100% chance of rain — but do I need an umbrella?

As you probably know, I live in Portland—where it rains. A lot.  There are certain times of the year where it rains every day for weeks on end.  If you live here, the rain is bearable and quite nice.  It’s no big deal.  It amounts to a lot of sprinkling, maybe a fog that is a little too heavy to stay in the air.  As the saying goes, the only ones with umbrellas are the tourists.

That being said, there are a few rare days when you really do need an umbrella.  As yet, I have not found an iPhone weather app that accurately shows this.  Most of those apps will tell you, quite happily, that there is a 100% chance of rain all day:

When you hit the NOAA website, the story plays out a little differently.  It’s 100% chance of rain, but the volume will end up being about 0.06 inches.  That is hardly umbrella-level rain.  (Click the image for more detail.)

I’m still searching for an iPhone weather app that conveys this particular chunk of the data set.  Do you know of one?

Posted in: Dear Diary iPhone Portland

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Brian Enigma

Brian Enigma is a Portlander, manipulator of atoms & bits, minor-league blogger, and all-around great guy. He typically writes about the interesting “maker” projects he's working on, but sometimes veers off into puzzles, software, games, local news, and current events.

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