KCRA 3 Interactive Radar
This may be more of a utilitarian app and interface for the average person. It may just be cool to me because I love geeking out over maps, geography, climate, weather, spatial relationships etc, but I happen to think its pretty cool indeed. Local news station here in Sacramento KCRA (channel 3 on my rabbit ears) has a fairly unique feature that I happen to use quite often called Interactive Radar. No longer is the user tied to the television weather reports but can now view real-time, location-specific weather reports on the go.
A little backstory: By now you have likely heard me ramble about my love for maps in this post and another. I remember thinking a few years ago, before the rise of smart phones, while on an adventure somewhere either biking or hiking, how cool it would be to be able to know my position in real time on a map, to know what’s around me, etc. Garmin in-car GPS, and I suppose really expensive outdoor recreation GPS devices were available at the time, but there was no cheap, accessible mobile GPS yet and I remember thinking how cool that would be. Now let me say there is so substitute for paper maps – for knowing how to use and read them and being able to triangulate your position and landmarks manually. But the digital age has ushered in many conveniences and this is one of them to me. It goes hand-in-hand with adventures, outdoor recreation, etc – to be able to zoom into your exact location on earth and correlate that with landmarks is very exciting to me. Now we don’t even give it a second thought. Google Maps is my go-to app for most of this, but for weather, this one takes the cake.
What is it/Who is the audience?
This app lets you see past, present and future weather conditions graphically by overlaying them over a digital map (a la Google Maps). I believe there is a standalone app for the interactive radar feature but it is accessible through the KRCA 3 app and on their website. Because I have an older model iPhone, I access it through their webpage using Safari while on the go or through Chrome on my MacBook. The audience would be somewhat technically savvy (at least to operate technology to a basic degree) adults with an interest in maps/weather or just needing to plan their day accordingly based on the weather and where they are going (Should I bring a light coat or a heavy rain jacket and umbrella?).
What about this interface is interesting?
If you are familiar with other GPS-based online maps like GoogleMaps, Apple Maps or OpenStreetMap you will have no problem figuring this interface out, as it functions just like most of them. You can toggle around to a specific area, zoom in and out, etc. It basically covers the range from the entire U.S. to your house/apt on your street. And that right there is what is so cool about it to me. You can zoom into your exact location, at home or on a mountainside, and see when and where weather systems will affect you. You can see where they came from, where they are going, where they are now, which direction they are moving, how fast, etc. You can them correlate this with what your eyes see when looking at the sky. Its really cool to see dark clouds approaching on the horizon, open this app, confirm they are rain clouds, see if they are indeed headed toward you and predict when the first drops will hit your location fairly accurately.
In what ways is this example successful?
The app uses layers to show weather systems that are color coded (green for rain, blue for snow) and intensity of those systems (severity of rain clouds goes from light green to dark green, yellow, orange, and red, with red being the most severe). A similar system of varying shades of blue is in place for snow. Pink is a mix and rain/snow. It is really cool to see exactly where and at what elevation the storm changes from rain to snow (the snow line) and confirm that by being out in the thick of it. Because of our location in California most of the activity, at least here in the central valley, will be in the winter, spring and fall. Summer is a bit boring with this app as the weather is monotonous – sunny and hot. You can change the opacity of the colored weather systems to your liking as well.
It allows you to choose between future and past to see where the systems have been trending up until now or to see where they will be in the future.
Whether on future or past settings an active slide bar corresponds to the time that it shows. You can let it cycle through which will eventually loop, or drag it to an exact time which will pause on that time.
All of these features can be extremely useful, practical and perhaps even life-saving (provided you have internet access in a given location). Let us imagine you are in the backcountry with internet service on your phone. You are thinking about summiting a nearby peak but you see ominous clouds approaching. You can then use this app to pinpoint your location, find said dark clouds, determine in which direction they are moving, how severe they are, and when and if they will impact you, thus influencing your decision of whether or not to bag this peak.
How might you make it even better?
I use this app a lot during our stormier months and I would be hard pressed to find a way to improve it. Sometimes it can be a little glitchy at first and the clouds will load later than the map, but I believe this is based on the strength of your connection and how powerful and new your device is. It is a good supplement to weather reports and often determines whether or not I should bring an umbrella or jacket with me to class. I would say adding links on the map to live-webcams or user-uploaded photos/videos of various locations to confirm and correlate what the app is saying in terms of weather conditions could be an improvement, but I would be hesitant to introduce any clutter to this app. For me and what I use it for not only is it practical, its just plain cool.
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