Storm Review

The adverts are kind of intrusive and it’s not exactly particularly stylish, but that’s a small price to pay for Storm’s extensive weather reporting, which offers detailed weather summaries no matter where you are in the world.

As is typical for such apps, you choose your location manually or get the app to do the work for you via location services. It takes a moment or two to update your location and set up the map to demonstrate just what’s going on right now - a small quibble - but that’s about it as far as setup goes. You’re then presented with a map that can be zoomed in or out of, all while displaying any significant weather fronts that might be coming your way.

Underneath the map resides a series of options. You can view weather alerts such as those by the National Weather Service, or just general issues. A section for current conditions lets you know what the temperature is at the moment, what it feels like, as well as statistics on humidity, pressure, wind, and visibility. Separate sections are then devoted to breaking things down according to the hour and day, with a series of graphs reinforcing such information.

The daily weather news is particularly detailed, thanks to a tap of the day switching you to a text-based description of what’s to come, as well as various statistics from UV index, to sunrise and sunset times. The only real flaw here is that while you can choose to view most information in either miles or kilometers, the text description is always in kilometers no matter what you’ve set elsewhere.

A radar view goes one step further by giving you visual indication of what’s to come, with it being possible to view weather fronts as they edge nearer to causing you disruption in some way.

Throughout, Storm never really looks very stylish. It looks like it was designed a few operating systems ago rather than embracing iOS 8’s style. Also, the ad banners at the top are kind of intrusive but $1.99 will steer you away from this being a major problem. What Storm lacks in looks, it more than makes up with via offering plenty of useful information. It should keep you informed each step of the way.