Hi All,
Hope everyone is okay and the weather is being kind.
The Weather Gods 4.6.0 release is now out with lots of new features.
Tides: Global tide times, tide heights, tide station map, and detailed tide charts.
Storm Threats: These are now available for anywhere in the world. They provide detailed information about approaching storms, including tornado potential, rotation, intensity, hail size, and lightning counts.
Almanac: This gives access to all manner of information related to solar, lunar, and tides. For example, Weather Gods will tell you that the next full moon is also known as the Buck Moon.
Expanding on Solar and Lunar, you can now set up notifications for events such as moonrise, dusk, dawn, golden hour, and more.
Sounds: The weather sounds have been enhanced with stereo separation and even the ability to configure where you want certain sounds to appear - for example, you might want wind sounds in the left ear and rain in the right.
Weather Alerts are now available for Australia.
Siri Shortcuts: These now use Apple's new SDK for Siri, and I have taken the opportunity to incorporate them into Weather Gods. You now have shortcuts for weather (hourly, daily, weekly, and weekend), storm threats, lightning, and weather alerts. Hopefully, they are easier to use and more accessible than the previous versions. Quick access to the shortcuts is the last item on the menu button.
The layout of the app has been changed with the addition of a Menu button (top right) and menu, bringing together quick access to many of the app's features in one place.
The severe weather center has been enhanced, giving an overview of all severe weather, with the ability to drill down for further details.
The app has been mostly rewritten using modern Apple libraries and is now quicker to start up and smoother to use.
The Apple Watch app has been updated with additional Lunar information and quick access to the weather for the week using the Weekly button.
And in case you missed 4.5.0 or 4.4.0, here are some features I wanted to call out:
NWS Products: Full access to all of the products from the US National Weather Service. For example, checking the products for Chicago, we have Area Forecast Discussion, flood statements, weather roundup, marine statements, zone forecasts, and more. Each location will vary the products depending on the weather and availability. I have applied filters to the text to make them more user-friendly for Voiceover. I can't guarantee all of them (there are so many), but they are much better than the raw data available on the web.
Lightning Notifications: These notify you when there is nearby lightning (radius configurable in 4.6.0) and let you know the number of strikes, distance to you, and the direction. Combined with the storm threat notifications, it's a great way to keep track of approaching storms or those passing overhead.
For 4.7.0, we can expect detailed information about worldwide tropical storms!
Hopefully, people like this update and find it useful.
Finally, many, many thanks to the beta testers and translators for their help in creating this update.
Scott
Comments
WG
Seriously this app is getting better and better. Doing the beta testing and like that now I get storm worning and lightning. Even tell me from which direction. Hope siri 2.0 willl make it better when she comes out and integration with third party app is smooth. Get the app people.
Just Updated the App
Subject says it all. I'm now a hearing-aid user but for some reason, the one in my right ear is not functioning to its fullest potential at the moment. I think my ears/hearing aids need to be cleaned again, perhaps by the guy who sold them to me. But enough about that. I love the stereo sound, and the app is very nice as always. I think it bears repeating that this is and will most likely always be my go-to 3rd-party app for the weather. I'm impressed with Apple's native iOS weather app, but it doesn't contain all the cool sounds/music.
Thank you!!
Your hard work and dedication to Weather Gods is appreciated, this app is awesome!!
great job!
I second everything that's been said so far. This has been my favorite weather app ever since I started using it when it was first released and it has and continues to get much better. I rarely even look at the native app on my phone and when I do it's to see how much rain we've had that day, now with the rain gauge under weather station it looks like I won't even be doing that now.
One thing, maybe this has been corrected now if it was even considered a problem but whenever I was alerted of a storm threat before this update there were times when I was told how fast the rain was moving and sometimes I wasn't, and I don't think it ever told me which way the rain was moving and just told me that it was northeast of me for example. Has this been improved in the 4.6.0 update?
Storm Threats
Hi Troy
I ran a quick query and picked four random storm threats we sent today (we send many now). You're correct, sometimes they don't always include speed. It's possible at the time of the threat generation the speed hasn't yet been calculated i.e. they need a couple of points of movement to calculate. The one without speed was furthest away.
Here's the samples:
1. An area of intense storms is approaching from the NW with lightning and up to 0.50 inch hail possible. Distance 22.4 miles. Speed 16.1 miles per hour.
2. An area of heavy precipitation is approaching from the NNW with frequent lightning possible. Distance 22 miles. Speed 5.8 miles per hour.
3. An area of intense precipitation is approaching from the NE. Distance 84.8 miles.
4. An area of light precipitation is approaching from the WNW with occasional lightning possible. Distance 33.5 miles. Speed 28.6 miles per hour.
Cheers
Scott
storm direction
Hi Scott,
Thanks for your test, I thought maybe when it gives the speed it means the storm is headed my way whereas maybe it's headed the opposite way, or maybe it'll pass north or south of me if no speed is given.
We're supposed to have high chances of rain starting Wednesday so if I figure anything out I'll post in this thread.
Weather Gods (Scott)
I also noticed that about the speed. I had been getting close to 5 woarning within 3 minutes several days ago and did not recall the speed. Always letting me know that is coming but nothing happens. Makes me feel bad that storms do not like me.
same thing here Holger
The same thing happens here Holger, so that must be normal. I'm just glad to know that I'm not the only one experiencing that.
Radius
Hi Holger, Troy.
Would be good to know your storm threat radius setting please, if you don't mind sharing. I can then feedback to AerisWeather (now Xweather).
Cheers
Scott
Weather Gods (Scott)
Have in minimum area location Edge water, Chicago, cook county.
Radius
Hi Holger,
Sorry I should have clarified. Can you go to settings, severe weather and then down to storm threat search radius and let me know value please.
Thanks
Scott
Weather Gods (Scott)
25 miles.
Radius
Thanks Holger
Re radius
I have my storm threat radius set to 25 miles. I actually wish I could set it to 10 miles because often I get notification of a threat and it never gets here, but 25 miles is the smallest radius I can set.
Troy B
I agree 100% probably we can not have it. More likely is the station and nothing to do with the app.
Radius
I could add a setting for 10 miles in the Tropical Storms update?
10-mile radius
Scott,
If your definition of tropical storm is the same as mine then the radius doesn't matter as much in that case.
What I call a tropical storm develops over the ocean and comes inland, and depending on how strong the winds associated with it are it can either be called a depression, a tropical storm or a hurricane (also known by other names depending on what part of the world you're in).
For me the 10-mile radius would sometimes be helpful for any rain that shows up in the storm threat section of the app.
10-mile radius
Sorry Troy, I meant include the new storm threat radius in the next release which will be adding tropical storms as a new feature.
Chicago
We get storms not sure is that from the ocean. I asked Bella the cat she is not saying anything. Would 10 miles make a different?
Chicago
Sorry Holger, I confused things.
I would add a 10 mile storm threat radius to the next release of the app, which also will have tropical storms, they will be reported in the app as soon as they transition from e.g. tropical low to a tropical depression.
WG
Thanks. Chicago is getting strange with storn woarnings?
tropical storms
Wow Scott, if you mean that we'll be able to track tropical storms/hurricanes from within the app when the next update is released that makes the app just that much better for me.
I live along the coast in Texas very near the gulf of Mexico, so all summer but particularly in August and September we're constantly watching the tropics and whereas now I have a page in my favorites on my computer from the hurricane center to get my updates from, if the same updates were in wg then it would be one-stop shopping for me so to speak.
tropical storms
Yep, next update will have world wide tropical storms. I think the update interval is every 6 hours over ocean and 1 to 3 hours near landfall.
Initially they will be in the app but I will hopefully add notifications shortly after. Probably a widget and a complication as well :)
Chicago
I will add storm threats to my Chicago location Holger and try and figure out what's going on.
perfect
Hi Scott,
Yes, as long as the storm isn't near land the updates are every 6 hours but at some point, and I'm not sure when that is, but once the storm gets close to land the updates are put out every 3 hours. They do a total update and then 3 hours later a supplemental update with the latest watches and warnings if there are any.
Re: Chicago
Yeah, I'm just outside city limits in Evanston. The storm alerts for our location were/are a bit wonky. But last night I got lots of flood alerts, and my phone's emergency alert tone sounded for the tornado watch that we had. I was up in a neighbor's apartment at the time, and his Android phone sounded the alert too.