Storm Apple Watch companion app: A great reason to set up your own weather station

Weather nerds unite! There’s now a compelling reason to have not only your own weather station (you do have one, don’t you?), but an Apple Watch as well. Weather Underground’s Storm app now has an Apple Watch companion you can use to see conditions at your station or one nearby with a few taps. That’s a screenshot of the Storm app from my Watch.

Of course, getting your own weather station can be even more expensive than buying an Apple Watch. The Internet-attached station I have is a Rainwise MK-III package (image below) that retails for US$1268, or even more for a long range version that allows the station sensors to be further away from your Internet connection.

Data from my weather station (known as KCOHIGHL29) is streamed constantly into Weather Underground’s Personal Weather Station (PWS) network, where it is used to create hyper-local forecasts for my location. Not only do I have a minute-by-minute record of the weather at my home for the past few years, but that data is being used by other apps and devices. A great example of this is the Rachio Iro smart sprinkler timer, which can be set to take the exact weather conditions at my home and work that into the most efficient watering schedule for my lawn.

The Storm app for the Watch delivers most of the information I need in a single, easy-to-digest glance. The current temperature and sky conditions are the key points to see, the “real feel” temperature lets me know what the effects of humidity and wind are making it feel like outside. If there’s lightning, precipitation, or a National Weather Service weather alert, one or more of three icons at the bottom of the display will “light up” to let me know.

Now, if we could just get professional-quality weather stations for a fraction of their current price, a lot more people could take advantage of the Personal Weather Station network and help improve weather forecasting. This sounds like a job for a crowdfunded project, doesn’t it?