# Weather/Hurricane APPS?



## starrin (Jan 7, 2012)

TWC has been talking this morning about APPS for iPad, iPhone, to help during a storm.  Everything from a "flashlight" app to communication tools during times of no power to sources of weather data.  Anything for us?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

There are several weather apps in the Amazon app store.

 
Accuweather -- free WeatherBug Elite $1.99 -- but I think there's a free version too.

I also found this hurricane tracker app that actually looks pretty good:  Called Track-it Deluxe. This is the free version but if you like it you can buy out of the ads.

There are a number of flashlight apps as well:

Both of these are well rated:  and  and specify that they work on the Fire.

In my experience these sorts of apps work best with phones that have a flash. The use that light as the flashlight. Others just make a bright white screen -- which will provide light as well, and you can also get different colors that way, but drain the battery faster. But that's the only kind that would work on the Fire.

I haven't tried either of those specifically; I have one on my phone called "Droid Light" which is also free and does work well -- but not for the Fire as it uses the flash on the phone.

If Amazon is smart, the paid versions of these sorts of apps will be featured as the Free App of the Day in the next few days! WeatherBug elite was so featured some time ago.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

We've got an app for the iPhone, but honestly for weather/hurricane tracking I'd just use the browser to go to noaa.com, wunderground.com, boatus.com, etc, etc (can you tell we live in hurricaneland?).  I've got The Weather Channel app, but don't see a lot of hurricane info on it (haven't looked real hard, though).

As far as the other functions, I see some free flashlight apps in the Amazon app store, not sure what type of communications tools they're talking about aside from email.  And with the Fire, we'll be out of luck fairly quickly if the power goes out because of the short battery life.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Meemo said:


> As far as the other functions, I see some free flashlight apps in the Amazon app store, not sure what type of communications tools they're talking about aside from email. And with the Fire, we'll be out of luck fairly quickly if the power goes out because of the short battery life.


And that's why you also have something like this:



Which you also make sure is fully charged. There are ones with even more storage - just depends on what you want to pay.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Follow up on the "Track it" app above. . . . I wasn't impressed with it.  It basically just pulls stuff from the NOAA and GOES sites. But it doesn't include the best stuff. . . .like the wind speed and forecast track.  So not really very useful.  May as well just go to the web site and look at it there.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> And that's why you also have something like this:
> 
> 
> 
> Which you also make sure is fully charged. There are ones with even more storage - just depends on what you want to pay.


Enabling alert!!!! Why am I tempted by this We've got two generators and an inverter to plug into the car as it is. And you can bet all the toys will be fully charged if Isaac continues on his projected path - like I said on another thread, it's been predicted to go west of us and east of us, but the common denominator always seems to be "us".


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> [/url] and  and specify that they work on the Fire.
> 
> In my experience these sorts of apps work best with phones that have a flash. The use that light as the flashlight. Others just make a bright white screen -- which will provide light as well, and you can also get different colors that way, but drain the battery faster. But that's the only kind that would work on the Fire.
> 
> ...


I've never felt the need for a "light" app on my Fire or iPad, as I just call up an internet page, which are pretty light, and the whole room lights up. I use this in hotel rooms quite often.

I was curious, though, so I downloaded the above two apps.

Brightest Flashlight Free (the one that looks like a flourescent bulb on blue background) is very basic. You get a bright white screen. You can set it to be in silent mode, set a time for auto shutdown in two minutes, ten minutes or never, or have the display use the camera LED, the screen or both. Worked well.

Tiny Flashlight+LED has a orange power button when it opens. Tap on that and whatever the current setting is turns on. Default is a white screen. Tap on the circle in the upper right hand corner and you a menu screen with six options:
the white screen
flashing yellow lights
A light bulb on a colored background. You can change the colors by dragging sideways and change the brightness of the lightbulb by dragging up and down
A colored screen that you can choose the color of by dragging
A screen that flashes like police lights
Settings where you can change the default light, the lights that show on the memu screen and a couple of other items, including whether the default light comes on when you open the app or not.

Betsy


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## dmcounts (Nov 26, 2009)

Meemo said:


> Enabling alert!!!! Why am I tempted by this We've got two generators and an inverter to plug into the car as it is. And you can bet all the toys will be fully charged if Isaac continues on his projected path - like I said on another thread, it's been predicted to go west of us and east of us, but the common denominator always seems to be "us".


I started my generator today and let it run for about an hour.

It surprised me when it started on the second pull.

Went through my hurricane check list and picked up a few items at WalMart that we had depleted.

Checked the fuel supply and we are set if it continues and comes ashore right on top of us as it appears from the 5 Day forecast map on wunderground.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I hope everyone stays safe...thinking of y'all!

Here's a free app:


Its opening menu has, among other things, "Hurricane Update." Tapping on that brings up "Aeronatics News," a list of storms. Right now, Isaac (Atlantic Ocean) is the first one. Tapping on that entry brings up satellite images and descriptions of the storm and links to imagery on NASA's website.

Bonus: It's got a lot of cool NASA links including Image of the Day.

Betsy


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

dmcounts said:


> I started my generator today and let it run for about an hour.
> 
> It surprised me when it started on the second pull.
> 
> ...


Our son-in-lw is coming over to help DH get at least one generator going, although it looks like all but the European models have moved us way to the eastern edge of the cone of probability - the European ones have us pretty much dead center. We've had a lot of rain already recently, though, and it's been 6 years since we've had a hurricane, so any trees with shallow roots are more likely to come down if we get lots of wind and rain, bringing power lines with them.

Had to laugh at the official weather advisory this morning - "Stay calm and be prepared." Has someone been on Facebook and/or Pinterest??

(On a side note, you're very close to me - we're in Niceville!)


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