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Acme Weather

acmeweather.com

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Re: Acme Weather

#91

Post by lotsofpulp »

khalic wrote: post #51
rotbart wrote: post #43

I can't download it, as it appears to be US only. Based on the screenshots, without 'feels like' support throughout the forecast (not just for current conditions) it wouldn't be useful where I live.

Never understood using that metric, doesn’t temp and wind give you enough info? Genuine question

Dew point and relative humidity, along with temperature and wind, are crucial measures to predicting how you will feel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_point

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humidity#Relative_humidity

In the US, the 100th meridian is a popular demarcation for the half of the country that experiences high humidity versus the other half that experiences low humidity. It is why 100F in Phoenix, Arizona is much more tolerable than 100F in Atlanta, Georgia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100th_meridian_west

Re: Acme Weather

#92

Post by Wowfunhappy »

enraged_camel wrote: post #53
khalic wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never understood using that metric, doesn’t temp and wind give you enough info? Genuine question

The "feels like" metric is more closely tied to human stress and safety than raw temperature. In cold weather (wind chill), wind strips away the thin warm layer of air next to your skin, so you lose heat faster. Hence, "feels colder". In hot weather (heat index), humidity slows sweat evaporation, so your body can't cool itself as effectively. Hence, "feels hotter". So it's a lot more useful for decision-making (like…

Just to add further color: I’m a teacher, and at my school, we use the “feels like” temperature to decide whether to send kids outside for recess. Without that metric, we’d need to either ignore the wind chill, create our own formula, or leave it up to the judgement of the individual teacher running recess that day. Much better to have a number.

Re: Acme Weather

#94

Post by j45 »

it would be great to look up weather on their website too not just the app like other tools.

Re: Acme Weather

#95

Post by cryptoz »

imiric wrote: post #84
imiric wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I believe there are opportunities to improve short term forecast accuracy using data collected from phones. Alright, fair point. That could be a reasonable use case. But judging by their advertised "Community reports" feature, Acme doesn't seem to be doing this. And even if they did, this feature should be opt-in, and their privacy policy should only apply for those users. > Also, pretty much every day, all the app…

After thinking more about this, I don't think smartphones would even be good sources of ambient data that could improve forecasts. Smartphones are personal computers. They spend most of their time in pockets and controlled indoor environments. This ambient data is of no use to anyone, which is why there's still a market for home weather stations, whose sensors are typically placed outside.

The barometer data is for sure noisy, and must be cleaned and quality controlled. But that is possible to do, has been for 10 years now (there are published papers and demo apps that can do it). For one, rate of change of atmospheric pressure is pretty much the same inside as out, your main challenge for the raw value to be correct is user elevation. That can be corrected in quality control as well.

Plenty of work has been done on this front, and it can be demonstrated that you can assimilate the smartphone pressures into weather models and get some good results. It is hard, of course, and I’m not sure personally how much better the forecasts get. But it’s absolutely possible.

Re: Acme Weather

#97

Post by naet »

The app looks beautiful and the multi forecast model makes a lot of sense.

I don't think I am ready to pay an annual subscription for it. Feels like a big ask for the weather when there are so many other free sources to get a forecast. But I appreciate that the app was made with real intention and wish I you success with it.

Re: Acme Weather

#98

Post by RebeccaTheDev »

qkc3p3Jbf4 wrote: post #6

Looks lovely. I was keen to try this but US and Canada only unfortunately. Also: subscription fatigue is real. Of course I understand that fetching weather data isn’t free etc. (even though I’m intrigued by their homegrown forecast model) but I’ve already got 10+ subscriptions on iOS and I’m not sure if I’ve got the stomach for another. Apple’s weather app is finally good though since the Dark Sky acquisition.

> Also: subscription fatigue is real.

This. I just went and cancelled a bunch of vampire subscriptions that had accrued in my life (both in and out of the Apple ecosystem) and ended up saving somewhere in the range of $60 a month.

I get that people have bills to pay and building and maintaining software costs money, but when everyone wants money from me for every little thing, eventually I have to decide who gets what cut from an increasingly limited sized pie.

Apps like this that, while beautiful, replicate functionality that is "good enough" that I can get for free are the first thing to be cut.

Re: Acme Weather

#99

Post by idatum »

focusedone wrote: post #67

Sweet! Looking forward to the android version. I was slightly bitter when apple yanked the website.

After losing Dark Sky on Android, I discovered Foreca app. Works well in my area in the PNW.

One thing I learned is some post processing done by these services are better in some areas than others.

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