One of my all-time favorite weather sites is Weather Underground, which not only provides detailed weather maps for locations worldwide but also has a large and growing community-sourced network of local weather stations and webcams. Today, Weather Underground is rolling out an updated version of WunderMap, a free universal iOS app that displays weather information for your current location on a detailed map. An in-app purchase (US$1.99) removes advertising for a year of pitch-free fun, and current Weather Underground members can log into the app with their credentials to remove the ads.
I had a chance to beta-test this version of WunderMap over the past few weeks and have found it to be a well-designed and stable weather app. After launching WunderMap, it determines your location and then displays a default street map with local temperatures listed on it. If you happen to be on a ship in the North Norwegian Sea, it picks up temperatures from local village weather stations and oil platforms.
Local weather advisories are highlighted on the default map in colors. As we were sailing north along the Norwegian coast, an area with a gale warning was outlined in green, while another blue area denoted unusually large amounts of precipitation.
As with most map apps, WunderMap can be zoomed in and out or panned using common gestures. Different types of maps are available; a default map with temperature, radar, and severe weather warnings, temperature, regional temperature, precipitation, wind, visible and infrared satellite imagery, webcams (images from Weather Underground station webcams), hurricanes, severe weather alerts, active fires and fire risk. As an example, the regional temperature map I just pulled up shows daily high temperatures for most of Europe, color coded to indicate cooler (blue) or warmer (red) temperatures.
A pull-down at the top of the screen displays current and forecasted weather conditions at the nearest station, and a tap on any of the temperature readings displays a similar pop-up window for any other station.
WunderMap is easy to navigate and chock-full of the information you want to know, especially when you're traveling. If you're a weather buff or just want a single weather app that can replace a handful of less capable apps, WunderMap is definitely a winner.
WunderMap provides worldwide weather maps for iOS devices originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 11 Jul 2013 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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