I understand that weather on TV can’t be hyperlocally accurate. But a weather app on my phone has my exact GPS coordinates. Why can’t it tell me exactly when a rain cloud will be passing over my location?
It’s gotten to the point where I just use precipitation maps to figure out my rain chances for the day.
The hourly forecast is mostly useless because it’s not a chance % but a % of the area that will be raining.
Unless your precise location is a statistical outlier these will be the same thing?
Not really. Using % of forecast area as % chance of rain inherently gives equal weight to your position being anywhere within that area. Even if you limit the forecast area to the 5m or whatever it is radius that smartphone GPS is typically accurate to which a weather app could theoretically do, simply using % of the forecast area covered as % chance of rain inherently gives equal probability of you being literally anywhere within that 5m radius. It would obviously still be more accurate, but those numbers wouldn’t be the same thing.
Yes, unless your location is a statistical outlier the two are the same.
If you happen to know you are on the lee side of a mountain that might change thinks but for most people they are one and the same.
In Australia BOM’s Australian Digital Forecast Database uses a 3x3 KM grid for Victoria and Tasmania or a 6x6 KM grid for the rest of the country.
I’m in a 6x6 area but thats fine for daily forcasts.They also offer forecasts for 3 hour windows for the next 72 hours which is great for medium term planning but to be honest its the rain radar that I use the most. They offer a rain radar that has a 90 minute history and a 90 minute forecast that has sufficient resolution that I can time my breaks at work to stay dry.