Dark Sky
July 19, 2012 at 11:04 PM by Dr. Drang
OK, I know everyone else bought Dark Sky and wrote a glowing post about it months ago. I was skeptical and held off until it went on sale a couple of days ago. I figured I couldn’t go wrong for $2. An understatement.
Last night and this morning we actually got some rain here in the Chicago area, so I had a chance to test Dark Sky. Not only did it predict the comings and goings of our intermittent thunderstorms, it did so with one hand tied behind its back: our local radar station, KLOT, was down due to a (warning: irony ahead) lightning strike. Here’s the NWS notice:
KLOT RADAR WAS POSSIBLY HIT BY LIGHTNING AND IS OUT OF SERVICE…TECHS ARE BEING NOTIFIED. NO ETA FOR RETURN TO SERVICE.
That notice went up at 9:08 last night. Here’s what Dark Sky was showing for radar:
The radar was still down this morning when I drove to work. As I pulled into the parking lot, we were in the middle of an especially strong downpour. I checked Dark Sky to see if it would be over soon. It told me the rain would pass in three minutes, so I waited in the car, listening to some podcast about pizza. While I waited, one of my business partners pulled in next to me, got out of her car, and had to rush to the door to avoid getting soaked. I waited out the full three minutes and sauntered up to the door with only a couple of stray drops hitting me. She now owns a copy of Dark Sky.
The radar came back up this afternoon. I assume this means Dark Sky will be even more accurate than it was this morning, which is, frankly, hard to believe.
