Smart Phone: What apps are on your phone for chasing?

[Jason Boggs]

Thought I'd share a few of the apps I use on my phone for chasing. Smart phones can do a lot these days. I remember when I thought I was hot stuff by having a regular cell phone for chasing back in 2001. Now in 2015, I could easily chase with my phone and camera gear and be pretty happy. Anyway, here is a list of the apps I use on my phone while out chasing:

*Gasbuddy: Shows the nearest gas station from my location, and also shows the prices. FREE

*KVII Schoolnet: Current weather mesonet data for MANY locations in the Texas Panhandle, eastern NM, and the OK Panhandle. FREE

*MapFactor Navigator: Another source of GPS. FREE

*Motel.com: Find motels near your location after the chase. FREE

*Pykl3 radar: Radar source I use in the field. Both radarscope and pykl3 have their advantages and disadvantages, but they are both great tools while in the field. About 10 dollars

*Radarscope: Radar data that I use quite a bit while out in the field. About 10 dollars

*Tripadvisor: Finds Hotels, restaurants, etc. near you. FREE

*Urbanspoon: Find places to eat after the chase near you. FREE

*USA and Canada TOM TOM GPS. Obviously a great backup to my other GPS software on my laptop. About 50 dollars.

*Weathernow: Current weather mesonet data site for locations in TX and NM. FREE

*West Texas Mesonet: current observations for West Texas. FREE

What are some of the apps you use on your smartphone to make your chasing experience more fruitful and enjoyable?

 

[Doug Crisp]

I have a HRRR viewer as well as ATs Weather i also have the live chasing app as well that help's if for some reason my PC goes down i still have what i need to continue to chase.

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

Radarscope
Pandora
Google Maps
Scanner Radio
PressureNet
Aviation Weather
Raindar
Mobile Hotspot (included w/ G3)
Lightning Finder

Previous seasons I chased with android phone as hotspot and iPad for interface, but have since switched to android tablet, but may actually run both tablets since iPad screen much larger and works great with radarscope. Use android tab for mapping/web/etc while on the go.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Currently just Radarscope and MPing.

This will be my first season with a smartphone, but I'm not sure how much I'll use it for chasing. I have a pretty good setup going with my laptop that does everything I need. I've had an Android tablet for a couple of years, but I ended up not using it as much as I'd originally thought I would. The laptop is just so much more convenient and ergonomic (hands free).

That said, some of these apps sound interesting and worth a try. I have found that the phone is nice to have at the hotel at the end of the day, as I seem to have bad luck with hotel wifi being down. It's easier to look at model images/radar/forecast discussions on the phone rather than going back out to the car and taking the aircard out of the Cradlepoint router to bring inside.

 

[James Gustina]

Pykl3
Oklahoma Mesonet
West Texas Mesonet
Spotter Outlook (SPC outlook viewer)
Spotify
Google Maps
Google Earth
Urbanspoon

The OK Mesonet app is excellent and works well but I'm not the biggest fan of the W TX app.

 

[Justin Wilcox]

Mobile Hotspot (included w/ G3)

I love my G3. Such an awesome phone.

 

[Bill Hark]

I use both RadarScope and PYKL3 Radar
HRRR Viewer (I find the app better than looking it up on my laptop)
Pandora
Yelp
Google Maps

I'll also look at regular weather websites

Bill Hark

 

[Robert Forry]

When I have chased using my iPhone, I've used:
RadarScope
Google Maps
Bolt Meter
uWeather
SkewTLogPro

 

[ChrisKincaid]

I use on my GS5:

Pykl3
RadarScope
HRRR Viewer

I am really surprised there are not more model viewing apps out there.

 

[Brett Roberts]

PYKL3 and MAPS.ME are the essentials for me.

For backup/secondary use: RadarScope for its SuperRes products, and Google Maps for the highest-quality maps and looking up businesses (but requires a connection).

 

[TJKLECKNER]

RadarScope
Google Maps
PYKL3
Iheartradio/Tunein Radio for the long drives

 

[Troy Boerner]

it's a news station based out of Tulsa the radar section this app is very user friendly and updates frequently. 6 weather

 

[Scotty Mitchell]

I use pykl3 and jabiru. (for nwschat)

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

 

[Jason_Dasho]

I personally still like using my laptop for chasing. I currently use the ios apps primarily as a redundancy factor or when I want to go out and not hook up everything in the car.

Radarscope
OK Mesonet
Wx Informant
Mping
Go Pro App
Maps

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

PYKL3 and MAPS.ME are the essentials for me.

For backup/secondary use: RadarScope for its SuperRes products, and Google Maps for the highest-quality maps and looking up businesses (but requires a connection).

This. I have chased tablet only now for three seasons and If/when I lose connection Maps.me can be a lifesaver. Nothing needs to be said for Pykl3/Radarscope, if you have a smartphone you'd better own those apps.