5 FUN WAYS TO CHECK THE WEATHER EVERY DAY

5 Fun Ways To Check The Weather Every Day
By Justin Pot, Make Use Of, 5 March 2016.

You’ve got to check the weather every day anyway, why not make it entertaining? Today Cool Websites and Apps looks at five tools that make the weather just a bit more fun - regardless of what it’s like outside.

We’ve gone over sites that make the weather more entertaining, including my personal favorite Carrot, the snarky weather robot. But people just keep making hilarious new ways to check the weather, so it’s time for another roundup.

It’s not too surprising that people keep making weather sites, because weather sites are such an interesting design question. Choose what information you feel is and isn’t relevant, then choose some design flairs to make your site stand out. Here are some interesting choices to peruse - maybe one will stand out for you.

1. Meowzr (Android, iOS): The Weather, with Cat GIFs

Sure, you could check the weather and then browse some Tumblr’s full of cat gifs, but who has the time? Kill two birds with one stone by getting the two most important parts of your morning done at once with Meowzr. It shows you today’s weather, which you want, alongside a relevant cat gif, which you need.

This is a surprisingly clean weather app that also offers a gif, which you can copy to the clipboard for tweeting later should you get the urge. It’s simple, sure, but it’s a quick way to add just a little bit more delight to your day. Check it out.

2. Graph.no: Get Your Weather from the Command Line

Maybe cats don’t make you happy quite the way code does. If that’s you, and your idea of a good time is firing up the Terminal or command prompt, Graph.no is the weather service for you.

Just open the command prompt or Terminal, then type finger toronto@graph.no (replacing “toronto” with your city, of course). You’ll get a summary of the weather right away [as shown above].

This works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Seriously: try it out. This thing is fast, and there are all sorts of sub-commands you can type, as OS X Daily recently pointed out. For example: put o: into the command, as in finger o:toronto@graph.no, and you’ll get a one-line summary of current weather conditions.

We’ve outlined sites with RSS feeds for the weather, which is handy, but this is possibly even better: the weather, anytime you can access a shell.

3. WeatherFrom: The Weather, as Reported by a Rambling Grandmother

There’s a certain charm in visiting rambling relatives, which is something WeatherFrom captures perfectly. You’ll get a summary of current conditions, sure, but the real fun here is in the character who stars: Gigi. She’ll say what the weather will be like, then go off on a tangent.

The stories are always meandering, and occasionally profane, but could make your morning weather ritual a lot more entertaining. This isn’t for everybody, but might be for you, so check it out.

4. Should I Get Up?: Possibly The Simplest Weather Site Out There

Sometimes knowing the weather amounts to one thing: weather that makes it worth getting out of bed. Should I Get Up aims mostly to answer this question, but also provides a lot of information in an interesting way while doing so. You’ll see graphs representing rain, wind, and how long it’s been since sunrise.

This sort of thing could make a great homepage, so check it out and see how you like it.

5. Moon Giant: Find out What the Moon Will Look Like

When’s the last time you paid attention to the moon? If it’s been a while, that’s too bad, because in many ways the rock that orbits our planet is humanity’s first calendar. If you want to feel in touch with that, check out Moon Giant, which gives you a summary of the moon’s current shape and a whole lot more.

We’ve gone over some amazing astronomy websites, but few that dive into one specific thing with quite this much depth.

[Source: Make Use Of.]