Howdy Y’all,

We began working to update our free mobile app last summer as it was apparent a refresh was desperately needed. The Android version of our updated app was released no longer after, but the Apple version took much longer due to their strict and rather tedious publishing requirements. We finally published the Apple version of our updated mobile app just before Christmas. Since that time, we’ve quietly been working on a few bugs and getting additional content added.

While we continue to work on adding content and squashing a few bugs I wanted to share some of the new features this updated mobile app will provide as we move toward Spring 2019.

• Functioning HD interactive weather radar
• Ability to integrate live storm chasing videos directly into the app
• Our latest articles regarding upcoming hazardous weather in Texas
• Direct integration with our website’s backend platform – allowing for creative opportunities in the future

We’re still working on a few difficulties with the weather radar. One such issue is that it switches from Google satellite to an open-source street map, even though we have a premium Google Maps API key. That issue might have something to do with our radar provider. A second issue is that the radar may not completely fill the screen’s dimensions. Mainly, that issue occurs when switching from vertical to portrait mode and vice versa. A separate issue not related to the radar, which may just be a misconfiguration on my part, is that our app is not sending out notifications for new articles. I’m not sure if that’s a bug or just a derp on my part, but I want to get that fixed in time for our next active weather period.

Our free mobile app is not meant to replace the weather app that comes with your smartphone. Those provide automatic weather information that we simply can’t beat in terms of a specific forecast or ease of use. Those apps may give a good hour-by-hour forecast, but you need a real human being when Mother Nature gets in a mood. We encourage you to provide feedback in the form of suggestions, complaints, or bug reports regarding not only our mobile app, but our website and services in general. It’s with the feedback we learn what works, what doesn’t work, and what we can do better.

If you’re interested in trying out our mobile app you can download it for free here. Likewise, you can also just search for ‘Texas Storm Chasers’ in your phone’s app store.