Dark Sky Predicts the Exact Weather, One Hour Ahead
Posted in: apps, ipad, iPhone, Software and Operating Systems, Today's Chili
Dark Sky, an ‘accurate short-term weather predictor’
Dark Sky is a weather app that only tells you what will happen in the next hour, at most. What’s the point of that, you ask? Because by limiting itself to what will happen next, Dark Sky can be spookily accurate.
The app, by Adam Grossman and Jack Turner, analyses weather radar data and tells you exactly what is about to happen in the weather, exactly where you are. Thus you can see that you have five minutes before a downpour, giving you enough time to get to the corner store. And that the shower will last ten minutes, so you should buy a magazine while you’re at the store and wait it out.
This works because it’s way easier to tell which way a storm or weather system will move in the next half hour than it is to predict even tomorrow’s weather. And Dark Sky even looks good while it does it. The same algorithm that predicts the weather also interpolates the herky-jerky radar images into a smoothly animated picture of the weather. It’s kind of like an iTunes visualizer, only useful.
Adam and Jack are currently seeking finding on Kickstarter ($15 will pre-order you a copy), as the app backend requires lots of server power to crunch the radar data from the whole country. This also means that an international rollout might take a while. However, if you live in England I can offer you a very accurate prediction: If it is not raining right now, it will start in five minutes. You’re welcome.
Dark Sky project page [Kickstarter. Thanks, Adam!]
See Also:
- Weddar Report: iPhone App Is Twitter for Weather
- Video: iPad Weather App Gets Hardcore
- Weather Pro: Full-On Meteorology App for iPhone
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