Official app gives up to the minute local weather
(CNS): The Cayman Islands National weather service has launched a new free-to-download mobile app with a simple interface giving up-to-the-minute updates on weather throughout the day. Available for iOS, blackberry and android platforms it includes the temperature, conditions, precipitation or cloudiness, the current radar images, the 5 day forecast with wind speed and direction, sea conditions and times for sunrise and sunset. “When people are going about their daily business they want a forecast that will indicate possible weather changes in the future,” said National weather service Director General John Tibbetts.
“With this in mind, the app gives users three options enabling them to check for either the current weather, current radar or a 5 day forecast,” he added.
Tibbetts explained that the current radar tab provided a graphical image of possible rainfall over and around the Cayman Islands, while the five day forecast gave a summarised overview of anticipated weather conditions for the week ahead. During hurricane season or in instances where severe weather is anticipated, the app will also carry marine and flood warnings as well as hurricane warnings to ensure residents can be informed and prepared.
“The weather app is a convenient portal for getting weather information that is specific to the Cayman Islands out to the general public and is intended to service a number of needs,” said the tourism minister Moses Kirkconnell, whose portfolio includes the National Weather Service.
“As well as enhancing people’s safety both on land and at sea by alerting them of impending weather events, the forecasts also have significant relevance to the aviation industry and can evenhelp to reduce uncertainty when planning ahead for events by allowing time for contingencies to be put in place if needs be,” he added.
The app was developed as part of the Weather Radar Project which gave the Cayman Islands Airports Authority (CIAA) access to US$5.5 million (€4.16 million) from the European Commission (EC) for the purpose of the installation of an early warning Doppler radar system.
Category: Science and Nature
I already installed this app to check real time weather report in my iPhone. The load time of this app is too much so i don't like this app.
The people of the Cayman Islands need to demand MORE for their money. This "app" does not take any code at all – they are only pulling from the website! This is not what apps are supposed to accomplish.
Nevermind the very blatant fact that the Cayman Islands are comprised of THREE islands. Not one, not two – THREE. Now, I can be in West Bay and my chum can be in East End and we can be talking on the phone and both be experiencing two different types of weather. Sunny in one part and raining in the other. Can you imagine the differences from Cayman Brac, to Little Cayman to Grand Cayman!?!?!??!
Remember Hurricane Paloma? Remember Hurricane Ivan? Look at the differences experienced by all THREE islands.
Anon 0919 the radar has three distances and two of them cover the Sister Islands.
While the Weathe Serice does not produce a forecast specifc to the sister isIlands the servic produces a single forecast for the enire Cayman Island and there are times when the forecaster spciies weather coditions for the sister Islands.
Looks like 80s "Pong" quality. Very poor.
Absolutely right on! The Sister Islands, as ususal, are an afterthought and treated like they do not exist. It would be very simple to include CYB local conditions and forecasts. I have a couple of other weather apps that include CYB/Gerrard Smith Int'l Airport.
I never go to the Cayman WS site for radar or local conditions anyway. My iPhone native weather app has local conditions and forecasts at a glance via a slide down pane that gives info for GCM/Owen Roberts A/P as well as weather of locales I have chosen where I have friends and loved ones. And guess what? The native iPhone weather app includes local conditions for CYB/Gerrard Smith Airport in Cayman Brac!
By the way, an app called Agouti, an app providing local Cayman Islands information, has not only local weather, but also news feeds and even gas prices. So why even bother with the redundant and not so very useful CIWS app?
One of my beefs with the CIWS app's radar images is that the CIWS radar is supposed to be a state-of-the-art system. Yet, the app and online images look like a base resolution VGA image from an old x286 destop display or an Atari 2600 console. My preference for radar is the Cuban Weather Service Radar. The Cuban Ismet site gives well-updated images with the option to choose a mosaic ("Mosaico") with coverage consisting of images from several overlapping stations in Cuba spliced into one screen. The time tick is in Cuba DST rather than Zulu.
I could be wrong but I am of the opinion that the reason the Cayman Radar looks like what one commenter called "Pong", is that when the site went up, initially the page image of the radar took a little short of eternity to load. So now it appears that they compressed the images into a PDF slideshow. The image quality suffers a lot in the conversion.
Speaking of iOS versions supported: Now to take the CIWS morons to task for some real home-grown pure numbskull brain-dead stupidity related to their weather app. It would appear that the app can only be used by those platforms that have been upgraded to iOS 7.0. In addition, it would also appear that the app cannot be used by owners of the iPhone 3GS and fourth-generation iPod touch or earlier platforms; it can only be used on later platforms. For an app that justifices its existence as being a supplier of weather information to the wider Cayman Islands populace, this seems rather exclusionary and elitist. You can use the Cayman Weather Service app only if you are wealthy enough to afford the latest hardware running the latest operating system. This is utter foolishness!
I do not see how this product can deliver value for dollar unless the cost to develop, maintain and deliver it is dirt-cheap. Should be dirt cheap because this app looks more like something designed for iOS 1.1.5. and it reacheds a technology-limited segment of the population. So, CNS, why not do an FOI request as to how much distributing and supporting this app is costing us?
LOL! Who is still using an iPhone from 2009? If your phone can't run the latest from Apple or the like, you can't run 90%+ of the most popular apps anyway. You are missing way more than the CIWS app. Yes, the weather app completely misses the point of what a mobile app should be, but at least the information is accurate.
I really like this app! It took a bit to load the first time but I really like the current radar and how simple this app is to use.
Thanks
I found the app rather helpful and it loaded very quick on my S3.
Pinch to zoom would be a nice feature to add but overall it works and does its inteded purpose.
Now I can make my beach plans a week in advance. Good job CINWS.
The app is cheesy.
It is slow loading and does not have zoom features, so on the iPhone I can barely see the radar even with magnifying glasses.
How about a higher resolution of the online radar and make it real time?!!
Radar seemed real time to me?
It is not, unfortunately.
Have a look at the time shown on the radar (which is Zulu time) and then compare it with the current time. It is usually a 30 minute difference.
I will say that I am thankful that we have, a Doppler radar, but the information provided to the public calls for improvement.
I found it and it is terrible. Just as bad, if not worse than the other apps made by this company. Totally not fit for market at today's standards. Just embarassing. I'd like to see someone do an FOI on the cost of this 5 screen app. There are way more technical companies developing, with today's innovations,better apps than this pixelated crap. What a waste of money that could be used towards something really useful. Does the government not put anything out for tender any more or do they just throw money at the nearest developer to keep their lives easy. Sad. I would be embarassed to put my name on this app.
You're right. I checked it out and just uninstalled it. A piece of junk. I'll continue to use weather underground's app which is fantastic and lo and behold, can be used for any location.
Here are the links to IOS,BB,Android
Heraehttps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cayman-weather/id897545695?mt=8
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/58391259
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=oneapp.caymanweather
Search Cayman Weather in play store for Android phones. Mine downloaded in like 2 seconds and loaded rather quickly also
Why waste time, it's simple!
November to May " it's gonna be hot, damn hot"
June to October " it's gonna be hot, damn hot, might rain and blow, might not"
the app is called ( cayman weather), it’s available in your app store on your phone, enjoy guys.
Where's the link to this app?
The weather app is called "Cayman Weather".
Improvements for the app can be expected in the near future.
I have loaded the android app on my Galaxy S5 and it is for sure "not ready for prime time" yet. Slow to load and some pages do not completely load. I thnk they might have jumped the gun on releasing it before complete testing. I hope they get it working it looks like it good be good. But now it is not.
thats great…what is the name of the app however?
WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE APP???
How about mentioning what the hell the app is called….
Does it require another app to search for this weather app or is it secret, still in beta stage, or only available to CIG, friends and family of CS and the like? What's the point of reporting on a failed to launch app? Throw me a bone here. Where's the link CNS?
It is called “Cayman Weather”