Winter is not leaving quietly. Boston was flooded by Winter Storm Riley, with seven dead and two million left without power, and current weather reports point to it being the rest of the mid-Atlantic’s turn in the barrel this week, with a third nor’easter possibly getting ready to strike Monday. So as March hits, have these five apps handy.
5) Weather Underground
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf_sV5Mli5M/
A good all-purpose weather app in general, Weather Underground is particularly useful during extreme events. The app uses home weather stations set up by enthusiasts to provide hyper-local forecasts and conditions. The downside is that the crowdsourcing method it uses means that you should check to ensure there are enough of those enthusiasts around to give you good weather data.
4) Battery Doctor
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf_sX7khCrd/
When you’re in a storm, a dead phone is a problem. Battery Doctor will help you kill energy vampires, so you save your electrons for those emergency situations.
3) First Aid By Red Cross
Blizzards and storms can trap ambulances and make access to medical care a nightmare. So have this guide handy to walk you through basic triage.
2) Windguru
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf_sSzqHpv0/
Sometimes it’s not the snow and rain you need to worry about. It’s the wind. Windguru is an app that offers exhaustive local wind data where you live, so you can figure out if there’s an emergency that has nothing to do with whether rain is falling.
1) Radarscope
Radarscope is what it sounds like: The live, raw feed of local radar, so you can see where a storm is in your area, and more importantly, where it’s going. It’s handy to have in general, but during a winter storm, it’s indispensable for figuring out how safe it might be to drive, what the conditions will be over the next few hours, and other useful data.