The Weather Channel App Unveils New Experience As Weather Becomes More Disruptive Amid a Rapidly Changing Climate

Customizable Experience from The Weather Company Includes AI-derived Weather Insights to Help People Make More Confident Decisions about Weather's Impact on their Well-being and Daily Routines 

Research¹ Reveals: 58% of People Surveyed Check the Weather More Than Once a Day; 67% Surveyed Report That Their Physical Health is Impacted by Weather, with Younger Segment (18-34) Seeing More Influence of Weather on Their Physical Health, Mood and Activities

ATLANTA, Feb. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- As weather around the world is growing more intense and having a significant impact on society, people may no longer be able to rely solely on seasonal norms to know when pollen season will start, to plan a fall trip, or make other decisions based on weather. Recognizing the profound influence of weather, The Weather Channel, the flagship consumer brand of The Weather Company, today introduces a new app experience that goes beyond the forecast to help translate how the weather impacts your daily life, activities, and physical and emotional well-being.

Ensuring people can stay ahead of and be prepared for disruptive weather conditions is critical, especially as extreme weather could cost the global economy $5 trillion over the next five years.² As the world's most accurate forecaster^[3] and most downloaded weather app,⁴ The Weather Channel has long been the source for reliable forecasts.  

"Our mission has always been to help keep people safe and help them lead better lives. In our forty-year history, weather has never been more impactful and therefore never more important to consumers and businesses," said Sheri Bachstein, CEO of The Weather Company. "Our transformed app will set a new standard for what people can and should expect from their weather provider, whether it is getting ahead of a storm, planning a trip, understanding how air quality could affect your health, or simply deciding when to go for a hike. The work by our combined team of meteorologists, product leaders and engineers truly focuses on the needs of our hundreds of millions of monthly users around the globe." 

First and foremost, The Weather Channel app offers reliability. It combines 100 forecast models and then uses a proprietary mix of AI and human expertise to create the freshest, best possible forecast for any time and location requested, on demand. No other app comes close to the personalized weather forecast The Weather Channel app delivers, unique to you.

10 New App Features and Improvements to Help Plan Your Day and Live Well
In addition to a precise forecast, The Weather Channel app offers a stunning new look and simple user interface. At launch and in the coming weeks, this new experience will include new tools and features to help:

• Understand how weather may impact your well-being⁵ – Get content, forecasts, and tips tailored to several health conditions that can be impacted by weather. Sections focused on skin health, breathing, allergies, and cold & flu are available to help people prepare and mitigate their symptoms. Coming next will be sections on headaches, hydration & heat illness, and pet health, with even more to follow.
• Look ahead at what the air quality will be – The Weather Channel app now offers an air quality forecast in addition to current conditions. Air quality will now also factor into the new "Breathing Index" for a better look at how breathing may be affected based on air quality, pollen, smoke, heat, humidity and more.
• Weather insights, front and center – AI-derived weather explainers delivered at the top of the app aims to show users the important things they may need to know in that moment, such as "Cold temperatures will result in the risk of frozen pipes tonight," "Conditions for breathing are poor today, partly due to high pollen levels," or "Thunderstorms possible after 7pm."
• Quickly know what weather to expect – A first look at the app offers dual tabs now with deeper insights and details. "Today" shows current conditions and "This Week" reveals the 15-day forecast. When severe U.S. weather threatens such as major winter storms, a tornado outbreak or hurricanes, a dynamic third tab will show up to provide critical detail. In moments of sunny weather, uplifting content such as pets or stories of people helping people aim to put a smile on your face.
• Make better plans based on your favorite activities – While people are quick to turn to their weather app when bad weather threatens, The Weather Channel app also helps people maximize plans when the weather is nice. Using algorithms that factor in how various weather conditions affect specific interests, a new Activities feature helps with planning outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, golf, tennis, running/walking, gardening, with more to be added to the app throughout the year.
• Translate what the weather means for you – Those who choose a more customized view can register and select what weather conditions are important to them (temperature, wind, humidity, precipitation, etc.) and topics of interest (health and well-being; travel; climate and environment; pets; etc.). As you interact more with this smart app, it can learn your preferences for a more tailored experience.
• Immerse yourself in the weather with advanced AR technology – Coming soon in a beta version, subscribers of The Weather Channel Premium app will be able to visit virtual environments and engage in immersive, interactive weather-related experiences with augmented reality (AR). The map-based, 3D view is designed to help subscribers better visualize how conditions like UV, pollen, or inclement weather could affect their current location.
• Go deeper with expert partner content – Expanded content is included from trusted brands like Healthline on the impact weather can have on people's health and well-being and from Outside to help people plan their next outdoor adventure.
• Plan outdoor time and effects from the sun and moon – Going well beyond showing sunrise and sunset times, the "Sun" and "Moon" features will soon deliver the data people need to help maximize their daylight hours; learn about stargazing and celestial events; plan for high tides and more.
• Experience integrated advertising – Brands will have a portfolio of ad products that are underpinned by weather data and can flex with the changing conditions, to help build a more relevant experience for ad-supported users.

The new UI design is modern and intuitive, intended to delight users. It was built with newly written code and current state-of-the-art design patterns, tools and APIs. Especially critical during threats of severe weather, relevant and personal information shows up quickly to users in impacted locations to help them stay safe and informed. First available on both the free, ad-supported and premium version of The Weather Channel app for iOS, the modernization will extend next to Android and to weather.com on web and mobile web.

The Weather Channel is the world's most downloaded weather app,³ one of America's most trusted brands,⁶ the world's leading weather provider,⁷ and the world's most accurate forecaster.²

The new app experience is available for download now from Apple's App Store, and coming next to Android in the Google Play Store. For more, visit weathercompany.com.

The Weather Company  
The Weather Company helps people and businesses around the world make more informed decisions and take action in the face of weather. With its deep industry expertise and highly accurate, high-volume weather data combined with advanced technology and AI, The Weather Company provides insights and solutions that harness the power of weather in a scalable, privacy-forward way. The world's most accurate forecaster, the company serves hundreds of enterprise customers across media, advertising, aviation and more, and is trusted by hundreds of millions of monthly active users via digital properties from The Weather Channel (weather.com) and Weather Underground (wunderground.com). For more, visit weathercompany.com.   

¹ According to an independent third-party global management consulting firm study, Q1 2023, commissioned by The Weather Company.
² World Economic Forum 2024 Global Risks Report, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/01/global-risk-report-2024-risks-are-growing-but-theres-hope/.
³ ForecastWatch, Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2017-2022, https://forecastwatch.com/AccuracyOverview2017-2022, commissioned by The Weather Company.
⁴  According to data.ai Intelligence, The Weather Channel has been the world's most-downloaded weather app across Apple's App Store and the Google Play store beginning on July 4, 2010 and into 2023.
⁵  In compliance with local health data regulations, app users in the U.S. states of Nevada and Washington may have limited access to some health and well-being features.
⁶  According to a Morning Consult, May 2023: https://pro.morningconsult.com/analyst-reports/most-trusted-brands-2023 The Weather Channel brand was the #9 most trusted brand in the US. The surveys were conducted from 3/3/2023 through 4/3/2023, among a nationally representative sample of 799 to 8,434 U.S. adults.
⁷ According to Comscore, The Weather Company was the largest provider of weather forecasts worldwide (web and app) in 2022 based on the average of the total monthly unique visitors. Comscore Media Metrix®, Worldwide Rollup Media Trend, News/Information – Weather category incl. The [P] Weather Company, The, Jan-Dec. 2022 avg

SOURCE The Weather Company