3 Reasons Yahoo Weather is a Must-Have iPad App

Yahoo released some terrific app upgrades in 2013, most notably the gorgeous and extremely cool Yahoo Weather. The free (and ad-free) iOS app was updated this week to take advantage of large iPad screens. Man oh man, did this great weather app get even better.

Here are three reasons why you should add Yahoo Weather to your iPad right now.

(FYI: Yahoo Weather is also available for Android devices but as of this writing, it hasn’t been updated since Nov. 14.)

1. Photos are even more stunning. When you launch Yahoo Weather, you see a spectacular photo that reflects the current weather conditions in your location. If it’s partly cloudy in San Francisco, for instance, you see a photo of San Francisco under partly cloudy skies. While this is also true for Yahoo Weather on other iOS and Android devices, the broader iPad canvas makes photos really pop. By the way, the images come from Yahoo’s Project Weather on Flickr, to which anyone can contribute.

2. More weather data. With those gorgeous photos, it’s easy to forget to app’s true purpose: weather updates. Yahoo again takes full advantage of the larger iPad screen here (especially in landscape mode).

Initially, you get an at-a-glance forecast for the next 24 hours. On an iPhone/iPod touch, you only see the current conditions.

Scrolling down on the iPad (in landscape mode), you see a temperature graph, which you don’t get on an iPhone/iPod touch. The iPad weather app also displays a visual 10-day forecast, compared to the 5-day forecast on smaller iOS screens.

3. More animation. I’m a sucker for animations with a purpose, that convey information, and Yahoo Weather does this particularly well. As you continue to scroll on an iPad, raindrop icons fill based on the chance of rain at different intervals. The water within the drops ripples in gentle waves. Scroll further on the iPad and clouds glide above the churning windmills, which convey the current wind strength. On an iPhone/iPod touch, you get the windmill action but none of the other animations above. All iOS devices also display an animation that shows you where in the sky the sun currently resides.

Is Yahoo Weather the most data-crammed weather app for iPads? Nope. The Weather Channel gives you even more information, including current pollen and flu levels. Also, Yahoo Weather could benefit from app-sync features, which could eliminate the need to set up the same locations on multiple devices.

Even so, there’s no weather app for iOS that’s more pleasurable to use than Yahoo Weather. Yahoo made great strides in 2013 with its apps. I can’t wait to see what it rolls out in 2014.