Android App: Appalachian Trail Weather

I wanted to make some of you all aware of an app I created a couple years ago to show weather forecasts based on specific locations on the trail.

Simply enter the mile you're interested in, it'll show you the nearest 5 shelters, by clicking on a shelter it'll show you the weather forecast for that particular shelter. I base all forecasts on the GPS coordinates of each shelter as well as predict the actual temperature by calculating the difference in elevation from the weather station and the shelter. In the Smoky mountains this can be close to 15 degrees difference.

The app uses an incredibly small amount of data to get a weather forecast; less than 1kb total. I made it this way so one can get a quick forecast even with a weak signal.

The app is free, I made it for the community, not to profit.

Give it a look, let me know if there are any improvements that I can make. Right now it doesn't show radar. If I can find a reliable and free source then I'll add that at some point but probably not for 2014.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...=com.atweather

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-Shutter NOBO 2011

Seems to work for me. No bugs that I noticed off hand.
Nice job on this.

Hey Shutter thanks works great.

Downloaded it a couple days ago. Great little app, especially the low bandwidth aspect. Good work and thanks!

What a great App. I wish I had it. Do one for the CDT and 'll happily pay for it. And many people would buy this for the AT too. If you don't like profits you could charge $2 and donate it to your favorite charity.

Just downloaded and man that is slick! The shelter snapshot alone is worth its weight, thank you Sir!

IIs this only for androids or did you compile an iOS version as we'll.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Love it. One small, possibly even stoopid suggestion. Change the name under the icon to AT WX so it's more obvious what it is than what I see now, which is "Appalachian.."

Thanks

Sounds fantastic. I'll download it as soon as you get an IOS version!

As has been said- I'd love an iOS version as well.

And this is certainly something I'd pay a few dollars for. Low bandwidth is a brilliant design concept for the application.

App is really nicely done - elegantly simple. I use an iPhone but downloaded it on my Android tablet. Would love to see it (and pay for it) on iOS.

One suggestion is to change the opening photo to a beautiful spring day - snow is getting old here in NJ!

Glad you all like it. A couple of responses:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Texaco

As has been said- I'd love an iOS version as well.

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Regarding the iOS version. Unfortunately I don't own any Apple products and Apple only allows developers to write apps on Macs. That's really the only reason there's not an iOS version. I wish I could simply compile it for iOS but Android and iOS use different programming languages; I'd have to do a 100% rewrite in a language I don't know. Perhaps next year if I can find an old Mac laying around I'll get a version out; it won't happen for 2014 unfortunately.

I've looked into doing a PCT and CDT version. I'm heading out to the PCT this year, I haven't decided if I'll attempt a quick and dirty PCT version before I leave.

LDog: Thanks for the suggestion about changing the name under the icon to "AT WX" or something a bit more shorthand. I'll play around with this tonight and perhaps tie it into a larger update. Good catch.

Offshore: I'm in DC, I feel your snow pains. Come those 100 degree and 100% humidity days in VA a simple view of snow might just be what someone needs to take their mind off the heat! I could do something fun like rotate the pictures based on time of day and time of year. I doubt I'll do that though unless I get some time to kill and feel like playing with functionality.

RE Charging money for it: I actually charged $1 for it a couple years ago with the goal of donating 100% to beer and trail magic, I felt bad for forcing a charge on something I see as a community resource. I'll look into doing a "donate" button and using that to either do trail magic or a straight donation to some trail crews. This was my way of giving back to the AT community that gave me so much on my 2011 thru-hike. If people want to donate, that's cool, if not, then they can use it free. Google has weird rules on this and they take 30% of all sales.

Thanks! Just put it on my tablet and hope to use it on my thru hike.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bamboo bob

What a great App. I wish I had it. Do one for the CDT and 'll happily pay for it. And many people would buy this for the AT too. If you don't like profits you could charge $2 and donate it to your favorite charity.

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You couldn't do one for the CDT because everyone's route/mileage is different, and there aren't any shelters. But there is a simple, free alternative: the Unofficial NOAA Weather app. This lets you choose any point on a map and get a detailed forecast that takes into account elevation, topography, etc.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...aweather&hl=en

This looks great on my tablet; I wanted to load it on my phone since I'm leaving the tablet home, but it needs Android 4.x and my phone's stuck on 2.something -- any way to easily fix this, or do you think it might cross-load? I might try that and post my results when I get a chance.

thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shutter

Glad you all like it. A couple of responses:


LDog: Thanks for the suggestion about changing the name under the icon to "AT WX" or something a bit more shorthand. I'll play around with this tonight and perhaps tie it into a larger update. Good catch.

Offshore: I'm in DC, I feel your snow pains. Come those 100 degree and 100% humidity days in VA a simple view of snow might just be what someone needs to take their mind off the heat! I could do something fun like rotate the pictures based on time of day and time of year. I doubt I'll do that though unless I get some time to kill and feel like playing with functionality.

RE Charging money for it: I actually charged $1 for it a couple years ago with the goal of donating 100% to beer and trail magic, I felt bad for forcing a charge on something I see as a community resource. I'll look into doing a "donate" button and using that to either do trail magic or a straight donation to some trail crews. This was my way of giving back to the AT community that gave me so much on my 2011 thru-hike. If people want to donate, that's cool, if not, then they can use it free. Google has weird rules on this and they take 30% of all sales.

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