If you’re anything like me, you don’t like surprises. I’m not talking about surprise birthday parties or being whisked away for a weekend break. I’m talking about being stuck in an elevator, getting bumped by another car, or, in the case of the app I recently found, being caught in the rain.
I live in England and the weather is unpredictable at best. I might wake up to glorious sunshine, dress accordingly, and then find myself being battered by a torrential downpour on my commute to work. For a long time, I’ve relied on weather apps to help me navigate each day and plan accordingly but more often than not, they’re not as accurate as I need them to be.
Then I came across the Rain Viewer app, which provides accurate and up-to-date rain forecasting. The app lets me view precipitation and cloud coverage in real time thanks to the power of radar and satellite maps.
This is part of a regular series of articles exploring the apps that we couldn't live without. Read them all here.
My favorite aspect of the Rain Viewer app is its AI-generated summaries of rain forecasts. They are incredibly human-like in their tone and beautifully humorous at times. Don’t take my word for it; read the one that is displayed on my app as I write this.
“Today’s weather is a classic case of “cloudy with a chance of more clouds.” Expect a cool 9°C with a persistent 90% humidity, so wearing that cozy sweater is a must! Wind gusts might blow your hat away so hold onto it tight!”
Not only are these little summaries fun to read but they also take all of the potentially dull written or graphic details and make them super accessible. I’m all for that. It helps me decide what to wear and what to expect in the coming day while putting a little smile on my face.
Another cool feature is the map, which provides a visual representation of the weather you can expect. This is no standard Google or Apple map with basic weather icons applied. Instead, Rain Viewer lets you apply a variety of different radar, satellite, or mathematical layers.
Radar is particularly helpful for tracking rain, snow, and hail in real time. When paired with satellite information, you can add cloud coverage into the mix of real-time visual data. I used these layers to interrogate my local area and loved moving around the world to see the weather other countries are experiencing.
The map also has ‘Forecast 24h’ functionality for scrubbing through a 24-hour time period. I found this perfect for planning my work commutes or that tennis game with friends. I can honestly say that I was hardly caught out at all. Suddenly I had the upper hand over the weather. Who’d have thought that was possible?
Another way that the Rain Viewer app helps protect you from unexpected surprises is through push notifications and alerts. These are particularly helpful for people living in areas affected by tornadoes, floods, fires, extreme heat, or snowstorms. All this information is available through the AI summary, the map, and the other metrics, but it’s good to be alerted just in case you haven’t opened the app in a while.
To help Rain Viewer, there’s also a handy little option to answer a simple question, “What is the weather like outside?” The app provides two buttons so you can choose between whether it is raining or not. It reminds me of those navigation apps that encourage live reporting of accidents to provide more accurate information. I don’t know how much Rain Viewer relies on it or whether it trusts the feedback of some more reliable users over others but either way, I feel like I’m doing my bit.
I don’t know what weather app you use but I know which one has my vote. Rain Viewer is easy to use, intuitive, and infinitely more helpful than standard weather apps. I’ve been using it for a few weeks and I won’t be turning back. Access to all features requires a Rain Viewer Premium plan, which costs $4.99 / £3.99 per month.
