Montreal-based app developer Sky Motion Research Inc. has released a weather forecasting app that delivers predictions accurate to within one-square-kilometer of a user’s position.
The app is trying to address the uncertainty around weather predictions and the P.O.P. or probability of precipitation. While there are more than 2,800 apps available for weather in the App Store, there’s less than 100 meteorology services providing that data. But SkyMotion has a new approach to short-tearm weather forecasting that borrows technology from the computer graphic and videogame industries.
Most weather forecasters do mathematical modeling and data crunching before taking radar observation into account, the firm says. Sky Motion flips it around and does radar observation first. It that applies a computer analysis to the radar maps. The technology attempts to track every rain cloud across North America and provide real-time results.
Sky Motion’s app delivers localized forecasts every five minutes.
The result is an app that tells you how heavy the rain is in your immediate area, and how many minutes it will last for. The forecasts are updated every five minutes.
Maxime Julien is the CEO of Sky Motion, founded in 2008, and was previously the chief operations officer at Electronic Arts and the vice-president of operations at Ubisoft.
Sky Motion’s iOS app is available for free in the App Store and can be accessed on the Web.
