Weather: Local Forecast, Radar

Summary

Whether you love it or hate, at least winter in Europe is a fairly dependable season. You can trust that it will be cold and most likely bleak. As far as the rest of year goes, I depend on weather forecasts so as not to show up at the office sporting giant fur lined boots on a balmy, pleasant day.

The people behind TweetCaster recently unleashed their latest creation: 1Weather. Will it help make you a weather authority?
 

Test device: HTC Sensation (no Root) / HTC Desire (Root - MiUi 2.3.7)

There are tons of weather apps available from the Android Market, so what makes 1Weather so special?

First of all, 1Weather harbours all the standard features one might hope for in a weather app. There are lots of cities to choose from, so you can take your pick from the sometimes slightly muddled list in order to see what the weather is/will be like in a given location. I say muddled because when attempting to look up “San Francisco, California” the application suggests “Chinatown, San Francisco” and “San Francisco, Argentina” before it lists the popular Californian city.

Check out today’s weather, weather forecasts for the days to come, precipitation details, the exact time of sunrise/sunset, and lots more details you might expect from a weather app.

There is also a simple yet telling thumbs up/down symbol: thumbs up is obviously good weather news, unless, as 1Weather points out, you happen to be a ‘crazy storm chaser’.

Radar images can also be displayed (for locations within the USA).

Overall 1Weather delivers everything you might expect from a weather app, and then some. There are a few things weather enthusiasts might see as being small drawbacks, for instance there are six weather parameters (air pressure, humidity, UV, etc.) of which you can pick only three to be displayed in a forecast. Furthermore, I couldn’t quite ascertain from which source 1Weather draws its forecasts from.

Bottom line:
1Weather is a great weather app that comes with a generous repertoire of features and a brilliant design.

Only apps that have truly won us over with remarkable interfaces and controls receive a five star rating. 1Weather does very well indeed in this department. The design is simple but it’s quite obvious that a lot of thought and love went into it. The animations are really something, but you won’t feel overwhelmed by them.

The application is beautifully sleek and controls are intuitive and easy to use. The layout couldn’t be any better than it is, either: the parameters are well thought-out and the application is easy to navigate.
 

1Weather performed beautifully throughout our test runs. No problems to report.

1Weather is available for free from the Android Market. A small ad banner runs along the upper part of the display, but I didn’t find it to be intrusive.