Probably the best weather app on iOS and Android, WunderMap is back with a new look, and dozens of new features. That might sound boring as hell, but honestly, WunderMap is why smartphones exist at all. If your smartphone isn’t telling you what the weather is going to be like in HD, and showing you where the stormfronts are coming from like on a big screen on TV, then you’re missing out, son.

 

On a practical basis, Wundermap shows you just what the weather’s going to be like – not just in your immediate area, but also in the areas close to where you are. So what, right? Every weather app – even the built in ones do that. No, it’s Wundermap’s layered map system that’s really amazing.

The layering system means you start by seeing the weather on a very basic map. Like you expect, you can zoom in and out, and pan left, right, up or down as always. And the app will be updated constantly, letting you know what the current and projected weather in that area will be like. But then, you can start to do more interesting stuff.

 

What Wundermap does have is a catalogue of complex weather data provided by Weather Underground’s network of 30,000 weather stations, giving the app up to the date information on everything that’s happening worldwide. If there’s a hurricane in Cuba, you’ll know to expect heavy precipitation in Florida of course – but now you can see the exact shape of the hurricane, the speed it’s moving at, and how heavy it’s going to be. If it’s scorching in Nevada, now you know exactly how close you are to brushfire risk.

The WunderMap app even has webcam functionality with some of its stations, so those of you who prefer to see things before they judge can get a good look at what the weather station’s seeing in real time.

 

Best of all, because of that extremely extensive network of weather stations, even if you’re on a cruise ship in the gulf, you can get accurate weather – because Wundermap is pulling information even from weather stations on oil rigs and research vessels in the area.

All in all? Definitely worth a download. It’s free in the App store – though it comes with ads. A $1.99 purchase in the App itself gets rid of the ads.  Wundermap is available for iOS and Android now.