Before this trip I tried out three different Android weather apps (and 1 more after our return). Some are a lot better than others, however the two most important things to look for are location and accuracy.
One out of the four didn't even have the Maldives in the database of locations.
Another only had Male. The AccuWeather app was even more disappointing because on their website they have 18 locations in the Maldives (20 locations actually but 2 of them are duplicates, how's that for 'accuracy', eh?!) but only Male on their app. Two thumbs down there, I'm afraid.
The best choice by far was
eWeather HD•NOAA Radar•Alerts. It has 130,000 locations worldwide, including more than 20 in the Maldives and it is one of the highest rated weather apps, if not the highest, on Google Play, with it being the most advanced and with the most features by far. It's also looks fantastic and is extremely customizable, especially the widgets. Here is the link to the app on Google Play:
eWeather HD
It has data from 24 weather weather stations in the Maldives, from the far North to right down South.
Elecont make another two apps with radar widgets. You can check them out
here.
Settings for eWeather HD:
• For Rangali, set your location to
Mahibadhoo. This location is on the other side of the atoll on nearly the same latitude, only 33km from Rangali so the weather will be slightly more accurate than readings from Male
• Set your weather data provider within the app to
Foreca. I have compared forecasts and this seems to be more accurate than the other option:
US Provider
• Make sure you pay attention to/have
Humidity and
Chance of Precipitation data displayed as that gives a pretty good indicator of the possibility of rainfall
• Set the widget/app to display only 5 days worth of forecasts (as opposed to the option to display 10 days) as more than 4 days ahead is unreliable in the Maldives due to the fast changing weather patterns there
So, here is the list of apps that I have checked so far that do not have data/enough data to be worth installing;
* ACCUWEATHER PLATINUM
* WEATHER SERVICES PRO
* NOAA WEATHER PRO
Also, when hunting for good weather data I found the following useful links:
•
Maldives Dive Travel.com At the bottom of the page there are links to detailed monthly summaries of the weather in the Maldives
•
Airport-Flights.net has data from Maamigili where there appears to be a weather station. I asked about this when at the resort and the Water Sports Centre confirmed there is indeed a weather station there. This is closer to Rangali than Mahibadhoo and would be even more reliable but I haven't found an app yet that has this location. If I have time to try more and do find one I'll be certain to update this post
Edit: Added info about AccuWeather app