uWx-Weather
Free App
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About uWx-Weather
Overview
Designed by atmospheric scientists at the University of Washington, uWx is a pressure app that crowd-sources anonymous pressures from your smartphone to improve weather forecasts.
App Features
• Hiking Altimeter:
Use your barometer as an altimeter. Track your pressure and elevation as you hike.
• Current Weather:
Get a real-time look at a variety of meteorological variables from temperature, wind, and pressure too humidity, cloud cover, and precip.
• Worldwide Weather:
Wondering what the weather is like in Antarctica, Havana, or Beijing? uWx can tell you! Easily search for weather forecasts and current conditions at any location on the planet.
• Global Climatology:
Planning a quick getaway or a family vacation? Discover which months of the year are ideal for travel by taking a look at our monthly climatologies.
• Real-time Weather Maps:
View high resolution radar and satellite data at the touch of your finger.
• Crowd-sourced Pressures:
Take a look at crowd-sourced pressures collected by your phone. Calibrate your barometer and learn about sensor bias. View real-time pressure measurements at the home screen.
Our Research
When weather models are run observations are used to constrain and adjust the forecasts they produce so that ultimately model forecasts are closer to reality. The more observations that are used to constrain and adjust weather models the better the forecasts tend to be. At present there are several thousand surface weather stations that actively contribute observations to weather models within the US. We estimate that there are well over 100 million smartphones (in the US alone) capable of crowd-sourcing atmospheric pressure. Crowd-sourced pressure observations from a small fraction of these phones could substantially improve the density and temporal frequency of weather observations across the US. By incorporating crowd-sourced pressures into weather models we hypothesize that improvements in short-term weather forecasts could be achieved. By downloading uWx you can help us test this hypothesis and become a part of the first-generation of mobile weather observing networks!
The Science Behind The App
Check out these publications to learn more about how crowd-sourced pressures could improve weather forecasting.
• http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00188.1 -- Surface Pressure Observations From Smartphones: A Potential Revolution for High-Resolution Weather Prediction?
• http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/citedby/10.1175/MWR-D-13-00269.1 -- Utility of Dense Pressure Observations for Improving Mesoscale Analyses and Forecasts
• http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/MWR-D-14-00097.1 -- Impacts of Frequent Assimilation of Surface Pressure Observations on Atmospheric Analyses
User Privacy
If you'd like to know more about what type of data we collect and how we secure that data please see our easy to read, jargon free privacy policy at https://www.cmetwx.com/privacy_policy.html
Designed by atmospheric scientists at the University of Washington, uWx is a pressure app that crowd-sources anonymous pressures from your smartphone to improve weather forecasts.
App Features
• Hiking Altimeter:
Use your barometer as an altimeter. Track your pressure and elevation as you hike.
• Current Weather:
Get a real-time look at a variety of meteorological variables from temperature, wind, and pressure too humidity, cloud cover, and precip.
• Worldwide Weather:
Wondering what the weather is like in Antarctica, Havana, or Beijing? uWx can tell you! Easily search for weather forecasts and current conditions at any location on the planet.
• Global Climatology:
Planning a quick getaway or a family vacation? Discover which months of the year are ideal for travel by taking a look at our monthly climatologies.
• Real-time Weather Maps:
View high resolution radar and satellite data at the touch of your finger.
• Crowd-sourced Pressures:
Take a look at crowd-sourced pressures collected by your phone. Calibrate your barometer and learn about sensor bias. View real-time pressure measurements at the home screen.
Our Research
When weather models are run observations are used to constrain and adjust the forecasts they produce so that ultimately model forecasts are closer to reality. The more observations that are used to constrain and adjust weather models the better the forecasts tend to be. At present there are several thousand surface weather stations that actively contribute observations to weather models within the US. We estimate that there are well over 100 million smartphones (in the US alone) capable of crowd-sourcing atmospheric pressure. Crowd-sourced pressure observations from a small fraction of these phones could substantially improve the density and temporal frequency of weather observations across the US. By incorporating crowd-sourced pressures into weather models we hypothesize that improvements in short-term weather forecasts could be achieved. By downloading uWx you can help us test this hypothesis and become a part of the first-generation of mobile weather observing networks!
The Science Behind The App
Check out these publications to learn more about how crowd-sourced pressures could improve weather forecasting.
• http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00188.1 -- Surface Pressure Observations From Smartphones: A Potential Revolution for High-Resolution Weather Prediction?
• http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/citedby/10.1175/MWR-D-13-00269.1 -- Utility of Dense Pressure Observations for Improving Mesoscale Analyses and Forecasts
• http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/MWR-D-14-00097.1 -- Impacts of Frequent Assimilation of Surface Pressure Observations on Atmospheric Analyses
User Privacy
If you'd like to know more about what type of data we collect and how we secure that data please see our easy to read, jargon free privacy policy at https://www.cmetwx.com/privacy_policy.html
All Application Badges
Free
downl.
downl.
Android
4.2+
4.2+
Android app
App History & Updates
What's Changed
Our pressure collection algorithm now takes into account your battery life and battery capacity to reduce power consumption.
Our pressure collection algorithm now takes into account your battery life and battery capacity to reduce power consumption.
More downloads uWx-Weather reached 5 000 - 10 000 downloads
What are users saying about uWx-Weather
X
by X####:
by X####:
I love this app, but I have to take away a star. It used to work great. However, I did a warranty replacement of my phone (with the same model). Now it says I need to turn on my location to use it but my location is all turned on. I'll keep trying.
U
by U####:
by U####:
The graphs of pressure changes are fun to look at when we have storms. I make sure to leave pressure reporting on whenever I can while I'm out hiking as well to help support the cause. Keep it ad free and I will continue my support.
D
by D####:
by D####:
The interface is great and the interactive graphs are fantastic. Keep it ad free and you can have all the obs data you want. I'm giving this 5 stars but please promise to make a widget for home home screen so I can drop my other weather app. Nice work!
G
by G####:
by G####:
Very nice, but a power suck app since it requires high res location reporting in order to work. It would be more kind if there could be a version that could use other ways to determine location. Sometimes I don't use it because of the power drain.
L
by L####:
by L####:
I don't think the forecast is as easy to interpret as on my NOAA app, but I love that I am looking at pressure data from my own sensor, and that I am providing data for better forecasts. Would love a general map of pressure based on user data.
U
by U####:
by U####:
I have the box to record pressure obs unchecked but it started taking measurements anyways on the night of 5-30-17. Also it's a buggy app and I don't understand how the pressure observations have any use for weather since there's no accurate way to get altitude.
C
by C####:
by C####:
Great app, but it drains my battery like crazy even when pressure reporting is disabled. I have to uninstall it :(
K
by K####:
by K####:
Stopped working on my pixel xl however.
U
by U####:
by U####:
Between this app and the Cliff Mass Blog, I'm gonna always be 95% sure of what I can and cannot do outside and when. Once you have it, it'll be hard to live without. Thanks.
U
by U####:
by U####:
Nice app, however, in airplane mode it tries very hard to access GPS and drains battery. Please fix.
T
by T####:
by T####:
Doesn't work on Google Pixel.
Y
by Y####:
by Y####:
Tons of interesting features and no ads. Plus Science!
T
by T####:
by T####:
Great job! Very well done... keep up the good work..
U
by U####:
by U####:
Fantastic presentation
A
by A####:
by A####:
Best weather app I have found. One suggestion to developer- the daily forecast charts have red/blue bars. Switch the order of the bars so that blue is first since lows usually occur earlier in a given day than highs. As it is, when you see an overnight low blue bar following a red bar, it is a little unclear what day it belongs to.
J
by J####:
by J####:
Truly fantastic app, win win crowd sourcing data and very useful. Only 4 starts as there is an issue with rendering on the samsung galaxy note 4, some content is missing.
U
by U####:
by U####:
Great app! Best weather app I've run into, great interface, detailed information, love it!
U
by U####:
by U####:
Would have liked to try it, but can't move app to SD card, so had to install. Will see if that option becomes available in the future
U
by U####:
by U####:
Have used this from sea to mountain. Very great for both accurate temp and pressure. More accurate than weather apps.
N
by N####:
by N####:
Very comprehensive weather app for the US. Does not ask for redundant permissions. Two complaints about the UI: does not use Android graphical style, and the drop down menu is painfully slow. Battery impact remains to be seen.
U
by U####:
by U####:
Terrible drain on the battery. I had to uninstall. Nice idea though.
T
by T####:
by T####:
It actually gives you raw point data. Which is really nice.
T
by T####:
by T####:
Beautiful design, incredible useful views and tools all while collecting pressure days for science. A developer and weather geek's dream! Would love to see the code open sourced given that it's a university developed app! Fantastic job!
T
by T####:
by T####:
Really like the graphs and also like how the app lets me contribute a bit to weather research. It's not much, but every little bit helps.
T
by T####:
by T####:
Nice way to get good weather info with a great design. Interested to try out the altitude for hikes
T
by T####:
by T####:
Great little app, does exactly what it says and updates in realtime. Great job
Y
by Y####:
by Y####:
Very comprehensive weather app for the US. Does not ask for redundant permissions. Two complaints about the UI: does not use Android graphical style, and the drop down menu is painfully slow. Battery impact remains to be seen.
X
by X####:
by X####:
One single app contains almost everything, radar, weatherforecast etc. Nice plots. It even has references to satisfy your curiosity about how this works.
G
by G####:
by G####:
I like the idea, and the interface is fine, but I couldn't make sense of the forecast. It definitely wasn't valid for my location (by service or manual lookup), and it seemed to be just mock values.
T
by T####:
by T####:
The only reason it does not work well with my phone is for lack of a barometer and/or wx kit. Hopefully my next upgrade will include one....
K
by K####:
by K####:
A step above having to open a browser and loading ads just to get to view the weather forecast.
K
by K####:
by K####:
Excellent graphs!
by U####:
To compare, I have the weather underground app to give me a taskbar display of temp. and a simple weather symbol. I find myself using this as well for other tasks. I really like the text forecast. Only wish it had a dark background. Radar map works as the best I've seen. A great app to have for weather assessment!