Don’t let the weather ruin your travel plans!. Here’s our best weather app
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THIS IS THE BEST WEATHER APP
TO AVOID RUINING
YOUR TRAVEL PLANS!
How many times the weather has ruined your plans?. Ever since Consu & myself stepped foot in the United Kingdom, we became more weather-conscious as in checking weather reports twice a day to be able to do better plans. That’s because in the UK, we don’t get a great amount of bikini/trunks kind-of days. So here we explain how we use what is for us the best weather app after use a few of them.
Back in Spain, Consu gets her healthy dose of sunshine, 23-40°C from the warm-dry climate between April to September (and sometimes till October). And, I had 28-36°C all year round in the tropical climate of Malaysia. The weather in our countries is not normally a problem but this is very different in other colder and more rainy countries.
Mobile Phone Weather App & Websites
AccuWeather.com
Since the weather plays a big role in our lives, we used to have Accuweather app installed on our mobile phones to keep ourselves updated. The problem was, most of the time, the temperature could be warm-ish, but it was very windy and gusty.
As you could already guess, its going to be a complete disaster if you’re heading down to the beach with your parasol. Let alone going out on a kayak or paddleboarding.
Accuweather does provide vital information on current weather conditions including temperature, percipitation chance, MinuteCast(R) which tells when its going to rain and sunrise/sunset. But its just not enough!
Yes, they do have a mobile phone app and also available on their website for extended forecasts for FREE.
Windy.com
Yes!, windy.com is at the moment the best weather app for us. This is our new go-to source when it comes to predicting what’s the weather going to be like at a specific time and day. It displays real-time data and so far we’ve noticed that their forecasts were about 95% accurate!
It even tells the wind direction, waves in the sea, wind strength and gusts strength. We used it all spring/summer this year 2020 and it worked wonders!. We managed to pin-point where we would like to go at exactly a specific time slot. You can pick a time on a specific destination on the live-map, then on the same screen, pinch zoom out to look at other nearby locations weather conditions.
By using this particular app, we avoided wasting time driving 2 hours down the coast to a beach when the weather the next day was going to be a so-so 25°C, with winds blowing 12-15 knots and gusts up to 20 knots! Forget that! Any wind conditions over 8 knots is just too much if you’re going to the beach.
Yes, Windy.com also do have an app for a basic forecast, but we prefer to go on the website and view it as mobile, because we get more functions and data.
Wind vs Gusts
On the website, you’ll find 2 values on the chart.
Wind means the ‘constant air speed’ blowing on the particular area of interest. Just like you’re sitting in front of a table-fan blowing on your face at the same speed vs time.
Gusts means the ‘sudden increase of air speed’ blowing in the particular area or sudden strong rush of wind. In other words, its like you’re using a hand-powered fan that gives bursts of wind in short time spans (eg. 1-5 seconds at a time).
The wind/gusts are displayed in Knots (kts).
1 Knot = 1.15 Miles per hour (mph) = 1.85 Kilometres per hour (kmh)
Are you saying that you don’t like windy days?
Well, yes and no. It all depends.
Most of the time, we go for walks and just hanging out on the beach. For those kind of days, we prefer to have any winds under 8 knots on the charts. Any more than that, we get wind-chills and dust flying off the ground! There was once Consuelo told me that she went on a walk on a gusty day and the sand was blowing off the sea wall into her face!
But on days that I’m going out on the sailing kayak, I would want more wind! Ideally, it should be 5-10 knots of wind and gusts should be less than 16 knots. Any more than that, I’ll call off the idea of going into the water, I learned it the hard way, haha. Ditto, any less than 5 knots, I’d rather be paddling the kayak instead.
What else can we do with Windy.com?
Confirming Future Weather Conditions
I personally use it to predict cloud movement to confirm if a storm was coming. Its nice to be prepared rather than being caught in the rain/storm/adverse weather conditions or even worse, missing a great sunny day outdoors!
Live Destination Webcams
On the live maps, when you click into a particular destination name, you could also watch live webcams of the city/location. They are all listed and most of them were free to view.
Some webcam providers do charge a fee for ‘premium’ functions such as zoom-in function or even turn the camera! I’ve never subscribed so to such service before, because I don’t need them, the free/basic service was more than enough for me.
Switch on the markers for the map from the bottom right ‘More layers’ tab.
Weather News
This website also has a severe weather news timeline that you can follow and get updated on the progress.
Click on the top left Menu to get to this function.
Hurricane Tracker
In this day and age, we have Hurricanes being called by so many names that we can’t even remember. The good news is, you can go on this website to track them and where they are heading. If its heading towards your city, maybe its a good time to pack-up and leave? Just kidding.
Click on the top left Menu to get to this function.
Swells for Surfing
Alrighty then, I know you surfer dudes trust your eyes more than charts. But at least you could have a heads up of what’s going on on the beach without leaving home or when you’re on the go. Handy, isn’t it?
Active Fire Hotspots
I believe that this function would be widely used in summer-time for the northern hemisphere when the weather is dry and hot, causing bush fires.
Switch on the markers for the map from the bottom right ‘More layers’ tab.
Air Quality Reports
If you’re health conscious or have severe health-issues related to air pollution, this could be a handy function for you especially when you’re travelling abroad. If the air quality is poor, consider bringing your face masks or reroute to another destination.
Switch on the markers for the map from the bottom right ‘More layers’ tab.
In a nutshell
In short, you should check out this website. Its a great source of data about the daily weather around us.
There are tons more functions that I haven’t mentioned on here that could be useful to make your life easier!
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