NOAA Weather Unofficial - Weather alerts, forecasts & more

This weather app is not affiliated with NOAA or the National Weather Service. Products provided by NOAA are in the public domain, and this app's use of those products is compliant with NOAA/NWS terms of use.

This app provides forecasts, animated radar, hourly forecasts, and current conditions, all in an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. Just the information you need, provided accurately, quickly, and for your exact location.

Troubleshooting of the app

1. The widget or notification says "Update Error" or never finishes loading

Power and data saving features on the device are by far the most common reasons for this error.

When the app is not open, the widgets and notification are considered to be running in the background. The system is much more aggressive in restricting the app while it is in this background state, and often results in a failure to complete the update.

* Here is a trick with the notification that can help you figure out if this is the reason. If the notification doesn't update on its own, try opening the app and leave it open. If the notification updates with the app in the foreground, voila! You can experiment with manually updating, with or without the app open, but keep in mind the system may temporarily give the app foreground status after you interact with it. Android has several built in features and phone manufacturers may have their own custom battery saving features.

A common Android specific feature that can prevent updating on some devices is called battery optimization. Disabling optimization has worked for many people.

2. Notification doesn't show up in the status bar at all

This is usually a permission error instead of a power saving feature. You may have (even accidentally) blocked the app from showing notifications.

You can find the notification settings in your device settings. A shortcut on my phone is to long press on the app, then the info button, and notifications will be listed there and you can check how they are configured.

3. App doesn't display current observations

Sometimes the app will not display some or all of the current weather conditions. Common examples are to see "--" for the temperature. You might see "weather summary unavailable" and the stock image photo instead of the weather conditions.

There can be a number of causes. In some cases the station could have an outage, or the feed from NOAA could be down. Some stations may not provide certain details. Many stations don't provide the data necessary to show the weather conditions icon.

By default the app will use the data provided by NOAA that comes along with the rest of the forecast. Sometimes that default may not be the best choice, may lack data, or may not be the station you want to use. In those cases the app allows you to change stations to one that may work better or better represent your location.

To change stations, press on Current Observations, then more stations or the map button, to see what stations are available. You can then select a new station to use for that location.

When you select a different station, the app also gets this data from a different NOAA resource, and in some cases may produce better results when the default choice isn't working because of a data feed issue.

4. Error messages while downloading the forecast

The app will display error messages when it is unable to download the forecast. The message will give details if it can determine there is a connection issue or you're on a wifi network that requires a login.

Otherwise the app will display the standard error that the file could not be downloaded and there could be a temporary outage. This happens sometimes and in rare instances outages can last some time. Unfortunately there isn't a lot I can do in these situations and we just have to wait for NOAA to fix the cause of the outage.

When outages last a while I will contact NOAA and check their status pages to try and find out what happened and when it might be fixed. This information will get posted to the apps Twitter page, so I recommend checking their first during outages.

In some cases during outages the weather.gov website will still work because NOAA has a separate computer readable format which apps can use, and in some cases only the computer readable format will be affected. We can take advantage of that with a feature in the app which allows you to link directly to the weather.gov website with the location you're currently looking at. Go into the app settings by pressing the menu at the top right. Then Web Links, and check Standard forecast page. Then pressing the menu again, there will be an option called "NOAA Web Page" which will link you to weather.gov.

5. The app can't find my location

There are a number of reason this can happen. The first thing to understand is that there are 3 ways your device can locate you.

    1) Cell towers - usually not very accurate.

    2) Wifi networks - doesn't always provide a location, but accurate when available.

    3) GPS - accurate but slow and doesn't work indoors.

NOAA Weather looks at 2 things when considering a location. Is it accurate enough and is it relatively up-to-date. Both of these settings are adjustable in the the app settings. If a location does not meet the requirements, NOAA Weather will keep waiting for a better location. When this happens, you will see a bar across the bottom of the screen indicating that a suitable location cannot be found. Pressing this bar will bring up a menu with available options.

In some situations your device may simply be unable to locate you. For instance, if you are on a wifi network and have no GPS or you are indoor. In these situations your only option may be to manually enter your location. See the questions below for adding locations.

Adding a new location

    To add a location, press the location bar to bring out the locations drawer. Then either press the add location button to type in the location, or press the map button next to it, to select a location from the map. If you want this new location to load when opening the app, make sure to also set it as the default location.

    You can also save a location detected by the app by long pressing on the location bar, and selecting save location from the list.

    Setting a default location so the app doesn't detect my location every time?

    Once you have added a location, you can set that location as the default by pressing the 3 dot menu on the location, and then selecting "Set as default from the options".

Removing a location

    To remove a saved location, press the 3 dots menu of the location you want to remove, and select remove from the options.

Some Questions:

1. Why is there no wind direction flag shown on the graph, like on the NOAA website?

Due to a technical limitation, it is difficult to add these flags to the line graph. For now you can see the wind direction by pressing on a point on the wind speed line. You can also see the wind direction by switching from the graph display to the list display.

2. Why is there a line through some or all items in the drawer, and these items don't show up on the graph or list?

The line through indicates that the app was not able to retrieve data for that item. This can be normal for some items such as "wind gusts" which are only provided when necessary. In other cases there could be a temporary outage or other problem for your location. If you continuously have this problem, feel free to contact me with your location and I will look into it further.

3. Why do I get a error that the hourly forecast is currently unavailable, even though the forecast works fine?

This can happen occasionally when NOAA is having technical problems, specially during periods of high load. If the problem persists, feel free to contact me and I will look into it.

4. What are QPF and Snow estimate?

QPF stands for Quantitative Precipitation Forecast. It is the expected amount of liquid precipitation for a given area over the time period. In the case of snow or ice, it is the amount of melted water that results from that precipitation.

Snow estimate uses QPF values along with temperature, to statistically estimate snow fall. It's possible, especially with temperatures around freezing, that the app will give snow estimates even though there is no snow at all. It could rain instead and the app will still provide the estimate. 

5. Part of the widget gets cut off. Why is this and what can be done?

The problem is that different devices have different screen aspect ratios. Some screens are more square and some are more rectangular. I tried to make the widgets fit on as many different screens as possible, but its not perfect. I could have made the widgets more sparse (show less data), so that there would be more empty space to accommodate the differences, but then of course you get less info. If the widget is getting cut off, you should try using a different size. The large widget is also resizeable.

Further, if you are using a 3rd party home screen app, you may have to adjust your homescreen settings. These apps can add extra rows which also affects the aspect ratio.

6. Is there a way to put the date/time on the widget?

Currently no. To show the time on the widget requires that the widget be updated at least once per minute to be at all useful. In an effort to keep the app very lightweight I have not implemented this. I may reconsider or at least add an option for displaying the date.

★ "A no-nonsense approach to show weather data on your phone, but done well and great looking" - Android Central

This app uses NOAA point forecasts from your GPS location to get the most localized weather available. Point forecasts are great for climbing, hiking, skiing, or any outdoor activity where weather from a nearby city isn't accurate enough.

GPS on the phone will provide the most accurate location, but usually isn't needed. Nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi networks can also provide this information and will be checked first to save time and battery. You can also enter a location manually.

To provide highly localized forecasting, this app uses point forecasts from the National Weather Service (NOAA/NWS) and is therefore only available in the US.

If there is severe weather, this will display at the top of the forecast. This app currently does NOT support severe weather alerts or notifications. NOAA is providing this service directly through cell carriers.

There are also several differently sized widgets available, which can be placed on your home screen to provide some basic weather information, without the need to open the app.

Forecast discussion is available through the menu button

Permission: Location

This app requires your location to provide you with the most accurate weather. This is fundamental to how the app works. You can still add manual locations as well if you prefer.

Permission: Photos/Media/Files

This permission is required by Google Maps so that it can cache map tiles for faster loading. It sounds like the app is doing something with your photos or media, but it is not. The permission means that the app has permission to access your files (which includes photos and media), but does not mean they are actually being accessed. It is a subtle but important distinction. Contact me if you have further questions about this.

These are the non-simplified permissions as listed in the Android manifest:

android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" (location access listed above)

android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" (check for network connection)

android.permission.INTERNET" (download weather)

android.permission.VIBRATE" (for zoom feedback on old radar)

android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" (this is Photos/Media/Files listed above)

com.google.android.providers.gsf.permission.READ_GSERVICES" (required by google maps)

Please contact me if you have any further questions or problems.

This is the ad-supported free version of NOAA Weather. You are also limited to 3 saved locations. Upgrade to remove ads and this restriction.