Climate, weather and local conditions play a huge role in the outdoor adventure experience. Love it or hate it, smartphone technology has come a long way in 20 years – Our devices are now a detailed one-stop hub of navigation, weather, photography and communication apps that bring vast amounts of information to our fingertips anywhere at any time. Where technology is an increasingly relied upon tool, should we be careful not to rely on it solely as a source navigation or weather predictability? – Possibly. Technology has its down days, batteries die, glitches in the program can delete data or we can lose vital information if it gets damaged or lost. So, without doubt, outdoor technology is positively changing the way we interact with the outdoors, but we shouldn’t forget to learn and apply fundamental outdoor skills where we can combine traditional methods (learning about weather fronts, clouds and local signs) alongside the modern smartphone technology to make a stronger and more present outdoor adventure experience.
One of the main aspects in the preparation phase of any outdoor journey is knowing and understanding weather and the conditions you will encounter. Weather dictates clothing, clothing dictates how comfortable you will or will not be and this can dictate the successful outcome of your journey. Choosing the correct clothing to suit the weather not only comes with time and experience but can mean the difference between life and death. Fundamentally having an understanding of weather and how to access reliable local information prior to and during your journey is a great skill to acquire. Never before have we had access to so much weather data provided by NASA satellites and global communication systems. It’s here at the apex of knowledge and technology that we can bridge the gap and ensure we know what conditions we will be up against.
To aid in that journey, here are my top 3 weather apps for the outdoors and adventure.
Dark Sky
An advanced weather app providing local and global mapping and radar services showing you exactly where weather fronts and storms are and where they are going. Drill down and explore the details of your forecast and get the exact information you need and care about.
Windy (free)
Windy is an extraordinary tool for weather forecast visualisation. It’s fast, intuitive, detailed and accurate weather radars are trusted by professional pilots, paragliders, skydivers, kiters, surfers, boaters, fisherman, storm chasers and weather geeks. It’s also used by the government, army staff and rescue services.
My Lightning Tracker (free)
My Lightning Tracker is the best app for monitoring storms and lightning strikes all around the world in close to real-time. With a super sleek, interactive modern design you can watch thunderstorms as they occur and see detailed locations of actual lightning strikes.