Given this well-established and growing market for device-specific weather applications for wireless devices, NWS is declaring a hold on use of any NWS resources, including on-duty time of NWS employees, to develop such applications. Many of them use National Weather Service (NWS) warnings and other weather products and some explicitly identify NWS as the source of their information. Many of them are provided at little or no cost. There are thousands of weather applications available for iPhone, Android, iPad, and similar wireless devices. Since December 21, 2011, the Weather Service has prohibited its employees from developing apps for specific mobile devices.Įmployees received a pre-holiday memo from Weather Service deputy director Laura K. The agency has only recently embraced social media, and it has an increasing Facebook presence. In light of recent developments in communications technology, it seems rather strange that NOAA hasn’t developed a comprehensive weather app of its own.

The Weather Service itself does not currently have an iPhone or an Android app, despite the explosive growth in the use of these devices, and the fact that many more people already rely on them for hazardous weather information than, say, NOAA Weather Radio. The vast majority of these weather apps are made by private companies, using data provided by the National Weather Service and other sources.

There are hundreds - perhaps thousands - of them, for mobile phones, tablet PCs, e-readers, and other portable electronic devices.

Download the weather channel radio