Time for some Real Talk: The LandMass Weather App & Weather Radios

Firstly, the chances I call it the Landmass Weather App are… not very high. I love the name, but I think my girlfriend wins the argument that an app should sound a bit more professional and less esoteric. I know, I know. I am bummed out, too.

Okay… So! The App….

As many of you know I’ve been looking into developing an weather app for everyone. And at first, I thought it was going to be a difficult, but achievable, task to do on my own. I learned HTML and PHP on my own (albeit while I was in college), I taught myself some super basic python (during the last few years), and I’m decent, but not fluent, with other computer-based languages

But when I embarked upon this journey, I learned very quickly that app making compared to website designing and coding is like going from addition and subtraction to multiplication and division. It can be done. But not easily.

At all.

On top of that, if I want to make an app that you guys would actually want to download, that is a whole’nother angle! Based on feedback from everyone, most folks want a daily forecast, an hourly forecast, the radar, and alerts for “bad” weather, and a detailed forecast discussion area (where you could get things like I post on the blog now).

That is really not easy. And I’ve tried.

I considered reaching out to some students to see if I could get some standout Computer Science majors to step up and try their best. But turning gridded NDFD data into tabular forecast data with graphics and numbers is not an easy ask in itself, let alone to do that layered on top of an app. An app that doesn’t exist yet.

I’m left with two choices….

I can make an app version of my blog. It would offer a daily detailed forecast, some limited radar capabilities and the ability for me to manually send you a ping before I start a video on facebook or when “bad” weather is possible, generally, across the area, but not specific to you. It would be relatively vanilla, but should allow you easy access to everyone you can already access on the blog, it would just live on your phone.

Or.

I call up “the big guns” to see what they can do for me and how much it might cost. That app would look similar to an accuweather app or the weather channel app. It would be very robust with radar, daily forecasts, hourly forecasts, the ability to do daily videos, push alerts, and pings for warnings near you, etc. The whole nine yards, as they say. And it would have my detailed forecasts and links to my blog, too.

I can hear many of you now, “Call in the big guns!”

I did.

I’m currently having early talks with a company to hash out what an app like that might look like, the costs involved, and the bells and whistles it may include, and everything else, too.

I will be fully transparent here: I can’t afford to do this kind of an app for free. But! That means interesting things for three groups of people (where there is some overlap).

Group 1: People who want 24/7 access to an accurate forecast, a good radar, and pings for “bad” weather without all of the (I’ll be polite) “stuff” you get from other places… would have access to that.
Group 2: People who run businesses that want to reach potential customers who are in Group 1 would have a place to reach those people (and based on the number of you who check this site, that is a lot of people) while also supporting the app.
Group 3: People in both groups who may just be interested in “supporting” their local meteorologist’s app and efforts to keep everyone as informed as possible would be able to do so, too.

For the moment, though, I’m in early talks and we will see how far this goes. I’ve already chatted with a few people in Group 2 that are interested in being apart of this whole idea, but we will see. If you find yourself in Group 2, but haven’t talked to me about it, feel free to reach out. The more people in Group 2, the easier it will be to provide an app for people in all three groups.

As for the Weather Radios…

I know since COVID started there haven’t been any Weather Radio Programming events in the area and I want to change that. Just because I’m not on TV there anymore doesn’t mean I stopped caring.

I took some time to track down Midland, the company that makes the weather radios, at the National Weather Association Conference last week in Pittsburgh. We had a 15 minute chat about their new supply of radios and a government program that may allow for local cities and counties to get the Weather Radio at a discounted price to pass along to you guys. I am going to reach out to some folks around South Mississippi in local government (Mr. Barker, check your DMs) to see if this is actually true.

Again, transparency here: I’m skeptical that this program applies, but Midland assured me it did.

If so, the goal would be to have a Weather Radio programming event before we get into our Fall Severe Weather Season. I would drive back into the area program weather radios for the day and drive back to Houston. Because, to be honest, 12 hours in a car is nothing if it means someone, one day, gets an alert from the NWS that saves their life.

There is an outside chance, if things go well, that I would also have an app for everyone to download at the same time.

Here’s the truth: I love you guys. Anything I can do to help keep everyone safe during bad weather, I’ll do it. There are limits, sure, but I’ll try my best. I don’t make promises I can’t keep, so I won’t promise results. But I can promise effort. We will see how this goes, and I’ll keep you guys in the loop.