General weather apps

Our selection of apps to check the weather before going for a walk!

WINDY

Free (Donationware) iOS - Android

Windy is a tool for visualizing weather forecasts. This fast, intuitive, detailed, and accurate application has gained the trust of professional pilots, paragliders, skydivers, surfers, kite surfers, sailors, fishermen, storm chasers, and weather geeks, as well as many government, military, and rescue teams.

Windy offers you all the most used weather forecast models in the world: the global models ECMWF and GFS, as well as local ones, NEMS, AROME, and ICON (for Europe) and NAM (for the United States).

Wind, rain, temperature, pressure, waves, or CAPE index, with Windy, you have all the practical weather maps at your fingertips.

The global composite satellite views are created from sources from NOAA, EUMETSAT, and Himawari. The update frequency is 5 to 15 minutes depending on the area. The Doppler radar covers much of Europe, America, Asia, and Australia.

Windy is free but allows for "donations" through in-app purchases.

WEATHERPRO

0.99€ iOS iPhone / iPad (Premium option 1.99€/3 months, 8.99€/1 year)

Free Android (Premium option 0.99€/month)

This application provides 7-day weather forecasts, with weather reports for over 2 million locations, actual and feels-like temperatures, wind speed and direction, as well as alerts for extreme weather around the world.

Convenient visualization in the form of a graph (meteogram)

The Premium options offer extended features: 14-day hourly forecasts, high-resolution maps, precipitation radar, etc.

THE WEATHER CHANNEL

Free - iPhone / iPad / Android (+ in-app purchases)

This very user-friendly app is offered by Meteo Consult, in direct competition with Meteo France. You can customize your homepage by displaying the content that interests you and check the forecasts for twelve days worldwide with hourly information for the next two days. Rainfall radar, favorites list, weather bulletins in video... it has it all.

Note that the app does not support screen rotation, which can be inconvenient.

The VIP option (€2.99/month, €17.99/year) provides ultra-detailed hourly forecasts, removes ads, and gives access to TV Live.

Also available in a marine version.

METEO FRANCE

Free - iPhone / iPad / Android

Official Météo France app with 15-day forecasts, hourly updates for up to 36 hours, weather maps, video bulletins, radar and satellite animations, alerts, and 1-hour rain forecasts. Mountain and marine bulletins.

Data is generally the most reliable, based on the Arpege and Arome models. Note the continuously improving ergonomics.

WEATHER4D LITE

16.99€ iOS

Although primarily focused on marine use, this application will also be useful on land with its well-designed graphic animations.

Global free forecasts for 16 days for wind, gusts, precipitation, air temperature, cloud cover, snow, thunderstorm (CAPE) forecasts, waves, and currents.

Also allows subscription to paid forecasts (€37.99/year) with high resolution: ARPEGE Europe and Arome models from Météo-France, ICON Europe from DWD, particularly reliable for mountains and the sea. Wave models from Météo-France and currents from Mercator Ocean for sea kayaking trips.

The ergonomics are also remarkable: a target to obtain weather data at a specific point, separate land/sea display, numerous customizable display settings. Option to display a meteogram (evolution of data over time at a point).

The Routing version at €38.99, also primarily aimed at sailors, may be useful for land adventurers on expeditions, to follow forecasts at GPS positions along a route.

Both versions allow downloading GRIB weather files with an Iridium GO! in direct connection.

Note: The information provided above generally comes from the Appstore and Google Play. The applications have not always been tested. Price indications may be incorrect, as prices change very often on the stores due to promotions. Feel free to share your opinions and comments regarding the usefulness of the applications you have tested, or to suggest other applications via our contact email.