long as I can remember, I’ve used the Weather Network- to plan my weekends, vacations and even my day to day. Every 10 minutes (on the 10s) I am informed of the local forecast. With their free WeatherEye app, the details get updated every 15 minutes, but it’s there whenever I need it. If the Weather Network covers your city, you can view it on WeatherEye. In fact, you can track multiple cities.

So what do you get with WeatherEye? In-depth long term, short term and hourly forecasts, with a 100% chance of current conditions. Users in Canada or the US also have access to Severe Weather Alerts. Other features include radar maps and support for metric/imperial and Celsius/Fahrenheit. The Weather Network also puts the focus on how weather affects particular activities. Through WeatherEye, users can access the Weather Network mobile site, where you can check out their Golf Report, Ski Report, traffic, air quality, etc.

CrackBerry App Store Rating – Not available in the App Store

BlackBerry App World Rating – 2.5/5

More information on WeatherEye

Conclusion

If you take a look at both the CrackBerry App Store and BlackBerry App World, you can see the multitude of weather applications that are available. Some have better ratings, some more (or less) costly than others; all of them worthy enough to be tried. The ones that made it to the list are the apps most talked about, regardless if it’s positive or negative. Are you using one of the apps listed? Can you suggest and app to add to those found above? Let us know in the comments!