Weather Gods 2.5.2 Released

By Weather Gods (Scott), 15 November, 2020

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi Everybody,

These updates seem to come around quickly :)

Release 2.5.2 should be hitting the store soon.

The main update is full support for iOS14 widgets, in small, medium and large configurations.

The widgets can be customised for any of your favourite places, edit the widget and choose a place from the list. If you don't have any favourites then the last location you viewed should be in the list.

The widgets update on average once an hour, sometimes sooner, but out of our control - it's down to the device.

The small widget displays the next weather highlight. This could be the time when it will next rain, sunrise, sunset, moon rise, tomorrows weather etc. The idea is the highlight is displayed when you need it, so you will find them change throughout the day. I plan to add more highlights in the future, probably starting with twilight times.

The medium widget displays the next highlight and the one after that. For example you might get rain starting at 5pm as the next and sunset at 5:20pm as the one after.

The large widget displays a comprehensive smart forecast for the next hour, some data for the day; low temperature, high temperature etc and the summary for the day and night. These are using our weather text generator so should feel familiar. When evening comes around then we display the night summary and a summary for tomorrow.

All three widgets will also report the number of alerts and the highest severity - similar to the alert indicator in the main app.

Tap on a widget to load that place straight into the main app.

These weather highlights are also available on the Apple Watch if you find you enjoy them on your iPhone / iPad.

Other changes ...

I have reviewed all the complications on the different watch faces and fixed many (small) bugs I found.

There is some confusion with some of the complications, especially if visually they use the Apple Watch gauge widget. The problem is Voiceover reads the percentage fill amount of the gauge and I can't find a way to switch off. So, it gets a little confusing as we also have percentages for chance of rain etc. I can confirm the Apple complications have the same problem, so hopefully Apple will fix in the future.

The other changes are mostly bug fixes which were discovered in beta or reported to me for release 2.5.1.

An update on AerisWeather ... I know many people in the UK and Europe are somewhat disappointed with the accuracy of our new provider - I am too. The good news is I have been raising bugs and they respond quickly with fixes. I also spoke to them directly this week and took them through all the problems we still have. They have pledged to fix some of these after thanksgiving and some of the more challenging ones early in the new year.

Many thanks to our beta testers and translators. Your commitment and contribution to the app is much appreciated. Thank you.

One final snippet ... I have Weather Gods running on the Mac, in preparation for Apple Silicon Macs. If anyone has a new Apple Silicon Mac and would like to help test then please get in touch - especially as I don't know my way around Voiceover on the Mac, special keys, gestures etc. Thanks.

I hope you enjoy the new widgets!
Scott

Options

Comments

By Jimmy V on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

keep up the great work! Weather gods is my first and only weather app I use. I love the sounds and the great info it provides. Enjoy your day Scott

By KE8UPE on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Hi,
I have an Intel-based Mac, that is still currently running Catalina. I am thinking of updating to Big Sur, but haven’t yet.
Will it run on there? I have a few apps, for example Instapaper, which works really well on my Mac.

By Weather Gods (Scott) on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Hi Skippy,

Thanks for the offer. Unfortunately it has to be one of the new Apple Silicon Macs announced last week.

Don't think anybody has got one yet, but some people might get one in the next couple of weeks.

By Holger Fiallo on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Bella the cats like the sounds of the app. App is doing well. No issues so far. Thanks. Happy Gubble, gubble .

By chris R on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Hi,
UK user here :).
Weather Gods is working alright for me in general here since the changeover; there is just one rather serious thing which I think needs addressing.
The precipitation sensitivity is far too low. I have only ever had very light/light drizzle or very light/light rain forecast when there has been much more than that on many occasions sometimes 20 mm in a few hours. Not sure if it is a bug with the weather generator itself or with the provider but it it is impacting the user experience for me quite a lot. I Suggest you could review the precipitation category thresholds maybe something like the below might work.

<0.5 mm/h = very light
0.6-2.0 mm/h = light
2.1-5.0 mm/h = moderate
5.1-15.0mm/h = heavy
15.1-30.0 mm/h = very heavy
>30.1 mm/h = torrential

By Weather Gods (Scott) on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the feedback. The issue is with our new weather provider, AerisWeather. As far as I know it's a UK/Europe problem only.

They have a fix in the pipeline which they plan to release after thanksgiving.

For info ... AerisWeather give us what they call coded weather

e.g.

S:VL:RW

would mean Scattered, Very Light, Rain Showers

There are 1000's of code combinations and the weather generator in Weather Gods takes the codes and converts them into the summaries.

AerisWeather realise that the codes don't match the precipitation or accumulation amounts and this is what they will be changing.

Hopefully fixed soon.

By Weather Gods (Scott) on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Thanks Holger!

By chris R on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Are right, I totally understand, thanks for explaining. Great job on the app and the updates in general, keep it going.
Thanks
Chris

By Ekaj on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Hi Scott. Thank you as always for all the hard work. One question though. Just a bit ago I received an alert on my Lock Screen which said "Keep receiving Weather Gods alerts?" But it went away just as quickly as it appeared, so I opened your app and all is well. Has anyone else received this?

By Weather Gods (Scott) on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Hi Ekaj,

I get that from time to time - it's Apple asking if you really want to continue receiving alerts from that app on your Lock Screen.

By Dennis Long on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

This is the one and only weather app I use. I also have an android device and there is no app on Android that comes close to Weather gods. This app needs to be on Android as well. The app is highly customizable works flawlessly and is the best hands down. I love the ability to have the app start in your favorites.

By Jan Kleinhans on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Hi
I might add that here in South Africa we also have the same problems with the amounts of rain as mentioned in your post. Fortunately the developer is aware of this. Also we have the other problem that no model for thunder storms is available for this country, so they are not mentioned in forecasts at all. For that I also hope a fix will come in the new year.
Jan Kleinhans

By Dave Nason on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hi there. Great to see you now have an iOS14 widget, however I have a couple of questions.
Firstly, I don't seem to be getting the highlights as you describe them above. I added the small widget, and instead of that, I just get my location, "no weather alerts", and the current conditions, for example "evening 9 degrees" and "mostly cloudy". I haven't seen chance of rain etc on the live widget at all, as it is displayed in the widget preview. I am in Ireland.
Second, I wonder could the touch targets be made bigger? It's quite difficult to put VoiceOver focus on the widget as it currently is.
Finally, my widget seems to permanently have a black (or very dark) background. It reckon it would look better if it adapted to the current light etc like the app itself does, and Apple's own Weather app and widget do.
Thanks as always for the great work on VoiceOver accessibility.
Dave

By Weather Gods (Scott) on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the feedback on the widget. They update based on the likely weather, you will only get rain etc if it's in the forecast. You can add other places and have multiple widgets if you want to check out how the widget reacts to other places.

Regarding the widget touch targets, we're constrained with what Apple allow us, it's not really possible to make them bigger. You should be able to swipe through them though?

Thanks for the suggestion on the background of the widget, it's something I can currently considering, but it might come down to just a light and dark widget based on the display mode.

By Jo Billard on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

I have had several weather alerts starting from late yesterday afternoon, but none of them told me what the alerts were about. All I heard was that there was a weather statement, and even when I opened Weather Gods it didn't say what was happening. Good thing I have the WeatherCan and Meteo apps, or I would have remained ignorant of the impending snowfall we've been expecting here. This is unusual, I've always been able to rely on Weather Gods for accurate and timely serious weather alerts, and what to expect.

By Dave Nason on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hi Scott.
Ah ok, that all makes sense, I get it now.
Regarding the touch targets, yes I can swipe through them no problem, it's just tricky to get VoiceOver onto the widget in the first place when exploring the screen by touch. But I do understand. What some widgets do, including Apple's own wether widget, is to make the whole widget a single touch element, and it then reads all of the content. Whether you, or other users, would want you to go that direction I don't know ☺️
Sounds good re the background colour.
Cheers,
Dave

By Weather Gods (Scott) on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Hi Jo,

Thanks for the feedback on the weather alerts.

The weather statements come from the national / local weather service and to be honest the ones I've looked at don't always contain much useful information. I have cross referenced with the actual national weather service and they are correct.

You should still get the other weather alerts though for the more serious weather.

If you are in the USA then it's worth checking the county alerts option in settings is switched on, otherwise they wont be sent.

If you're still not receiving any then send me a feedback email please from within the app and I can investigate further.

By Weather Gods (Scott) on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Hi Dave,

Ah, sorry I see what you mean now about the touch targets.

I see if I can wrap those into a single label.

Thanks

By Jo Billard on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Thanks. I'm in Canada, so I can't turn the county alerts on. I just checked the last one and opened up Weather Gods, and it's working properly now.

By Weather Gods (Scott) on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Hi Dave,

I switched the widget to fall in with the current appearance, light or dark.

Is this something you would like to check out in a beta?

By Dave Nason on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hi Scott. Just a heads up that I emailed you a few days ago, but haven't received anything about the beta as yet.
Thanks, Dave.

By Weather Gods (Scott) on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Hi Dave,

Sorry, I didn't receive anything. Can you try admin@weathergods.cloud instead please. Might be Amazon mail playing up.

Thanks
Scott

By Dave Nason on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 - 20:24

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hi Scott. No worries, that's sent now.
Thanks.