RESEARCHING THE WEATHER
Wind, rain, lightning, cloud cover, temperature, tornado and aurora possibilities…these are all of interest to us as photographers before we go out for a shoot. Knowledge of potential weather conditions can help us schedule our trips, plan for the best morning and evening locations and they can help keep us safe and comfortable while out. You can depend on the weather person on your local news channel to be right 50% of the time. Weather apps are right 90% of the time and can give you reliable to the minute information when you are in the field. The availability of countless weather apps for our smartphones can be confusing and potentially costly. My own favorite weather apps have changed over the past few years. This article covers my current choices. This list is short and in no particular order so you don't get overwhelmed. I know there are other great apps out there.
Wunderground
Meteoblue
Windy
Storm Chasing
Other Choices
I have used a number of other weather apps, including NOAA Radar Weather, Storm Tracker, MyRadar, Storm Radar and Clime-NOAA. These are all good apps, but most of the more valuable subscriptions versions cost more in the range of $60 per year. I do like the notices I receive of “Lightning in the area”, but this feature is planned to be released shortly with Windy.
Learn More about Weather
Stan Rose offers an e-book titled Weather Forecasting for Photographers. There is a ton of good information in this book regarding predicting future weather. Stan also offers one-on-one workshops for the photographer who is serious about weather forecasting. For the e-book or more information, visit StanRoseImages.com.