Climate Wise – Winter Edition Doesn’t Bring The Rain

Climate Wise – Winter Edition [rating: 2/5]

I’ve mentioned in other reviews that I’m a bit of a weather nerd. Put some cloud animations and temperature variation charts on an app and usually I’m good to go. Imagine my disappointment then when I ran across Climate Wise – Winter Edition. Not only did it not feed and nurture my inner meteorologist, it was of little practical use as well.

Climate Wise provides winter-specific meterological data for the Continental United States. The main interface is a Google Maps overlay with a search box. To find data for a location you can either search using the city and state or by zip code. To find data for your current location, tap the location icon in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Once a location has been acquired, the familiar Maps pin icon will drop into place. Weather data is accessed by tapping the pin. The weather data provided is a series of three windows with average information for January, February, and March.

Climate Wise - Winter EditionI understand that Climate Wise is not like other weather apps as it doesn’t actually display a weather forecast. Climate Wise is focused on providing statistical information, that much it makes very clear in its App Store introduction. Unfortunately, the statistical information provided doesn’t relate very much to winter weather information I’d be interested in. There is no mention of average snowfall, wind speed, or wind chill to name three much more winter related statistics. And although the developers promise future releases with international information, it currently only tracks the Continental United States. I am sure there’s international winter-specific statistical information available. The lack of even North American information leaves a big hole in the application that needs to be filled. Climate Wise may not aspire to being a weather forecast application and that’s fine. However, if you’re going to provide statistical information you should provide statistical information that’s as relevant and broadly-based as possible.

I had very high hopes for Climate Wise – Winter Edition and it didn’t deliver on any of them. The interface is good and it delivers a limited set of information specific to the US. If either of those things interest you, get this app.

The Good:

  • Good interface
  • Information if you’re in the US

The Not So Good:

  • No international information
  • Not enough winter-specific information
  • Not fully featured enough

Reviewed by: Erin Peterson

Price: $1.99 (iTunes Store) as of 28 Jan
Reviewed Version: 1.0
Size: 0.3 MB
Seller: Climate Source Inc.

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