I have added OpenZones to Flowx, my Android weather app[0]. OpenZones are regions covering disaster zones where all the pro data in the app is freely available.<p>I have created an 1200km diameter OpenZone over Florida with Hurricane Dorian approaching. So if you add Florida to the app, you can view radar, NOAA's GFS, NAM and HRRR models, CMC GDPS and RDPS models, and the DWD (Germany) ICON model. There are also predicted hurricane tracks from the NOAA and CMC ensemble models which I find extremely valuable to predict the possible paths of Dorian. This YouTube video[1] shows an example of the hurricane tracks.<p>The reasoning behind OpenZones is that meteorological organizations solve weather simulations and release data to the public with the aim to reduce damage, injury and fatalities. It's only right to support this purpose and open up all data in disaster zones.<p>The idea for OpenZones came from the fires (Camp Fire) in California last year. I was part way through adding HRRR smoke simulation data to Flowx when a user asked if I could release the smoke data early for the California fires. I did so in the free version of the app and then rolled it into the pro version after the fires.<p>Sorry there is no Apple version of the app.<p>[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.enzuredigital.weatherbomb<p>[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5do7dYfYfQ
I believe the hurricane tracks is a solution to the problem outlined in the HN post 3 days ago on "Misinterpreting hurricane forecasts"[0].<p>The hurricane tracks are a new addition to Flowx but I believe it can be improved a lot. For example, you can color the dots by the hurricane category or wind speed. Better still, draw a heat map around each dot would generate a probability map for the hurricane.<p>[0] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20833030" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20833030</a>
This is cool! I will download.<p>I also have a Dorian-related Android app to share.
I use the barometers in phones to measure surface pressure with All Clear:<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allclearweather.android" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allclearwe...</a><p>Here is a graph of Hurricane Florence last year: <a href="https://www.allclearweather.com/hurricane-florence" rel="nofollow">https://www.allclearweather.com/hurricane-florence</a>. I will do a much more geographical and full analysis for Dorian. The raw data from barometers in phones is messy, and requires significant bias correction and quality control, but one day could be assimilated into weather models like WRF and improving forecast accuracy.
For particulates in particular (no pun intended), purple is a good resource. <a href="https://www.purpleair.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.purpleair.com</a><p>PS: In Paradise right now, incidentally.