GENERAL

How can I turn on severe weather alerts notification sounds?

These sounds can be turned on via Weather Settings>Sounds>Severe Weather Alerts Notification Sounds.

The temperature in Weather Mate is being displayed in Celsius. Can I change it to Fahrenheit?

Access Weather Settings>Weather Units>Temperature. Here you can choose the temperature unit of your own preference.

I want the visibility to be displayed in terms of miles.

Move on to Weather Settings>Weather Units>Visibility. Weather Mate allows you to choose either Km or miles as your units for visibility.

What units of Pressure and Wind Speed are supported in Weather Mate?

Pressure: mm, inches, mbar, hPa

Wind Speed: km/h,mph, m/s, knots, beaufort
These can be changed from Weather Settings>Weather Units.

How can I enable sounds in Weather Mate?

Sounds can be enabled in Weather Mate from Weather Settings>Sounds>Sound Effects.

The clock is displaying 12-hour format. Can I change it to 24-hour format?

The clock format can be changed from Weather Settings>Clock>24-Hour Format.

I am viewing the weather conditions for a location other than my current location but the app is displaying my local timing.

If you want Weather Mate to display the timing of your selected location, move onto Weather Settings>Clock>Display Local Time. Here, by turning it off, you will be able to get the timing of your selected location.

I want to view the extended daily forecast whenever I log into the app.

Go to Weather Settings>Miscellaneous and enable Show Extended Daily Forecast by Default When the App Starts.

Can I change the screen brightness from within Weather Mate?

Weather Mate allows you to change your screen brightness from Weather Settings>Miscellaneous>Brightness. It can be increased or decreased using the slider control.

What version of Weather Mate am I using?

In order to get to know the version of Weather Mate that you are using, head over to the Support tab and select About Weather Mate.

How to update the weather data manually?

Weather data is automatically updated every 10 minutes. However, if you want to update it manually move onto Locations>Manual Weather Update. Here, tap on the Update Weather Data Now.

PERSONAL WEATHER STATIONS

What are Weather Stations?

WeatherMate utilizes the data contributed by more than 33,000 stations to add to the specificity of weather reports. Hence, accurate, reliable and hyper-local information about the current atmospheric conditions and predictions about future weather can be obtained by virtue of this feature.

What is meant by Weather Stations at Airports?

High-end weather observing instruments are installed on airports and are used for forecasting weather and monitoring aviation and meteorological conditions. Based on the data disseminated by these stations, weather observations and updates reach the majority of the common public. However, depending on the location of the airports, a common weather observer might be present at either a near or distant place.

What are Personal Weather Stations?

Personal weather stations have been set up by weather enthusiasts in a number of neighborhoods all throughout the US. Therefore, if someone wishes to know about the weather conditions of one’s locality, more accurate information could be retrieved from the weather station installed in the nearby neighborhood.

How can I choose weather station for a certain location?

Weather Station can be added for a certain location in a couple of ways.

  • In the locations menu, tap on the settings button opposite your selected location. Here, in the Location Settings menu, tap on the Weather Station option to access to choose the Weather Station. You can choose from among the lists of Weather Stations at Airports or Personal Weather Stations.
  • Tap on the Weather Stations button in the header on the Weather Mate’s main screen. You will be directed to Choose a Weather Station menu from where you can select either a weather station at airport or personal weather station.

HI-DEF RADAR MAPS

What are weather maps?

Weather maps display disparate meteorological features to give the reader sufficient information about the past, prevalent or forth-coming weather conditions. The fluid responsive weather maps in WeatherMate include numerous layer options to portray multiple information streams simultaneously. These encompass real-time high-definition animated radar images, Satellite, Severe Alerts, Weather Stations, Fronts, Fire Risk, Active Fires, Hurricane, Webcams, Lightning, Tornadoes, Storms and Earthquakes.

What map types are available in the weather maps feature and how can I choose them?

Three types of weather maps are available in Weather Mate. These include Standard Maps, Satellite Maps and Hybrid Maps. In order to choose the map type of your own preference, tap the Map Settings tab on the weather maps’ default screen. By default, standard maps are shown in Weather Mate.

How can I find my location on the weather maps?

In the map settings menu, check the Show Marker at My Current Location option.

What are radar maps overlays?

This feature makes use of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Weather Radars encompassing the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

How can I customize Radar Map Settings?

A user can alter the Radar Map Settings by tapping on the arrow head appearing adjacent to the Radar overlay option in Map Layer Settings.

What do you mean by Base Reflectivity Images?

Base reflectivity images display the intensity of the received radar beam after striking an object. It is used to measure precipitation.

What is meant by NEXRAD?

NEXRAD (NEXt Generation RADar) is a type of weather radar imagery used to determine both precipitation and wind.

I do not understand the different options given under Base Reflectivity-NEXRAD. How are they distinct from each other?

  • N0R, N1R, N2R, N3R and N0Z are the names of the various radar imageries.
  • 124 NMI is the short RANGE of the radar which is measured in Nautical Miles (NMI). If a user wants to see precipitation at larger distances, 248 NMI (long range) should be selected.
  • The four angles 0.5, 1.45, 2.40 and 3.35 are actually the radar tilt angles. In simple terms, a tilt angle of 0.5 would mean that the radar’s antenna is tilted 0.5 above the horizon.

What does TDWR stand for?

Terminal Drop Weather Radar (TDWR) is an advance technology which has higher resolution and can see details in much fine detail closer to the radar.

I do not understand the different options given under Base Reflectivity-TDWR. How are they distinct from each other?

  • TR0, TR1, TR2 and TZL are different radar imageries that can be viewed using this technology.
  • Its area of high resolution coverage for short range is 48 NMI and that for long range is 225 NMI.
  • Low tilt, medium tilt, high tilt and 0.66 represent the radar antenna’s tilt.

How to change the transparency levels of radar map layer?

In the radar map settings menu, transparency levels can be increased or decreased using the slider for Overlay Opacity.

I want to see more than just a few frames from the last few hours in weather radar maps.

You can adjust the Total Frames in the Radar Map Settings menu as per your choice. By default, the Total Frames are set to 6.

How to change animation speed of radar animations?

In order to vary the animation speed, head over to the Radar Map Settings>Animation Speed. By animation speed, we mean the number of seconds it would take for a frame to load.

I am not able to zoom in/out or pan smoothly in the maps.

Check the Smoothing option in Radar Maps Settings to ensure smooth zooming and panning.

I don’t have any idea what Radar Detected Storms are?

This overlay shows the storm tracks and also displays the attributes of a storm in tabular form. This table is actually a product derived from NEXRAD imaging and attempts to identify storm cell.

How can I know about the possibility of Hurricane in my area?

The hurricane map layer portrays storms of different categories including invest, tropical depression, tropical storm and categories from 1 to 5; current hurricane location; wind radius; and possible storm centre locations.

Which satellite imageries are available in Weather Mate to identify active fires?

You can either choose imagery from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) World Satellites or North American World Satellites.

What are Active Fire overlays? How do they differ from Fire Risk overlays?

The active fire maps layer provides an overview of the wildland fire situation along with information regarding the density of smoke in the event that a fire is detected. This layer basically furnishes information about fire activity identified by passing satellite over a certain region.

I want to know about the Fire Risk situation about my area?

The Fire Risk overlays can help you in this regard as they provide you with information on fire danger rating, lower atmosphere stability, keetch-byram drought index and dead fuel moistures.

How can I use Weather Fronts overlays to predict about weather conditions?

Fronts, on a weather map, represent the boundary between two masses of air with contrasting temperature and/or humidity levels. They are important as they depict variations in weather conditions leading to clouds, rains and other significant weather events. In Weather Mate, warm fronts, cold fronts, occluded fronts, stationary fronts and troughs are displayed.

What information can I get from the Weather Stations overlays?

You can extract a diverse range of information from these weather stations such as temperature, wind speed, wind gusts, wind direction, precipitation, dew point, humidity, heat index and pressure.

What is meant by temperature gradient?

It describes the direction and the rate at which the temperature varies with respect to displacement across a certain boundary. It is a vector quantity having direction from cold to hot region.

What severe weather alerts can I view in weather maps?

You can choose severe weather alert types from among a variety of options including air quality and pollution, fire, flood, fog, heat, hurricane, lake and marine, severe storms, special statements and wind. Warnings, statements and watches are also available for tropical cyclones and tornadoes.

Are there any customization options available for Satellite overlays in Weather Mate?

The app allows the user to customize the overlay opacity (in terms of percentage), animation speed (in seconds/frame), total number of frames to be shown in animation and its sensitivity.

What is the difference between infrared and visible satellite images?

In infrared satellite images, the clouds are depicted by their temperature. Infrared satellite images are available for the entire day. Visible satellite images are exactly as seen from space and can only be obtained during the daylight.

How to retrieve storm data from radar?

In map layer settings, select Radar Detected Storms overlays. Once the maps have been loaded, tap on the tiny polygons emanating greyish radar beams to access data relevant to radar detected storms.

What are webcam overlays?

Using this feature, weather conditions can be viewed from webcams in different parts of the world.

I have selected certain map layers but they are not being displayed.

Some features like Lightning, Tornadoes, Storm Reports and Weather Fronts are for our users in USA and Canada. So, if you happen to be at some other location other than the two aforementioned countries, these map overlays will not be shown for your locations.

I want to share the displayed weather map with my friends?

You can share your current map screen via Facebook, Twitter and Email by tapping on the Share Screen icon in the header.

Can I move directly to my current location in the map?

In the weather maps, tap on the Compass Needle icon in the header, to traverse directly to your current location.

Certain symbols or icons in the maps do not make any sense to me.

Tap on the Legend button adjacent to the Map Layers menu. The legend contains all the relevant descriptions and interpretations for symbols and icons used in the various layers of weather maps. Whenever, you select a new maps layer, you can open the legend to help you read the map properly. If multiple layers have been opened, the legend will display information regarding all the opened layers.

WEATHER HISTORY

What is Weather History feature in Weather Mate?

You can get access to extensive archives of weather data pertinent to locations all over the globe and use it to make your own educated guess regarding the future weather conditions of any location.

TRAVEL PLANNER

What is travel planner feature?

This feature makes use of the historical weather trends for a certain location between specified dates of the year to present a reliable, accurate and hyper-local weather forecast. Hence, you can plan your trips while keeping in mind the weather perspective as well.

How can I access the travel planner?

Travel Planner can be accessed by tapping onto its icon in the top right corner of the Weather Mate’s main screen.

Travel Planner is displaying an error for my specified dates.

Travel Planner requires the start and end dates to not exceed 30 days period.

SEVERE WEATHER ALERTS

I’m not getting severe weather alerts for my location despite having enabled them.

Severe weather alerts, warnings, watches, statements and advisories reach you from National Weather Service (USA/Canada) and MeteoAlarm (Europe).

Can I receive severe weather alerts for individual locations?

You can receive severe weather alerts by triggering the “Severe Weather Push Notification Alerts” on from the Location Settings menu. This can be done for all the added locations.

What severe weather alerts can I view in weather maps?

You can choose severe weather alert types from among a variety of options including air quality and pollution, fire, flood, fog, heat, hurricane, lake and marine, severe storms, special statements and wind. Warnings, statements and watches are also available for tropical cyclones and tornadoes.

How can I turn on severe weather alerts notification sounds?

These sounds can be turned on via Weather Settings>Sounds>Severe Weather Alerts Notification Sounds.

AUTO DETECTION OF CURRENT LOCATION

Weather Mate is not detecting my current location automatically. What should I do?

In order to make Weather Mate detect your current location automatically, access the Locations tab in Weather Mate settings menu and enable Auto Detect Current Location button.

How to add multiple locations in Weather Mate?

If you want to stay updated with the meteorological details of locations other than your current location, Weather Mate lets you add more locations. In the Locations menu, tap on the Plus button (+) to add your desired location.

I do not want to view weather conditions for a certain location anymore. Can I delete it?

Tap on the settings button adjacent to the desired location and give another tap tap on the “Delete This Location” button.

Is it possible to delete multiple locations?

In the Locations menu, tap on the Edit button in the header and subsequently select the desired locations to delete them.

Can I receive severe weather alerts for individual locations?

You can receive severe weather alerts by triggering the “Severe Weather Push Notification Alerts” on from the Location Settings menu. This can be done for all the added locations.

I want Weather Mate to display weather details for my desired location on the main screen instead of my current location whenever I log into the app.

You can manually set your desired location as default by accessing the Locations menu in the apps’ settings. Switch off the Auto Detect Current Location button and tap on your desired location to set it as your default location. Weather Mate will then display the weather forecasts for your default location on the main screen.

How to view weather details for multiple locations?

Weather details for different locations can be viewed by swiping horizontally across the Weather Mate screen. This will navigate you to your weather forecasts for the added locations.

How can I choose weather station for a certain location?

Weather Station can be added for a certain location in a couple of ways.

  • In the locations menu, tap on the settings button opposite your selected location. Here, in the Location Settings menu, tap on the Weather Station option to access to choose the Weather Station. You can choose from among the lists of Weather Stations at Airports or Personal Weather Stations.
  • Tap on the Weather Stations button in the header on the Weather Mate’s main screen. You will be directed to Choose a Weather Station menu from where you can select either a weather station at airport or personal weather station.

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADIO (USA ONLY)

What is National Weather Service Radio?

It is a radio service which broadcasts the warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information issued by National Weather Service over a network of more than 425 stations with almost 1025 transmitters.

What frequencies are used by NWS Radio?

The radio broadcasts are transmitted at seven specific frequencies in the VHF range for which dedicated radio  receivers are required. However, with Weather Mate, you can listen to the radio broadcast direct from your iOS device.

I am not able to listen to all of the NWS radio stations.

You can only listen to the weather radio stations near your current location.

How do I adjust the audio levels of the radio player?

A volume control slider bar is given below the list of radio stations which can be used to increase or decrease the sound of the radio station.

I want to listen to another radio station in the list.

Tap on the pause button opposite the channel being played and then select the desired radio station to be played.

CURRENT TEMPERATURE ON HOME SCREEN

I am not able to see the temperature on home screen?

In order to view the temperature on home screen icon’s badge, enable the Show Temperature on Home Screen Icon’s Badge from Weather Settings menu.

The temperature on home screen icon’s badge is being displayed in Celsius. Can I change it to Fahrenheit?

Access Weather Settings>Weather Units>Temperature. Here you can choose the temperature unit of your own preference.

The actual temperature outside is below zero degrees but Weather Mate is showing it as positive instead of negative on the home screen icon’s badge.

Due to restrictions posed by iOS, negative numbers cannot be displayed on the home screen icon’s badge. You have the following options to display negative temperature on the badge:

  • Show negative temperature as positive on badge (-5 will be shown as 5)
  • Append 7000 to negative temperature on badge (-5 will be shown as 7005. 0 will be shown as 7000)
  • Do not show negative temperature on home screen badge

These options can be reached through Weather Settings>Temperature on Home Screen Icon’s Badge.

With the negative temperature shown as positive or 7000 appended to negative temperature on badge, how would I know when the temperature goes below or above 0 degrees?

You can subscribe to Freeze Alert which has been designed to notify you when the temperature goes below or above 0 degrees. This option can be reached through Weather Settings>Temperature on Home Screen Icon’s Badge>Freeze Alert.

Widget & Text-Only Screen Modes

How can I choose my weather widget style?

You can choose from among Basic, Advanced and Text-Only weather widget styles from the Weather Settings.

What is Basic Weather Widget Style?

This widget style stacks up for you only the most general weather information including maximum and minimum temperature, wind direction, wind speed and forecast for the coming week.

What is Advanced Weather Widget Style?

This widget style tries to jam just about every aspect of weather on a single widget. This includes maximum and minimum temperature, wind direction, wind speed, precipitation, humidity, cloud cover, wind chill, sunrise, sunset, visibility, pressure, UV index, dewpoint and forecast for the coming week. Moreover, descriptive forecasts can also be retrieved for day and night for each day in the coming week right from the widget.

What is Text-Only Screen mode?

In this mode, merely maximum and minimum temperature forecasts can be viewed with limited text.

SCREEN SHARING OPTIONS

How can I access screen sharing option?

Screen sharing options can be accessed in a couple of ways:

  • Tap on the Screen Sharing options in the header on the main screen
  • In the weather maps feature, tap on the Screen Sharing option in the header.

What social media platforms can I use to share my photos in Weather Mate?

Screens can be shared via Facebook, Twitter and Email.

WEATHER ANNOUNCEMENT

How can I listen to the Weather Announcement?

You can listen to the weather announcement in two ways:

  • Tapping on the main screen thrice
  • Tapping on the weather announcement button in the header on the main screen

Can I change the accent of the weather announcement?

Weather Mate provides multiple options for voicings and speech accent which include US Male, US Female, UK Male and UK Female. These can be selected from Weather Settings>Sounds>Speech Accent

STUNNING WEATHER BACKGROUNDS

How to switch on background animations?

In order to trigger on background animations, head over to Weather Settings>Weather Screen Background>Background Animations

What background types are available in Weather Mate?

You can either select a default weather background or go for your custom background via Weather Settings>Weather Screen Background>Background Types.

How can I select my custom background?

Move on to Weather Settings>Weather Screen Background>Weather Types>Custom Background. Here, the app gives you the option to either choose your picture from Photo Library or capture an image your device’s camera.