We’re obsessed with looking down at our phones to see what will happen in the skies above but with so many options, which should you choose?
As wildfires abroad contrast with the wet British summer of recent weeks, it is to a new national obsession that we are turning: weather apps. Is the heatwave coming here? When will we see the sun shine again? What are the pollen levels going to be when I’m having tea in Aunt Mabel’s garden at 4.12pm on the next Saturday but one?
Never have we had more easily-accessible information about the weather than we do today. Temperature, wind speed, wind direction, cloud cover, chance of rain, visibility, pollen, UV rays, air pollution, air humidity and air pressure: forecasts for all of this are available to us up to two weeks in advance at just a few taps of a mobile phone.
Britain’s new fixation means big business for the tech companies behind the apps. Some estimate there are more than 10,000 different weather apps available on iPhone and Android devices alone, while data firm Statista predicts they will generate £1.2bn in revenue this year, up from £400m just six years ago. Wherever you sit in the broad church from Met Office devotees and BBC purists, to Weather Channel enthusiasts and AccuWeather sticklers, big weather has all of us in its grip.
Deep down, however, many of us know that our weather app mania borders on the irrational. Yet still we place our faith in them despite the regularity of their inaccurate prophecies. One unlucky friend recently called off a long-planned barbecue because her app of choice predicted cats and dogs, only for the sun to shine all day long.