Suggestions for Windows Phone or Windows 10 app and game reviews on Windows Central come from a variety of sources. We get tipped by developers, find titles to review by surfing the Windows Store and get tips from our readers.
The other day we offered up a collection of Windows apps that featured some of the top rated weather apps. In the comments, a reader asked why the Windows app Forecast HD was never included in these roundups. It sparked our curiosity and after using Forecast HD for a few days we can see the appeal this Windows weather app has.
Forecast HD is a simple weather app that does a good job of delivering your current conditions and extended forecast to your Windows computer. While it lacks weather radar or alerts, it does have Live Tile support and plenty of customizations to help the app match your style and needs.
The primary screen for Forecast HD displays your current conditions, forecasted conditions a few hours away, a seven-day forecast and an hourly breakdown of the seven-day forecast.
Current conditions include the temperature, wind speed and direction, visibility, humidity, dew point, barometric pressure and sunrise/sunset times. You will also see any measurable precipitation, a brief description of the conditions outside and a "feels like" temperature.
The Windows 10 hamburger menu will reveal options to access the app commands, share a screenshot of the app and tap into Forecast HD's settings. App commands cover your forecast location settings that include using your current location, marking a location as a favorite for easy access, set a location as the default and pin a location to your Start Menu. You can search for locations from the magnifying glass (search field) off the primary screen.
Setting for Forecast HD includes:
- General Settings; These options cover your language, what location to use on startup and location services settings.
- Weather: Choose which weather services to use. Forecast HD can use Forecast.io and/or Yr.no.
- Live Tile: Choose which location is displayed on your Forecast HD Live Tile.
- Theme: Forecast HD has 21 images that can be used as background images. There is also the option to use Bing's Image of the Day or a solid color as the background. There is also an option for a dark theme that reduces the opacity of the background image and darkens the icons and fonts.
- Units: Here is where you can choose the measurement units for temperature, wind speed, barometric pressure and precipitation.
Along with offering up the current conditions and extended forecast, Forecast HD also has a Meteogram feature that charts the weather forecast in graph style. Using the forecasted temperature as the base measure, the Meteogram includes a general forecast icon for various times during the next seven days along with the forecasted winds.
Overall Impressions
Forecast HD is an attractive looking Windows 10 weather app that does a commendable job of delivering the basic forecast information to your computer. While we were impressed with Forecast HD, there is some room for improvement.
I like the collection of background images the app provides and being able to tap into Bing's Image of the Day is a nice touch as well. However, the app needs the ability to use your images as the backdrop. Another two suggestions I would offer to help Forecast HD's curb appeal is the addition of weather radar and severe weather alerts. I don't think the absence of these two features are deal breakers but adding them to the mix would help the effectiveness of the app.
Overall, I liked Forecast HD and can see where our readers will find this Windows 10 weather app appealing. There is also a Windows Phone version of Forecast available for those looking for a simple weather app for the smaller screen. The app is universal so if you buy one version, you will have access to the other.
Thanks, Tafsern, for the tip!
