WeatherBug
The weather plays an important role in planning outdoor activities, especially in the warmer months of the year, so it's nice to have somewhere to quickly look at the upcoming weather conditions. WeatherBug is a great iPhone app that lets you keep tabs on the weather in your area or elsewhere with just a tap or two of a button.
WeatherBug gives you quick access to weather information in several ways. It's default Conditions view, which is what you'll first see when you start the app, gives you detailed information about today's current and previous conditions, including:
- current outdoor temperature
- today's highs and lows so far
- wind speed and direction
- rainfall
- heat index
- humidity
- and dew point
If you scroll down the page a bit, you'll see the forecast for Tonight, tomorrow, and the day after that. Tapping on any of these gives more detailed information. At the top of the page, you can toggle showing information from your locations, which you can add by pressing the list button at the top
WeatherBug also lets you view a radar weather map of your area, which you can access by tapping the Radar button on the bottom of the screen. Actually, it lets you view one of the entire earth (powered by Google Maps), which you can pinch to zoom and move around with your finger just like the Maps app. It remembers what you were viewing last, so you can zoom in to the location you'll want to check most often and it will start it there the next time you open WeatherBug.
By tapping on the third button, you can view what the weather conditions look like outside from your local weather cameras, which you can scroll between by swiping.
I found this application was very easy to use and gave me a fast, convenient, and reliable way to get in-depth and intuitive information about the weather in my location. On the downside, the radar map isn't animated to show me directions of weather patterns, but this is something can live without.
Bottom Line: If you're looking for a great weather application for your iPhone, you'll probably like WeatherBug.
Yes it is different. The Weather App that you get pre-installed on the iPhone only gives you the weather forecast for 7 days, starting with the current day, and the corresponding nights, consisting of the expected highs and lows, and a general forecast (sunny, cloudy, rain, snow, etc.). WeatherBug only lets you see shorter into the future- only two days - but gives you much more detailed information and a lot more features.
Hope that helps!
I've been using the iPhone web app from the Weather Underground (iPhone link) and I have to say that I've been very happy with that app. Now if they made an iPhone native app I would snatch that up in a heartbeat.
After you said this I took a look at the WeatherBug dashboard widget, and I can definately say that the iPhone App is a MUCH better. Most of the information you want is right on the first screen. If you want a better look at it, click on the thumbnails above (in the Review page, not in the forums). The only time you have to click for information is if you want extra forecast information than what's shown, if you want a radar map, or if you want to see the live cameras.
(EDIT: Looks like the site messed it up. The second to last image is actually the home screen.)