The Weather Channel, WindGuru & Wind Alert

It's Friday night, 10pm and I'm invited to sail at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead MA for my first time! As someone who hasn't ventured out of the Charles River Basin much for the last 2 years this is exciting stuff! Sea breezes, waves and ocean ;-) The following morning, 9am and I'm making my way to the Yacht Club looking for an iPhone App that can give me all the weather information I need.

The Weather Channel - 4 Stars App Store Rating


First stop was the trusty Weather Channel app with a 4 star rating. To be honest, it's pretty good, giving a detailed hour by hour breakdown of wind speed and direction.

+ Hourly wind information with direction and strength
+ Major locations around the world all covered
- No statistics or detailed trends







WindGuru - 2.5 Stars App Store Rating



Next up I downloaded the WindGuru App with 2.5 Start Rating . This is a simplified version of their website, presenting the key information in a format optimized for mobile.

For sailors, surfers and windsurfers the key advantage of wind guru is the ability to get detailed information on specific spots around the word.

But since I was going to Marblehead, which is also featured on the Weather Channel.

And the major disadvantage.... information is only presented for 3 hour periods

+ Simple and easy to use
+ Wind speed & direction, Wave height & direction
+ Information on key windsurfing, sailing and surfing spots
- Wind information only presented for 3 hour periods


Wind Alert - 3 Stars App Store Rating

Wind Alert links with weather stations around the world and
collects real-time information on wind speeds and direction.

The app then extrapolates wind speeds and directions for the following 6 hours. However, the extrapolation doesn't seem to be very sophisticated, and doesn't link with other forecasting information. So, if wind speeds have increased from 5 to 10mph that's the trend that the app will extrapolate.

If you purchase a membership you can set the option to receive alerts for a particular location based on wind speeds and other parameters.

+ Detailed wind information updated every 10/15 mins from weather stations
+ Captures fluctuations and gust detail
+ Useful in conjunction with the latest forecasting information
- Basic forecasting functions only extrapolate simple trends


So, what's ended up happening is that I now have three wind apps on my iPhone (bring on OS 4 with folder options!) I like the hourly information from The Weather Channel, the wave height and presentation of WindGuru and the Real-Time data from windAlert!

Or perhaps I should just resort back to reading clouds.....