“You can’t go wrong by talking about the weather.”

You have probably heard this statement numerous times when looking for tips on starting or maintaining a conversation. And it’s right. People simply like to talk about how sunny it is or how they went for a chilly walk last night.

But in today’s digital age, it’s particularly interesting to talk about digital weather forecasts. Weather forecasting has evolved through the ages. Now, you can access important information about the weather by simply opening an app on your smart phone or tablet. This is a far cry from what it used to be like: waiting for the news program on TV or radio just to hear an educated guess about whether it’s going to rain or not.

While you may not think about it too often, it’s important to realize that digital weather forecasts offer plenty of benefits. Obviously, “on demand” weather forecasts make it easier for the public to prepare their daily activities. You can make adjustments to your schedule after seeing what your weather app tells you.

“Oh, it’s going to rain hard. I’ll just do the grocery tomorrow.”

Of course, this also helps save an incredible amount of time. You don’t have to tune into the TV or radio just to learn what the weather tomorrow will be like. You can simply go on with your life since you can make the necessary preparations at any time.

You must also realize how beneficial digital weather forecasts are when it comes to preparing for extreme weather. By receiving information about hazardous natural calamities, the public can be well informed and take the appropriate precautionary measures to keep safe when need be.

This also enables the government to send out clear warning signals to the public. Hours before a huge storm hits, a public announcement can help save a ton of lives. This also means having the ability to decide whether it’s necessary to evacuate residents to prevent the loss of lives.

Digital weather forecasts also provide numerous economic benefits. In the aviation industry, for one, an accurate forecast of heavy rain and thunderstorms can enable dispatchers to have enough time to reroute airplanes and avoid costly delays.

Farmers also use 24-hour forecasts of the weather to decide whether it’s the right time to deploy certain prevention methods so they can enjoy a higher crop yield.

It’s also interesting to learn about the role of weather forecasts in military operations. It has been written in history that weather conditions can greatly impact the tides of battle. You can find examples of accurate weather forecasts playing a deciding role in the victory of one side.

Today, it’s also possible to check the weather of any country in the world. As long as you have an Internet connection, all you need is a simple search online or a handy mobile app to get all the information you need. This proves extremely useful especially when you’re traveling to another city or country. An accurate forecast allows you to prepare your itinerary accordingly to the weather.

Advancements in technology have also made it possible for online weather forecasts to be updated in real time.

Just five decades ago, scientists had to rely on data from balloons and aircraft to provide a weather forecast. Today, with the help of a series of satellites and computer models that simulate the Earth’s atmosphere, we can now enjoy digital weather forecasts in real time. With the rapid increase in computing power and the acceleration in satellite technology, more accurate predictions of the weather can be expected in the future.

Digital weather forecasts play an important role in everyone’s life every single day. In some cases, they can even prove to be a lifesaver. Instead of taking it for granted, take the time to appreciate how much weather forecasting has evolved over the years and the benefits it brings to our society.

Have you ever noticed that the weather forecast seems to be a mistake an awful lot? There are many grounds for this; most of which could be summed up as “predicting the weather is incredibly hard,” but here are three more detailed explanations as to why weather forecasters can base their predictions on science, but still be so wildly wrong so often.

Weather Forecasters Depend on a Huge Amount of Data

Accurate weather forecasting can only happen if there is a lot of data to back it up. There are 11,000 observation stations spread all over the world measuring the temperature, air pressure, wind speed, humidity, the direction of the wind, rainfall, and some other conditions to try to predict the weather. In addition to the static stations, there are aircraft, weather balloons, satellites and even merchant ships measuring that stuff on the move.

Computers combine that data to try to predict the weather – but if you stop and think about it, tens of thousands of ‘weather stations’ is a small number of stations to cover the entire world.  Predictions are getting better as we get access to more data and build more accurate models – but we’re still a long way from being entirely accurate.

Short Term Predictions are Hard

Another thing that you have to remember is that we’re using scientific models to predict what will happen, and in the medium term those models hold up pretty well. Most people don’t want to know whether “it will rain heavily this week,” they want to know whether they can walk to work or whether they should hop in the car because it will rain in the next hour. The models we have right now, combined with the data that we have access to right now, simply isn’t up to predicting on that sort of scale.

Weather is Always Moving

The other thing that makes it hard to predict the weather is that the weather patterns are always moving. We might know that those pressure patterns are going to cause high winds – but if those patterns are themselves drifting across the map, we don’t know exactly where those trends will hit.  That’s why, when the weather forecasters predict snow, you might be sitting at home looking out at a bitterly cold, windy day with lashing rain, but your friend in the next town across could be enjoying spectacular, beautiful day with peaceful snow falling from the sky.

It’s not that the weather forecast was WRONG, just that it was a few miles out.

As humans, we notice patterns even if they are just pure coincidences, and we see when things affect us more than we notice when things change other people. This means that we will pick up on the times that the weather forecast was wrong and we overheated or got soaking wet because we trusted the broadcast. We overlook the other days of the year when the weather is neutral, and we didn’t pay attention to the forecast at all because “T-shirt weather” and “Slightly warmer t-shirt weather” aren’t enough of a difference for the average person to even know whether the weather forecast was right or wrong.

Once you get used to that idea, and you start paying more attention to the weather forecasts, you will understand that the science we have right now is good when it matters. We can predict tropical storms and hurricanes and give people time to prepare. Yes, there is room for improvement, but we are still in a better position than we used to be even just a few years ago.

If you want to be sure that you can get all of the weather info that you need on a regular basis, it is crucial that you understand the ins and outs of how the use of technology comes into play. If you own an iPhone or any other smartphone, you will be able to get all that you need out of your weather research in a way that shapes your life and helps you out. In this regard, you can apply these five tips below to learn all about how searching for weather info using your phone can be easy for you when you are looking for it.

#1: Widgets

This is a component of your software system that allows you to have frequently updated weather information prominently displayed on your screen. This way, you do not need to go through some applications to get this information. It allows you to know the temperature and the important forecast information for the day.

#2: Weather apps with forecasts

There is some whether applications that will allow you to comb through a variety of forecasts for the weather. You should download the most preferred application that can provide you with all of the weather information that you require. These applications are equipped with everything that you need to get forecast such as a chance of precipitation, temperature highs and lows and so much more. By having these applications on your phone, you will be in a good position to know what to expect from the weather at all times.

#3: Streaming meteorologist forecasts

Sometimes, the best thing you can do is what a broadcast of a weather report for yourself. In the same way that you would tune into your local weather forecasts or a broadcast from the National Weather Service on your television, you can do the same on your application so you can get these forecasts on the go. This is a great way to get specific information that will be useful to you when you need to know what to expect from the weather on a daily or weekly basis.

#4: Travel weather news

When you are traveling from state to state or country to country, there are some applications you can use with your iPhone which will update and also allow you to see the weather forecast ahead of time. By doing this, you will be in good hands when it comes to understanding the temperatures, chances of precipitation, chance of inclement weather and so much more. There are a variety of points of useful information that you will be able to take in with your cell phone alone, and this information will be incredibly useful to you as you make your way with some different travel plans.

With these points, you will be in a great position to get all that you need out of these circumstances and will have all that you require making the absolute best out of your daily life. So much of the decisions we make depends on the weather forecast, so the least you can do is keep this information at the forefront through the use of technology. Handling these four tips will give you all that you need to understand how a weather forecast on your cell phone can be easily accessed through the use of software and applications.