Jeffro's Weather App Tip of the Day

[jeffro77]

In case you missed it, The Midwest has been getting clobbered over the past few days by tornadoes and the storms that spawn them. I'm in the Kansas City area, and don't currently own a weather radio (I recently moved, and haven't been able to find it).

So I went looking last night on short notice for an app, because surely there's an app for that, right?

I found a $2 package that fit the bill and works EXCEPTIONALLY well: OnGuard for Android, found at https://t.co/hgTRrBB

This app actually alarmed for a tornado warning this morning in Overland Park before the sirens went off; color me impressed.

My only complaint is that it doesn't audibly alarm if the phone is set to silent; if the author reads these forums, please take note, won't you?

 

[johnhboyd]

The Weather Channel App, and The Weather Bug app, both transmitt weather alerts. Don't know about when the phone is silenced, but I didn't leave my phone silenced with tornadoes in the area. The Weather Channel App got my alerts before the sirens went off in Tennessee when we were babysitting in April. BTW, The Weather Channel App is also transmitting Amber Alerts here in Texas.

 

[Dark Wizard Matoya]

I have WeatherBug Elite and The Weather Channel app, and thry both notify me of alerts, but long after my NOAA Weather Radio alerts me. I'M going to give OnGuatd a shot.

Sent from my HTC Droid Nexus with Tapatalk.

 

[jeffro77]

I haven't been able to get The Weather Channel to do more than put an icon on the screen; I need something that will wake me up.

So to clarify, OnGuard vibrates and (if the phone isn't in silent or vibrate profile) sounds an alarm.

Do the other apps you've listed here also do audible alerts?

 

[Dark Wizard Matoya]

I haven't been able to get The Weather Channel to do more than put an icon on the screen; I need something that will wake me up.

So to clarify, OnGuard vibrates and (if the phone isn't in silent or vibrate profile) sounds an alarm.

Do the other apps you've listed here also do audible alerts?

I have my Weather Channel widget set to give me an audible alert, but like I said my NOAA weather radio alerts me long before the Weather Channel app/widget does. That's why I'm going to try OnGuard, I want severe weather alerts right away. And since my area could possibly see severe weather this coming Monday I might not have to wait very long to see if ti works.

 

[OnGuard.WeatherAlers]

I am the product manager for Toadl, LLC. We are the developers of OnGuard - Weather Alerts. I stumbled across this forum post while doing some internet snooping (really just searching for our products).

When we designed and coded OnGuard, we wanted to create an accurate and dependable weather warning application. We are not a radar application. We are not a weather forecast application. OnGuard is a severe weather (and anything else the Emergency Broadcast System alerts on: Earthquakes, Missing Children, Nuclear Accidents, etc) application. We believed that weather radio, radio stations, and television warnings left a huge gap in alerting people to dangerous situations.


@jeffro77,
We ARE reading these forums now. However, in the future please contact us via our email address in the app market. We are responsive and you will get to me or one of my staff guaranteed.

As for the functionality you were requesting, being able to audibly play the alert even if the phone is on silent, I have already opened a ticket for our development team to assess the feasibility of this. I am not sure the Android API will allow us to override a user putting his phone on silent or overriding the volume settings, but it is a good idea and worth taking a look.

@johnhboyd,
OnGuard - Weather Alerts will also trigger on Amber Alerts. Actually ANYTHING the Emergency Broadcast System generates alerts on can be monitored (or not, filters are coing out 6/6/2011) by OnGuard.


Again, thank you for giving us the opportunity to interact with our users/potential users. Your suggestions, issues, and opinions are important to us and play an important factor in choosing future functionality.

***Please use the official contact email address on our App Market page. We are listening and always respond to every email in a timely manner. I can not promise to constantly monitor this or any other forum. There are just too many.***

[Edit]: LOL, I mispelled my username! Oh well, it has a nice ring to it.

Thanks,
Shannon B. Hill
Product Manager
Toadl, LLC