Severe weather alerts, updated temperatures and live weather radar are now available to see from a watch.
The NOAA Hi-Def Radar app is the first app available on the Apple Watch that has interactive hi-definition weather radar. The new app is being released as the nation readies for severe weather season.
Apple Watch became available for sale on April 10 and has been met with overwhelming demand. The company is working to fill orders for the new product.
As Apple has rolled out the new watches, companies such as WeatherSphere are updating their apps to include an Apple Watch extension. The app also is available for iPhone and iPad. The app is regularly one of the top-5 paid weather apps.
Some app abilities might make more sense for a phone than a watch in the same way that people use desktops and iPads differently. NOAA Hi-Def Radar’s phone app offers a number of different layers that cater to an individual’s needs — severe weather warning boxes, information about wildfires or lightning strikes.
The Apple Watch extension is a streamlined app that maintains core functions.
“It was actually a pretty complex process for us to take a very robust phone app with tons of customizability and lots of features and really drill down to what are the most critical features that a user will want to quickly glance at on their watch,” said Alicia Fremling, the product and marketing manager at WeatherSphere.
Fremling said WeatherSphere considered different ways to evaluate usage when thinking about how to create the best app for a watch.
“A lot of people are talking about how app developers measure sessions on the phone in minutes,” she said. “We should be thinking as we develop these watch apps about how do we measure sessions in seconds.
“What’s really great about our watch app is it’s quick enough and light enough for somebody who just wants the current conditions, current temperature to glance at, but it’s also robust enough that a true weather enthusiast can get the radar right on their watch.”
WeatherSphere is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company. Follow @weathersphere on Twitter.
