It’s already a habit: looking into the weather app on my smartphone. Is it raining or is the sun shining? How is the coming weekend? But is that always true? The weather experts disagree!
ZDF graduate meteorologist Dr. Katja Horneffer is critical of weather apps. The forecasts of the online services were mostly based on simple model calculations.
“That’s why these apps are completely wrong. Apps have the property that they refer to a weather model – that’s why they can apparently predict the weather 14 days into the future, ”said weather expert Horneffer of the“ Augsburger Allgemeine ”. “But that is only the result from a model.”
Our environmental information–#App provides current weather and flood warnings for locations in #Bayern ready – also as a push notification on the smartphone!
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– Hochwasser.Info.Bayern (@Hochwasser_Info) September 2, 2021
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Expert dispute over the weather apps
Climatologist Dr. Karsten Brandt from Donnerwetter.de says: “I think she’s exaggerating a little. They are not that bad. The forecast is constantly updated in the background for many apps, e.g. for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Apps make ‘weather thinkers lazy’, but they are not fundamentally bad. “
And the criticism of the ZDF expert goes even further: “If an app could do that so easily, then we weather experts wouldn’t need a degree – when making a forecast, we wouldn’t have to take into account many models from which a reasonable forecast can be made. Unfortunately, that’s not always that easy. “
Graduated meteorologist Dominik Jung Graduated meteorologist at the weather service Q.met: “That is thin whistle. If there hadn’t been weather apps, people would probably not have been warned about the flood disaster. “
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Because: As a rule, every weather model is developed and supervised by trained meteorologists. So there is actually specialist knowledge behind all weather models.
Meteorologist Jürgen Schmidt from WetterKontor explains to BILD: “There are apps that are programmed by companies in such a way that they pull the grid point data of the American weather model (DMO = Direct Model Output) and convert it into forecasts.”
This means: A postcode / city is then assigned the next possible grid point. The update takes place four times a day with the latest data. But then no meteorologist intervenes. These are then often the pre-installed apps on the cell phones.
Graduate meteorologist Andreas Friedrich from the German Weather Service says about BILD: “I think a lot of weather apps, especially if you use the right ones, such as the DWD warning weather app. It actively warns me of dangerous weather, no matter where I am. During the excursion in nature, the rain radar helps me plan my tour without getting wet. With the 10-day forecast for my desired location, I can plan my weekend activities in advance.“
And weather expert Schmidt also says: “There are good apps for Germany. Meteorologists are involved here and check the computer data again and remove known standard errors from the models. “
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And weather expert Jung says: “Anyone can present the weather on TV if they can talk about it a little. My opinion. Of course, weather apps can only ever refer to one model and decide on one, how could it be otherwise? An app cannot say: The cool weather change in Berlin could come at the weekend, but according to the XY model, it is unsafe. How do you want to put that in an app? “
Weather apps are good companions throughout the day, says meteorologist Jung on BILD. Many apps issue weather warnings promptly for the region where you are currently traveling. Not everyone watches the ZDF weather in the evening. That is way too spacious! I don’t see the weather for my place.
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