Weather Underground brings its reputation to iOS and Android

Weather apps are about as common as snow in Buffalo during the winter. The problem is that many of them are not accurate and are more flash than substance. But now Weather Underground, the internet's first online weather service, is offering apps for both the iOS and Android platforms and brings a penchant for making forecasts that you can actually rely on.

The main page is separated into 3 sections. The top shows you the current temperature, what the temperature feels like outside, wind speed and the direction, humidity and an image of what the weather is like outside (sunny, raining, cloudy, etc.). Tap the top third of the screen and you will get less important weather information like the current dewpoint, visibility, pressure, wind gusts, GPS coordinates and the time of the last update. Tap it again to get a quick little forecast.

The middle of the screen shows you what to expect outside during the upcoming 3 days with H/L temps and precipitation percentages. Swipe the screen to get the forecast for the next 3 days or tap on the screen for an hourly forecast. The bottom of the main page taking up a little under half of the entire screen is a Google map with weather stations nearby reporting the temperature. When you tap on the map, it takes up the entire screen with a radar overlay. Called the "Wundermap" you can change the overlays to track storms, see a satellite view, temperatures, cameras and animation.

You can choose an area to be your favorite location, and watching for severe weather alerts in a specific area. If you have a Weather Underground account, you can sign in from your handset. The app became available for iOS devices on December 21st for devices running iOS 4 or higher. The Android Market version hit the store the previous day and requires users to have a device running Android 2.2 or higher. The early complaints have nothing to do with forecasting, just some words about the app being a bit laggy and the lack of a widget for the home screen. Now if we had to choose, we'd give up a bit of responsiveness for a more accurate weather forecast. After all, who wants to be standing out in the rain getting drenched because they weren't warned about precipitation?

source: AndroidMarket, AppStore via AndroidCentral