When we launched the Space City Weather app last year, our goal was to give Houston-area residents everything they needed to know about local weather in a fast, readable, and intuitive format. We feel like we met that goal, and judging from your reaction, so did you! We were blown away by the number of downloads, which quickly surpassed 100,000, and has continued to grow. We’re also glad to see people using the app, particularly when it was needed most during periods of severe weather.
Because that was just the beginning for the app, we asked what features you’d like to see, and to let us know about bugs and frustrations. You gave us plenty of feedback, and for the past few months we’ve been using that data to make a more perfect SCW app. In large part due to your generous support during our 2021 fundraiser, we’ve been able to make some significant upgrades.
To that end, today we’re announcing version 1.5, and we consider it a collaboration with our users. Here’s what is new:
• The Houston area is a big place, and weather in one locale can be dramatically different from conditions in another. So we’ve more than doubled the number of cities in the app to a full dozen. We now track Houston (IAH), Hobby airport, Conroe, Galveston, Katy, Tomball, Beaumont, League City, Sugar Land, Lake Jackson, Baytown and Pearland. Tap the three-line menu in the upper left of the main page to see the list, and switch locations.
• We’ve added rain chance percentages to both the hourly and daily forecast tables on the main page.
• There’s a new, live National Weather Service radar page, accessible by tapping either the radar thumbnail at the bottom of the main page or the new Radar icon at the bottom of the app. You can zoom in and out to get a closer or wider look at radar conditions.
• You can now toggle between Fahrenheit and Celsius in Settings.
• We’ve fixed some frequently reported bugs, such as Android users’ inability to zoom in and out of images.
• There are tweaks to the layout and interface to make the app more attractive and intuitive. For example, the Settings icon is now found at the top of the list of cities for quicker access.
There are two things we have not changed. We still don’t collect your personal information or do any kind of tracking. And, of course, there’s still no hype in Eric and Matt’s blog posts.
The new version of the app should be showing up as an update for both iOS and Android users. And if you haven’t yet installed it, you can find it in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store by searching for “Space City Weather.”
We hope you enjoy SCW 1.5. If you run into any problems, let us know via email at [email protected]. And keep those feature requests coming. We’re already thinking about what to do next!
Thank you!
Still no dark-mode for Android….. 🙁
There’s no dark mode for iOS, either. Dark mode is a LOT of work, duplicating most elements and style code. We decided to focus on other most-requested features. It’s still on our radar, though.
Glad to see the “evacuate katy” option was still there!
VERY important feature.
🎇🎇🎇🎆🎆🎆
Please add Spring, Texas.
The spring area is like 5 mi from Bush intercontinental, 10 from Conroe and Tomball… That’s close enough.
The Northeast outskirts are more unrepresented. Cleveland is like 25 miles from conroe, 25miles Bush intercontinental, and 45 from Beaumont. But I’m not asking for Cleveland to be included, you can kind of triangulate to get a good idea of what to expect.
I live just outside Bunker Hill Village – a good distance from IAH and from Katy. Which of your areas will give me the best prediction for where I live?
I’d say either Katy or Hobby. I live in the Montrose/River Oaks area, and I just use Hobby. That works well.
Thank you so much for including Lake Jackson!
If I have the previous version (Android) do I need to update it or is it done automatically?
Depends on the settings on your particular phone. If you are set up for auto-update, you need do nothing. If not, go to the Google Play store and manually update.
You both are the BEST!!! Thank you so much for the incredible service you provide!!! GREAT JOB!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thank you both! I have trusted you all for years and do not even watch local weather anymore ! I do have one question. If you live in the memorial area or uptown, who do we click on for closest weather city? I have always found Katy weather quite different from ours and likewise The Bush airport in both winter and summer. Thank you.
Thanks for the app update including Hobby. Will the radar show projected future weather conditions?
The radar is directly from the National Weather Service; it has the features that theirs does. I believe the controls at the bottom show current conditions and a period in the past, but not future.
Thank you!
You make it more localized like people ask, and then people ask for it to be even more localized. You’ve done a good job of expanding it, don’t blow it up with too many options. I don’t remember if it does this or not but perhaps you could add the GPS have the app automatically pick your most local option.
Awesome!! Thank you very much.
The new app looks amazing! Well gone everyone. SCW is my only source for weather and anytime someone tries to point me to some hyped up weather update I say “when the guys at Space City Weather tell me to worry about it, then I will.” Keep up the good work!
You give people the moon & they will STILL ask for the stars🙄! Thank you Space City Weather!
Thank you! One request: have a Saharan dust level (?) index.
Thanks for the update. Where do I report bugs? I’m not seeing any blog posts newer than 5/27 even after pulling down to refresh.
Oh, and I’m on 1.5.140.
As it says in the story, report bugs to [email protected].
You might try uninstalling and then re-downloading it, for now.
Amazing!
Add Dark Mode please.
Awesome! Now that it had the rain percentages it’ll be my go to weather app. Thanks to all involved!
Having lived 3 blocks NW of Durham at Washington for 30 years, Bush is 18 miles away, & Hobby must be… 11? IDK, would Downtown be an option?
(What about a radar detecting weaving drunk drivers on Wed – Sunday nights from these bar imbeciles?? Lol. Have to wear earplugs to sleep here now. Used to be like living out in the country!)
Talk about over-served! You wouldn’t believe what I have to clean out of the bar ditches every Monday. I’ll spare you…
They literally wake the birds up at 2:30am.