Pet Technology: Whether You Like Dogs or Cats, There’s a Weather App for You

Forecast: Partly punny with a chance of dry humor. Scattered weather apps featuring dogs and cats.

There has been a blizzard of weather stories blowing through newscasts recently. Drought in the west. Wildfires in the Pacific rainforests.  Record rainfall and flooding in the southeast. Hurricanes tearing up the east coast.

From weather.com to weather. gov, the news has been dark and dreary. It’s enough to cloud one’s outlook on life.

However, there is one thing that is guaranteed to make a thunderstorm feel like sunny day. Actually two things: Dogs. And cats.

I was sure that somewhere, somehow, someone had come up with a way to combine weather and puppies and kittens, offering a spoonful of adorable sugar to watch the hurricane go ’round. (Sorry, Mary Poppins.)

The interwebs did not disappoint, as I found several weather apps featuring purr-fect forecasts no matter the temperature or tempest.

Below are a collection of weather apps, one of which is sure to warm your heart as much as wagging tail from your dog or head bonks from your cat.

Dog Weather Apps

Weather Puppy by Weather Creative Inc.

I uploaded photos of my dogs into Weather Puppy. Powered by Weather Underground, the data are flawless. If you don’t want to upload your own photos like me , there are plenty of picture sets to choose from, some free, some for a small fee. You can even support dog rescue by choosing that photo set.

This is by far my favorite of the dog apps. Users choose a set of photos to populate different weather conditions like Sunny Day, Rainy Day and Sorta Cloudy. Some sets are free; others (including Glamour, Pug Life, Boo, and Cats & Dogs) will cost you a mere $1.99. The fun part for me is the ability to upload my own photos (that’s also $1.99). You can also choose one of their nonprofit partners (for example DogsTrust, Detroit Dog Rescue) and donate money to them.  Weather Puppy is partnered with 16 non-profit animal shelters and supports them with free ad space and fund-raising in-app. Because the app uses content by Weather Underground, the data are complete, accurate and helpful, with current conditions, hourly and 10-day forecasts, and radar available.

• Apple, Android
• Free
• Uses Weather Underground (by The Weather Channel)
• Multiple languages

myBoo Weather by myplacesandme.com

Dress up MyBoo for the local weather. If he’s not dressed right, MyBoo gets sad. Share your dressed-up Boo on Facebook to earn points and buy more clothes and accessories.

Popular netlebrity Boo, the Pomeranian with more than 17 million Facebook followers, and known as “the cutest dog in the world,” is illustrated in this interactive iOS app. Users pet Boo and dress him for the current local weather in coats, sunglasses, shoes, collars and other items. Shake the phone and he travels to other locations around the world. Use points (buy them or get them through Facebook shares) to buy more clothes and accessories for Boo. The weather is accurate, but this may appeal to the younger set who would enjoy playing virtual dress-up with an animated dog.

• Apple
• Free
• Uses OpenWeatherMap.org
• Multiple languages

Doge Weather

Doge Weather by Relapse, LLC allows you to change settings. Their Dogespeak is a little too wow-heavy for my tastes. The version by Simplecto uses your location but includes a more creative, amusing and true to Dogespeak vocabulary. Even when loading: Much load!

So weather. Much accurate. Wow. If you’re a fan of the internet meme known as Doge, you’ll find these apps mildly amusing. All three are created by different people, but all do essentially the same thing: translate current local weather into Doge speak that wanders across the screen. Very weather.

You can get your Doge weather in three ways:

Apple App: Doge Weather by Relapse, LLC

• $.99
• Uses Forecast weather API that powers Forecast.io and Dark Sky for iOS

Apple App: Doge Weather — Such Forecast by Simplecto

• $.99
• Uses Forecast weather API that powers Forecast.io and Dark Sky for iOS

Android App: WeatherDoge by VersoBit Ltd

• Free
• Uses OpenWeatherMap.org or Yahoo for weather data

Website: DogeWeather.com

• Free

Weather to Walk Your Dog

Too hot? Too cold? Want to know whether the weather is okay to walk your dog? There are two apps that help you determine if walkies are on your radar.

Weather to Walk – for Dogs by TranndeeApps

I don’t have an Android phone so I had to rely on the Google store screen grabs. This app allows you to choose your breed (or your best guess for what breed is closest to your mutt) and it will serve up a customized walk forecast based on the type of dog.

Sun that would cook a Husky may be just the right temperature for a Chihuahua. This app takes into account your dog’s breed when recommending when it’s time to chill or take a hike with your pup.

• Android
• $.99
• Multiple languages

Weather to Walk Your Dog by Christopher Farrell

Set the what weather you’d like to walk your dog in. Check the app, and it will tell you if now is a good time. You can also see the rest of the day’s forecast. This app could be improved if there were a selection of background photos. The Golden Retriever is cute, but where are the chihuahuas and mutts?

You set parameters such as optimal time of day to walk and minimum and maximum temperatures, and this app does the rest.

• Apple
• Free
• Uses OpenWeatherMap.org

Cat Weather Apps

Weather Kitty by Weather Creative Inc.

Weather Kitty offers the most information, and it’s accurate since it comes from Weather Underground, a weather.com company. This app (and their dog version, Weather Puppy, are my go-to apps for current and predicted weather.

Just like Weather Puppy is my favorite dog app, Weather Kitty is my favorite cat weather app. Users choose a set of cat photos to illustrate weather conditions. For $1.99, you have more choices, including Grumpy Cat, Lil Bub, Yoga Cats and your own pix. Weather Kitty doesn’t have a nonprofit connection. When I asked Suraj Hemnani , cofounder of Weather Puppy and Weather Kitty, why that was so, he told me, they “have been trying to get more of a national partner because it makes more sense considering the user base of the app.”  He made a point of telling me that many of Weather Puppy’s partners are organizations that help both cats and dogs. With content provided by Weather Underground, it’s a purrfect pet weather app: accurate data, hourly and 10-day forecasts and cats! (Still, I’d like to see some national cat rescue organization tied into Weather Kitty!)

• Apple, Android
• Free
• Uses Weather Underground (by The Weather Channel)
• Multiple languages

Weather Whiskers by Ask Applications, Inc.

Accurate weather by Weather Underground, and attention to adorable kitteh detalz make Weather Whiskers a good choice if you can handle the lolspeak.

Kittehs dressed for the weather bring you a four-day furr-cast, translated into that bizarre form of internet communication made popular by LOLcats.com. So, yes you can haz your cheezy talk and know whether today is a raincoat or sunglasses day. Cirrusly. And while I’m not really a fan of lolspeak, I have to give the folks at Weather Whiskers props for their attention to every purrfect feline detail. Examples (seen in the screen grabs above) include: the kitty ears above the drop-down menu in the top left corner, the cat-shaped rain cloud  or sun in their iconography, and my favorite: a tiny cat playing with the spinny circle that appears at the top when you pull down the screen to refresh.

• Apple, Android, Widget
• Free
• Multiple languages
• Uses Weather Underground (by The Weather Channel)

Weather with Cat’s by Sergii Shchur

Cool cats — and hot cats — are dressed for the weather, in style. See current conditions and a 12-hour forecast.

A relative newcomer to the list of pet weather apps, Weather with Cat’s features best-dressed cats in clothing that not only is appropriate for the current weather conditions, but it looks good. Oh, and it also offers current weather and the forecast for the next 12 hours. These kitties are chill, no matter what the weather. However, the grammar geek in me wants to swat that unnecessary apostrophe right outta the name.

• Apple
• $1.19
• Multiple languages

Weather Cats by Hamster Factory

The photos are cute in the Weather Cats app, but it would be nice to see a wider variety, since you swipe to see the next day’s forecast. Choose your favorite kitty fur background.

This very simple cat app shows the current weather for your location, including temperature, precipitation and wind. Swipe to find out the forecast for the next four days. Users can choose which cat fur background they would like including orange cat, tabby fur and leopard spots. While it’s nice to see sun days predicted for three days in row, this app could be easily improved with a more diverse set of pictures instead of the same photo for each day. Surely, the developers could find photos of cats in the sun. Or they could stop by my house, where the forecast is sun showers with a 100 percent chance of multiple cats.

• Apple
• Free
• Uses OpenWeatherMap.org
• Multiple languages

Meteo Cat by Dzmitry Honchanka

Meteo Cat dresses for the current conditions. I’m not sure Meteo Cat needs a scarf when it’s 56 degrees, but maybe his mom is a little over protective. Swipe to see the what’s expected for the remainder of the day. Swipe again for an extended forecast.

Meteo Cat offers current conditions plus the forecast for the next several hours, and several days, accompanied by a cute cat graphic dressed for the weather. Probably best enjoyed by the human kittens.

• Apple
• Free
• Multiple languages

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