Five Apps to Help You Brave Snowpocalypse
Unless you live under a rock, you know there is going to be the storm of the century this weekend in the North East. As the Snowpocalypse threatens to dump 20 plus inches on some parts of New England, we’ve devised a list of five apps that will help prepare, keep you safe, and entertain if you’re in its path:
1.) Accuweather (Free; iOS) One of the best full-featured weather apps on the store and voted “Best iPhone App” by the 2012 Mobie awards. Accuweather is known for its animated maps, wind, temperature and real feel temperature. If you’re a weather junkie, it packs in everything you could possibly want from full maps to dopler radar. Accuweather has one-swipe access to hourly forecasts, a week-long forecast, and of course a full map. This is definitely one to get to track the storm and get the latest updates.
2.) Dark Sky ($3.99; iOS) For serious weather trackers, this app forecasts the conditions for your exact location and tells you exactly what to expect over the next hour. It also has an onscreen radar that tracks the storm’s intensity to the minute, and it will give you a rough estimate as to when it will stop raining/sleeting/snowing/blanketing your area.
3.) NOAA Hi-Def Radar ($1.99; iOS and Android) For extremely accurate, real-time renderings of the storm from satellite imagery, this app is about as good as it gets– and it’s in high def! Whoo hoo! It updates quickly and has some of the best radar images in the industry. It also shows you the warning areas and when they expire. Plus, you can hold your finger over a spot on the map and get the weather for any obscure place.
4.) FEMA (Free; iOS and Android) FEMA’s app not only provides weather information, but it also gives you info on disaster preparedness. The app contains a checklist for your emergency kit and a page on what to do during a storm. Plus, info on emergency meeting location information, and a map with open shelters and open FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs)
5.) Trivia Burst ($0.99; iOS and Android) If you get stranded inside from all the snow, you can pass the time doing trivia! My favorite is Trivia Burst. This game has more than 40,000 different questions (the most of any app out there) spread over 25 categories. With so many questions, you can spend hours playing without a duplicate question and if we are in for 20+ inches, you may be inside for a long time.
Enjoy the storm and be safe!