Whenever I travel around the country or in any local city, I make sure that I always monitor the weather forecast first, because it will help me to prepare and bring the things I need, also it will prompt me to avoid to travel if the weather is not good on a certain day. But if ever that I need to leave right now and I saw that it will be rainy in Pampanga, all I need to do is gear up with my rain boots, jacket, and an umbrella to make sure that I will reach my destination all dried and protected against the rain.
In the past we rely on weather forecast online with the use of Accu weather and PAGASA, our government owned weather forecast agency. There are times that the forecast is not accurate and we really need an accurate weather monitoring system to tell us the weather condition in every hour in each city, town and province in the Philippines.
Enter: WeatherPhilippines app.
An app developed and produced by WeatherPhilippines, its the country's premier weather sensing and forecasting system that is made possible by the latest tech and powered by a top weather forecasting organization based in Europe - MeteoGroup. They do the data translation that comes from our country and also beaming us back the right weather data every day.
WeatherPhilippines started on 2012 and founded by Aboitiz Foundation, Union Bank and Meteogroup.
Last year, they installed 750 Automated Weather Stations (AWS) nationwide, these weather stations are very helpful in gathering weather data to provide an accurate weather forecast. Thanks to the 568 LGUs and private sector companies for collaborating with WeatherPhilippines to bring a #WeatherWiser nation.
”Poised to be the trusted, most reliable private weather information organization in the Philippines, the WeatherPhilippines Foundation (WPF) aims to strengthen the country's disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation capabilities by providing localized and accurate weather information to the Filipino public. Our mission is to positively contribute to the Philippine society and economy by operating a premiere weather forecasting system that will provide free weather information as public service for Filipinos in an effort to reduce risks of calamities associated with adverse weather conditions.” - WPF
I’m aware that we have private weather forecasters in the Philippines, I know another corporation who have their own set of weather stations installed around the Philippines, but I’m not sure how many weather stations they have, but for WeatherPhilippines they actually beat PAGASA’s 11 weather station (not an accurate count, but I did some count based on http://weather.com.ph/ )
The next target for WeatherPhilippines is to install 1,000 weather stations this 2015 around the country and hopefully they can set up more for the Mindanao region.
The app is available in Android and iOS
and you can download it for FREE
Android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.raksoct.weatherphilippines&hl=en
iOS - https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1006516627
You can also access the weather updates and forecast via
Official website - http://weather.com.ph/
Facebook page -- https://www.facebook.com/weather.com.ph/I
Weather stations – they install this in the mountains to monitor the weather and localize thunderstorms. The white tall rod is a lightning detector that gets data if a certain province will experience a localize thunderstorm
These weather stations are powered by a Sim card that sends data wirelessly to WeatherPhilippines stations.
I downloaded this app last Friday and I did some testing to see how accurate it is. Lia and Faye of WeatherPhilippines mentioned to me that the accuracy level of their weather stations are 85%.
Here I first learned that they are funded by Aboitiz Power and some corporations.
Here’s our weather report on that day in QC.
The WeatherPhilippines app displays 4 advanced days for the weather forecasting.
Here’s our weather forecast yesterday and it did rain at around 5pm here in Bacoor, Cavite.
But not as heavy, but we made sure we were home before 5pm. This app is really works.
The app can change colors depends on the weather condition of your area. The app uses your GPS location to determine your weather, but you can navigate and select provincial areas to know the weather forecast.
Green – normal
Yellow – Weather watch
Orange – Moderate
Red – heavy
Violet – Extreme
It’s the same color data used by PAGASA.
Travel bloggers hands on with the weather app as they are assisted by Lia
Nonoy Floresca acted as weather report man that day hahaha.
We tested the app here in Anvaya Cove, Morong, Bataan.
just read a disclaimer from their website:
”Information based on data collected by Weather Philippines Foundation, Inc. shall not be taken as official data. Weather information broadcasted and distributed by PAGASA remains as official data. Weather Philippines shall not be responsible for the private use and reliance of its weather information”
WeatherPhilippines app and web is a good source for other weather news and forecasting, although that our official is PAGASA, we still use their own data because they are from the government, but if you need another option or shall I say, a 2nd opinion, then WeatherPhilippines is a good 2nd choice for your FREE weather monitoring service.
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