Hi All,
Hope everyone is well?
I have just released 3.7 to the App Store with some new features.
Storm Threats.
This is for the USA only and gives you a comprehensive look at approaching storms or storms that are passing over, letting you know the speed and which direction they are coming from.
The information includes data such as whether the storm is tornadic, is rotating, has lightning, large hail etc. You can configure in settings (under severe weather) the radius that Weather Gods will use when checking for storms, from 25 to 100 miles.
You can drill down into the storm distance, speed, lightning strike count and the intensity of the precipitation. I have been following a couple of storm chaser channels on YouTube and found Weather Gods to be pretty accurate with the storms.
This is a free add-on to the Extended Forecast subscription, whilst maintaining the monthly price. This subscription offers great value with a 14 day forecast, global air quality, minutely rain/snow and now storm threats.
Share the weather
You can now share the weather from the Pantheon, Weather Wheel and the Storm Threats screen. I support the regular Apple Sharing options such as Twitter, Facebook, Email, iMessage etc. I have tried as far as possible to include a text forecast as well as the traditional screen shot.
Weather Refresh
This has been a regular request and at last is implemented. You can tap to refresh from the Pantheon or the Weather Wheel. This is especially useful if you are using the Storm Threats feature and tracking an approaching storm.
Notifications
I have finally completed migration of the all the notification services from IBM to Amazon AWS. IBM will switch off their notification service in mid June, so it's important that people please update before then.
Bug fixes
I have swept through the app, fixed and improved a number of Voiceover issues which I spotted. The Weather Wheel should now be a much nice experience for Voiceover users.
As always, a massive thanks to our beta testers and translators, it's very much appreciated. Thank you.
I am trying to increase my subscription count so that I might be able to fund additional data services such as lightning and pollen. It's incredibly difficult as the app is hidden as far as Apple are concerned and it has been many years since Apple gave any sort of promotion for the app. It is also never mentioned by Apple when they promote accessible apps, which is a shame.
One of the ways that the app can gain visibility to Apple and their search engine algorithms is by leaving a review (hopefully a nice one!). If you haven't already done so or perhaps would like to update your review, then please do so as it does make a difference.
You can also help me by sharing the weather on channels such as Twitter, as it helps promote the app and allows users to find and download it.
I hope you enjoy the new features as much as I enjoyed developing them.
Scott
Comments
This sounds Great
I am looking forward to trying out the new features. They sound really neat. For all those with social media accounts, may I suggest posting the following link to help promote this app?
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/weather-gods/id1041512978
Sorry to all of my international friends, but this link apparently is only a US app store link.
Does premium include the extended forecast, or is there a separa
Hi,
If I get the premium subscription, does that include the extended forecast, or is extended forecast a separate purchase?
Also, do you think you’d be able to add iCloud back up/synchronization to the app? A different third-party app has this option, which is one of the main reasons I continue to use it, especially, with as much as I’ve had to restore my phone recently. I would hate to lose all of my location data.
Extended Forecast
Hi Skippy
The extended forecast is a separate subscription which gives you 14 day forecast, air quality, minutely data and the new storm threats.
iCloud Sync is on my list of things to do and I have already started thinking about how to implement.
Social Promotion
Thanks sockhopsinger!
Before i update
Because I was premium, do I get the features coming to me? Asking so i can know what i'm getting. I know you've been having problems with the migration so i'm asking before I give a WTF? :) to you.
Subscriptions
Hi Siobhan
There are 4 plans:
1. Free tier - limited but app still usable
2. Premium tier; Notifications, Severe Weather Alerts, Apple Watch, Widgets, Weather Wheel
3. Grandfathered Premium - as per Premium
4. Extended Forecast; 14 day weather, air quality, minutely weather data and storm threats
All plans get the updates for sharing and refresh.
Extended Forecast get the new storm threats.
Hope that helps.
Another question
Hi,
I have another question.
Does the extended forecast subscription Aldo allow access to the Apple Watch app?
Another question
Hi Skippy
Apple Watch App is premium only.
Beta testing
Hi Scott,
I love this app. It’s really accessible with VoiceOver, and you do a good job with updates. I am interested in becoming a beta tester of this app. How do I do that?
Thanks,
Daniel
Hi Scott. Thank you as always for such a great app.
Hi all. Scott, thanks as always for such a terrific app. The new features sound awesome, and hopefully I can get more Apple gift cards when this one runs out. Sharing the weather will be sweet.
Some questions
Would it be possible to implement an option to specify the precision of the application data? For example, have the temperature expressed in a step of 1 degree, 0.5 degrees or 0.1 degrees? Example a temperature of 20.1 degrees rather than 20? Also will we able to add a personal weather station from which to retrieve data? Thanks for the amazing app.
the new feature
Hello and thanks for creating this app and making it accessible. the storm feature available for the yearly subscriber? please let us know.
Hello Scott great job
Hello Scott. I would like to say that you have done a great job on this app so far. I do have a question though. I know I’ve kind of asked us about features before. But I am grandfathered in. When I go to the storm sweats, it says there are no storms right through my area, my area is set to within 25 miles of my location for now. Then it says storm so it’s locked. Do I need to pay for this feature even though I am grandfathered in? I did the restore all purchases option in the app just in case I needed to do that.
Two Things to Remember About Storms
To those wanting to know about storms... First of all, the storm tracking is only available in the United States at this time (see the thread opener for confirmation). Second, for those of us grandfathered in, you will still need to get the extended forecast extra if you want to have access to the storm tracker. I believe it is $1.49 a month. Again, all of this information is available in the thread starter.
Storms
Thanks sockhopsinger - good summary.
Temperature
Hi Knut,
Yep, can definitely do this for temperature - will add to the list.
Regarding weather stations.
You can register your PWS at https://www.pwsweather.com
There is an FAQ here for getting your station on to their network: https://www.pwsweather.com/frequently-asked-questions
Once accepted then Weather Gods should pick it up - you’ll need to set weather station type to PWS in settings, weather station.
I just subscribed for the storm threats
I just subscribed so I can get the storm threats. I really like this app. It kind of makes me think of a mobile version of the weather channel but for the visually impaired. If that makes sense. My stepdad used to check the weather all the time on TV. He would compare the local news his weather with the weather channel. He will talk about all the time about how different colors met different storms or different temperatures what have you. I think it had to do with his time in the Air Force and working on airplanes as a mechanic and such.
I just subscribed for the storm threats
Thanks for subscribing Firefly. Hopefully you find the storm threats useful. Don't forget you can also share that information with other people if they don't have the app.
I think your stepdad is possibly referring to the color associated with DBZ level? I do represent the DBZ color in the storm threats page, but also provide the accessible translation. The app has a link to DBZ as well, but the page for reference is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBZ_(meteorology)
I don't know if it would be useful to also know the color as accessible text as well?
WG
Great app. People go and vote for this app so he can win.
Beta testing
Hi Daniel,
Please send me a feedback email from within the app (under settings) and I can start the ball rolling.
Thanks
Does premium give you all features?
Hi,
Does the premium subscription give you all features, including the Apple Watch app?
Basically, does premium make the app the way it was, prior to becoming a subscription?
Does premium give you all features?
Hi,
If you were previously a paid user then you are automatically grandfathered into the premium subscription, giving you:
- general notifications
- widgets
- Apple Watch app and lots of complications
- 7 day weather wheel
- severe weather alert notifications
The extended forecast is an additional paid subscription giving you:
- 14 day forecast for Pantheon and Weather Wheel
- Air Quality
- Minutely rain / snow
- Storm Threats
Hope that helps
Current conditions complication not updating
My watch will not update unless I open the watch application. I tried uninstalling it from the watch and adding it again, but with no result. Any suggesttions?
Complication not updating
Hi,
These are quite fiddly because Apple ultimately decide if a complication gets to update or not. It's a problem that affects all apps with complications.
However, there are some things to check which will improve the updates:
The things to check
On my watch I have the following set in settings:
General, Background App Refresh On,
On Mobile Data, WiFi On and it's connected to my local wifi network
Bluetooth On
Dock set to Favorites
In the Watch App on the iPhone
Dock, Docker Ordering, Favorites Weather Gods is at the top of the list of Favorites
storm threats
I've had a chance to work with the new storm threats feature in the past 12 hours or so as we had thunderstorms move through the area. I like it but I'm a bit confused about what is being shown, such as I assume that it'll show the storm as long as it's in my set radius but how do I know if the storm being mentioned is one that is still heading my way or if it's already past me but still within the set radius? This won't be a problem if there's only one storm but both yesterday evening and again this morning there were several storms in the area at once.
storm threats
Hi Troy,
The app should display multiple storms, one after the other, let me know if that's not the case please and I can investigate.
The data indicates where the storm is coming from or if it is passing over, as well as characteristics of the storm, such as rotation, is it looking like becoming a tornado, does it have lightning etc.
Swiping past the initial summary gives you more details such as the distance from your location. Storms can cover large areas so you have the minimum distance from your location, as well as the average and maximum. Combined with the speed, it should give you an indication as to how threatening the storm is for your location.
Storms may well dissipate before reaching you as well, escpially likely if your radius is 100 miles.
To summaries, the things to watch for are:
- approaching or passing over
- direction from your location
- speed
- distance
- characteristics / threats
Happy to elaborate further if you need more clarification?
Also, if you want to share to twitter and ping me then I can give a better interpretation, assuming the screen shot is not removed from the tweet.
thanks Scott
Thanks Scott, it might just take some getting used to reading the info since yesterday evening and then again this morning was the first time that I dealt with the storm threats feature.
I'm not on social media at all so I wouldn't be able to share anything with you that way.
Subscribed to Extended Forecast
Hi Scott,
My wife and I both subscribed to the extended weather. We did have Storm Shield for the lightning alerts, but since WeatherBug lets us know that, we dropped that one. Are you planning to also implement lightning alerts similar to WeatherBug?
As for the alerts of storms, I shared one last night from Augusta, GA. I am in Charlotte so we had no storms here. Great job!
Lightning alerts
Hi wiljames, thank you both for subscribing to the extended forecast!
I would very much like to implement the lightning alerts and need to figure a cost effective way of doing it. AerisWeather want $1000 per month for the lightning alerts package and unfortunately that's not affordable for me right now. However, I have some ideas.
Thanks for sharing the storm threat.
Beta testing follow up
Hi Scott,
I have sent you an email via Feedback in settings of WeatherGods. I am excited to become part of the beta testing team
Thank you!
I've just subscribed to the storm threats and extended forecasts. I appreciate this app and all you've done. I'd also like to beta test, so will send feedback. I'm excited to see what your ideas for lightning alerts are!
Beta testing
Hi Brooke
Thanks for subscribing to the extended forecast!
Please send me a feedback email from the app and I can invite you to the beta program.
Tornado alert
My iPhone just got a tornado alert but nothing from WG.
Tornado alert
Hi Holger
I just got one for Chicago - valid until 4:30 PM Wednesday.
Send me a feedback email please and I can investigate
Precise Temperature
Hi Knut
Have investigated further and I can provide a celsius value with one decimal point of precision but not a Fahrenheit value.
Wasn't sure if you were after celsius or fahrenheit ?