Village Idiot
Newbie
Why all the fascination with weather widgets?
Seems to me as the main function is to show a cute little picture of the current weather. Well, I have a device that does that already- I call it my window. A little low tech, I know, but it was cheap and seems more accurate.
I know they can show you the current weather in other cities, but if you're travelling to another city, you won't be there now, will you? You'll be there at some point in the future, no? If you're there already, try my window trick. It works really well.
And yes, I know you can get cute little pictures for what the weather will be in the next few days. But weather is a hugely complex phenomenon and a cute little picture just isn't capable of conveying very much information. A picture with some snow flakes on it doesn't really tell me if it's going to flurry, or if I'll need to get up early to go plow, or if the highway will be shut down by the time I get out of work. Same with a picture of a few raindrops. Can I still take the bike to work, or do I need to set up the sump pump in the basement?
This goes way past smart phones as well. Our local NPR station gives us the current weather, along with the rest of todays forecast. Sometimes (about half the time) they include tomorrows forecast. Well, I know today's weather. I'm living it. Tomorrow's weather is nice, but what about this weekend? Can I put off mowing the lawn until saturday?
Now I occasionally can get VT Public Radio. They have a great forecast- they tell you what the current weather patterns are doing, how they will develop, and how that will affect us over the next few days. Useful, and interesting. Granted, I'm sure they have a lot more information available to them than just a few pictures, but that's kind of my point.
So. What's with weather widgets?
People without windows?
Double checking reality?
A portal to alternate dimensions that I've been missing out on?
Just curious.
Seems to me as the main function is to show a cute little picture of the current weather. Well, I have a device that does that already- I call it my window. A little low tech, I know, but it was cheap and seems more accurate.
I know they can show you the current weather in other cities, but if you're travelling to another city, you won't be there now, will you? You'll be there at some point in the future, no? If you're there already, try my window trick. It works really well.
And yes, I know you can get cute little pictures for what the weather will be in the next few days. But weather is a hugely complex phenomenon and a cute little picture just isn't capable of conveying very much information. A picture with some snow flakes on it doesn't really tell me if it's going to flurry, or if I'll need to get up early to go plow, or if the highway will be shut down by the time I get out of work. Same with a picture of a few raindrops. Can I still take the bike to work, or do I need to set up the sump pump in the basement?
This goes way past smart phones as well. Our local NPR station gives us the current weather, along with the rest of todays forecast. Sometimes (about half the time) they include tomorrows forecast. Well, I know today's weather. I'm living it. Tomorrow's weather is nice, but what about this weekend? Can I put off mowing the lawn until saturday?
Now I occasionally can get VT Public Radio. They have a great forecast- they tell you what the current weather patterns are doing, how they will develop, and how that will affect us over the next few days. Useful, and interesting. Granted, I'm sure they have a lot more information available to them than just a few pictures, but that's kind of my point.
So. What's with weather widgets?
People without windows?
Double checking reality?
A portal to alternate dimensions that I've been missing out on?
Just curious.
and fwiw there are nice weather widgets that dont cost $ j/s
