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WeatherNext 3

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61–70 of 114 posts

Re: WeatherNext 3

#61
post #60

It's great that they're working on this, but I am puzzled at how absolutely awful the forecasts are in the Google weather app for my area. The forecast will show no rain, the radar view shows nothing, meanwhile it's pouring outside and every other app I check shows it. I know I can't expect it to be perfect, but being terribly wrong even one in ten times is enough to tarnish its reputation permanently.

It's because the current administration cut NOAAs funding, which means fewer weather balloons, which means less data to make a prediction. And it means less real time updates. So yeah, when it rains, it might take a few hours for that to flow into your weather app. It's a direct result of DOGE.

>and every other app I check shows it.

Other apps have a different government?

Re: WeatherNext 3

#62
post #60

It's great that they're working on this, but I am puzzled at how absolutely awful the forecasts are in the Google weather app for my area. The forecast will show no rain, the radar view shows nothing, meanwhile it's pouring outside and every other app I check shows it. I know I can't expect it to be perfect, but being terribly wrong even one in ten times is enough to tarnish its reputation permanently.

It's because the current administration cut NOAAs funding, which means fewer weather balloons, which means less data to make a prediction. And it means less real time updates. So yeah, when it rains, it might take a few hours for that to flow into your weather app. It's a direct result of DOGE.

There is little to no evidence that the current degradation of the US upper air backbone is regularly contributing to degraded forecast skill. That might change as we head into the more active northern hemisphere winter.

Re: WeatherNext 3

#63
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because the current administration cut NOAAs funding, which means fewer weather balloons, which means less data to make a prediction. And it means less real time updates. So yeah, when it rains, it might take a few hours for that to flow into your weather app. It's a direct result of DOGE.

>and every other app I check shows it. Other apps have a different government?

That person is probably misremembering or looking later after the update.

I pull weather data from multiple apps all the time because I’m a weather nerd and they all agree equally poorly.

Re: WeatherNext 3

#64
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because the current administration cut NOAAs funding, which means fewer weather balloons, which means less data to make a prediction. And it means less real time updates. So yeah, when it rains, it might take a few hours for that to flow into your weather app. It's a direct result of DOGE.

There is little to no evidence that the current degradation of the US upper air backbone is regularly contributing to degraded forecast skill. That might change as we head into the more active northern hemisphere winter.

There was a lot of evidence last winter. But with the active El Niño it’s starting earlier this year.

Re: WeatherNext 3

#66

It's great that they're working on this, but I am puzzled at how absolutely awful the forecasts are in the Google weather app for my area. The forecast will show no rain, the radar view shows nothing, meanwhile it's pouring outside and every other app I check shows it. I know I can't expect it to be perfect, but being terribly wrong even one in ten times is enough to tarnish its reputation permanently.

does google actually use their own models in consumer products? i'm not an android user, but the weather widget in the google search results for my area always seems to be attributed to weather.com.

The "Google Weather" Android app links to a page that says

>The Google Weather forecast is created from an internal forecasting system that utilizes weather models and observations from global weather agencies.

It also lists the data sources it uses, but is vague about what model(s) it feeds the source data into.

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/13687874

Re: WeatherNext 3

#69
post #30

The exploration page is really easy to use. Having more reliable weather predictions is a genuinely useful product.

I disagree.. Feels very sloppy to me: - Time is UTC rather than local by default. - Units are imperial rather than metric (i.e. not basing it on users locale) - The concept of init time is not initially clear at all, so it's confusing when you click the calendar icon to see the weather forecast for a future date only to see it isn't an option, you have to use the slider. - When changing the sidebar to the "detailed"…

I think you’re the wrong audience. The first 3 points are just meteorology standards.

Re: WeatherNext 3

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only forecasted rainfall for local areas within a very short timeframe. This made it possible to utilize simple factors to predict the near future. It is built into Apple Weather after Apple purchased them.

> It is built into Apple Weather after Apple purchased them. Did Apple lobotomize the tech when they integrated it, or lose access to whatever upstream data Dark Sky had access to? Apple Weather is comically bad (though not nearly as bad as Google's weather searches).

I use it in Oregon and it's remarkably accurate at predicting rain, both timing and severity.
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