Will the rain stop: Dark Sky App

myotis

myotis

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Graham
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As there have been a few recent threads on useful landscape apps, and a search on the forum hasn't found this mentioned, can I suggest this weather app.

https://darksky.net/app/

It only forecasts for the next hour (actually, it now also gives a 24 hour forecast), but I have found it generally to be very accurate.

It's useful when you are hoping for a lull in the rain to get a photograph, or want to know how quickly the rain might reach you. Be warned that their idea of "light rain", is my idea of pretty heavy rain.

The accuracy seems to depend a bit on location, but its been one of my most useful apps. The accuweather app, now also has the same short term forecast feature, but I haven't found that to be as good.

As well as photography, I have also used it to pitch a tent, where it told me the (torrential) rain would stop in 10 minutes, with a 20 minute break before it started raining again. I sat in the car for the 10 minutes, and it stopped raining as predicted, and I managed to get the tent up just in time for it to start raining again for the rest of the day. I also use it to see if the rain will stay off long enough to let me walk to the local shop and back again, without getting wet.

Definitely one of my best purchases, and worth having a look at.


Cheers,

Graham
 
ecoleman said:
For when your run out of data or have no signal
Click to expand...

Very good, but you must have a massive camera if this is what you need!

I rather like the idea of an umbrella, but never figured out how to manipulate the camera and hold the umbrella at the same time. I've seen them clamped to the tripod, but I don't think I have ever seen a day calm enough for that to be a realistic option. So its plastic bags and shower caps plus a UV filter, for me, probably like most people.

Cheers,

Graham
 
Well, I guess the lack of interest in this, except for the poking fun at me replies, suggest that I am the only one that thinks accurately predicting the rain when taking landscape photographs is useful.

I'm a bit surprised at that, but there you go. Sorry for wasting your band width, but I find it useful and wanted to share.

Cheers,
Graham
 
myotis said:
Well, I guess the lack of interest in this, except for the poking fun at me replies, suggest that I am the only one that thinks accurately predicting the rain when taking landscape photographs is useful.

I'm a bit surprised at that, but there you go. Sorry for wasting your band width, but I find it useful and wanted to share.

Cheers,
Graham
Click to expand...

You are taking it a bit too seriously.

I don't know about others but I did download this app. It's great, thank you for pointing it out. I plan on using it on our next road trip. :)
 
The main issue I have with this app is the premium version which gives down to the minute accuracy is a subscription model. I have some kind of a mental block against subscription services and I really don't like it. If it was a perpetual licence I'd be more inclined to buy with even if they charged like £15 (5 years worth!).
 
nandbytes said:
The main issue I have with this app is the premium version which gives down to the minute accuracy is a subscription model. I have some kind of a mental block against subscription services and I really don't like it. If it was a perpetual licence I'd be more inclined to buy with even if they charged like £15 (5 years worth!).
Click to expand...

I didn't even know there was a premium version, I can't see any upgrade route on my copy, or any mention of it on iTunes where there is only one price of $3.99.

Can you point me towards the details of the premium version?
 
I am using it on android. It's free to download but in the app itself it says I can get premium version for £2.99/year with 14 days trial to start with.

So on iPhones it's a one off fee.
Now that's a rip off :mad:
 
I am happy with Linux and open source for most part especially since that's what I use day in day out at my job.

*Rant alert*
It's fine them selling subscription with bells and whistles on android but I personally don't care for all that. I simply want to have the same option as on iPhone on android devices as well. Right now I am being forced into a certain scheme or being penalised just for owning an android device. And that's not cool.
 
nandbytes said:
I am happy with Linux and open source for most part especially since that's what I use day in day out at my job.

*Rant alert*
It's fine them selling subscription with bells and whistles on android but I personally don't care for all that. I simply want to have the same option as on iPhone on android devices as well. Right now I am being forced into a certain scheme or being penalised just for owning an android device. And that's not cool.
Click to expand...

I used Linux almost exclusively for several years, and was very happy with it. The main programs that I use for my teaching are both Open source (R and QGIS), and run better on Linux than Mac or Windows, but I found that for other things where I needed to cooperate with other people, and for Photography programs, I still felt the need for Mac/Windows, and none of my students/staff/clients used Linux.

I agree with your rant.
 
nandbytes said:
I'll have a go. Is it as good as Dark sky?
Click to expand...
Has a very different layout to Dark Sky, more of a graphical overview forecast. Just noticed some elements in it are in app purchase, such as tidal information [emoji53]

Here's a screenshot. I think the top bit is meant to be cloud cover and height.

Screenshot_2017-09-06-18-30-33-194.jpeg

Very fiddly and configurable, but that might be useful for some if willing to spend the time getting it how you want.
 
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an1uk said:
Has a very different layout to Dark Sky, more of a graphical overview forecast. Just noticed some elements in it are in app purchase, such as tidal information [emoji53]

Very fiddly and configurable, but that might be useful for some if willing to spend the time getting it how you want.
Click to expand...

I've just downloaded the iPhone version, which doesn't seem to offer the same range of features as the android version you linked to. It doesn't seem to offer the detailed minute by minute forecast for the next hour that Dark Sky offers, but maybe I just haven't found it. Nice looking app though and it will be interesting to see how it does against my other longer term forecast apps.

Thanks for the pointer.

Cheers,
Graham
 
For imminent weather I use Rain Alarm App for the radar and it gives alert notifications.
http://www.rain-alarm.com rain1.JPG

And I like weather graph widgets to see what's coming up in 24 hours, next 2 days and 5 days
- - - widgets.jpg Top down: AIX widget (24h), Weather and Clock (5D), and Klara weather (2D).

The widgets can pop up a more detailed graph. But having them on the main screen means they get checked a lot.
 
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Dark Sky used to be really, really good but subsequent versions don't have the long term accuracy of the old version for some reason.
The short term minute by minute forecast is still quite accurate though.
 
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