(Note: This is one of a series of reviews of weather applications and webapps for the iPhone, which will culminate in a head-to-head comparison)
The weather application that most iPhone owners are familiar with is the one that comes with it. And while it can satisfy the need to know the most basic forecast details (sunny, rainy, etc), it certainly leaves many people wanting more information to help them better plan their day. Several web applications and iPhone applications have been written address this need – both for the casual user and those more meteorologically-minded. Today, we take a look at Fizz Weather, currently retailing in the App Store for $5.99.
Fizz Weather is a comprehensive weather application that attempts to deliver it all: Forecasts, radar (US only), satellite, current conditions, and even delay conditions at the local airport. Mostly, it does its job well, but like the iPhone’s native weather app, it can leave you yearning for more.
FORECASTS AND CITIES
The main screen for Fizz Weather is the 5-Day Forecast Screen, which shows today’s forecast in a one-line summary along with a summary of the current conditions and a summary of the forecast for the next 5 days. If there is an active weather alert for your selected location, it will appear as a tappable red warning triangle with an exclamation point.
From this main screen, you navigate to other configured locations with left and right swipes across the screen. Tapping one of the icons at the bottom of the screen changes the main summary to display the summary of the selected day’s weather.
At the bottom of the screen are options to display the 2 Day forecast, the forecast for the present time, plus the radar and satellite (Maps), and airport delay information (Airports).
Selecting the 2 Day forecast brings up a similar screen that changes the icons at the bottom from a summary of the next 5 days to a summary of the weather for the following 4 periods of morning, afternoon, evening, and night. Oddly, the 2 Day forecast begins at the current day where the 5 Day forecast begins tomorrow. The 2 Day forecast screen will also display a Warning icon if a warning is active for the selected city.
The Now screen shows the current conditions at various reporting stations around the area. These can be selected with left and right arrows.
My major complaint about Fizz Weather’s forecasts is that the one line summary is pretty much all you get. If thunderstorms are in the forecast, more than 48 hours out, you won’t know if they are forecast for the morning, afternoon, or evening. Often, you need a little more than what Fizz Weather gives you.
RED ALERT!
In my testing, I only encountered the warning icon once, and was dismayed to discover that the warning was issued not by the National Weather Service Forecast Office that covers the test city of Tampa (in Ruskin, FL), but the one that covers the opposite coast (in Melbourne, FL). When I selected a city that is covered by the Melbourne Office (Daytona Beach, FL), there were 15 alerts – but many of these were duplicates. Further adding to the confusion, the “Tampa” alert was not amongst the 15 listed for Daytona.
Obviously, this feature could use some work.
MAPS
Fizz Weather combines it’s radar, satellite, and graphic forecasts in the Maps section.
The forecast map is a Weather Channel-like image showing graphic representations of the region. The displayed cities are apparently hard-coded and do not change regardless of what city in that region (for example, Tampa or Daytona Beach) are selected. In all fairness, the normal 5 Day/2 Day/Now screens show that forecast; it would perhaps be more accurate to title the Map forecast with the name of the region – in this case, “Southeast US”, for example.
The Satellite and Radar displays have their good points and their bad points. They display the same region as the Forecast map with animated graphics, which is excellent for an overview of where storms and overcast conditions are in the region. You can also pan slightly as the graphic is slightly wider than the iPhone’s screen.
However, if you zoom into the map using the standard pinch & zoom methods, the graphic becomes distorted and blocky, with huge labels that cover lots of area. As in Weather Radar (reviewed previously), this is more like the zoom in the iPhone’s Pictures application than like a map that redraws at a new resolution like Google Maps. Given the wide geographic range of the maps, this makes identifying your location on the map difficult, and figuring out where a storm is relative to that location even harder. For our test city of Tampa, determining the actual location of a part of Tampa is essentially impossible as the “O” in Orlando covers it completely. On the plus side, you can set the number of frames displayed to 1 (static image), 3, 6, or 11 frames (both for satellite and radar) and control the speed of the animation (one setting for both).
If you set the radar frames setting to Static Image, you get a much more localized radar – but the zoom problems still persist:
It should also be noted that several times the latest radar image was over a half hour old. Since NWS radar does a scan every 6-10 minutes – and since storms can develop and move rapidly – having data this old is annoying in the least and potentially hazardous in the extreme depending on how the data is used/interpreted.
The Airport Delay map allows you to select from a list of airports near your selected city and allows you to scroll through them by selecting the left and right arrows. As with the forecasts, tapping on the icons at the bottom of the screen brings their individual data to the main portion of the screen.
It appears that this estimates the delays that will be caused by the forecasted weather — although I was unable to confirm this.
SETTINGS
The settings screens allow you to configure which cities the application will let you choose from, the units used, and the number of frames and speed for the Radar and Satellite maps.
Some applications that allow you to set locations only allow a city name or a zip code. Fizz Weather allows both; I wish more apps would follow suit here.
IN CONCLUSION:
Fizz Weather is a good general weather app that gives you the basics. If you like the Weather Channel forecasts and maps, you will probably like Fizz Weather, even if the forecasts are a little terse. If you need to know more than “Sunny. Mild.”, you’ll likely be happier with another solution. If you need, want, or rely on local radar, this is also not the app for you.
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Critical Info
Developer: Fizz Software
Availability: iTunes App Store (Weather Category)
Price: $5.99
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