New release plans for next week

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We're preparing to release a new app version by the end of next week!

This release will come with humidity and pressure added to the minute and hourly pages! Woohoo!

We're also working on including by default, Canadian humidex to calculate the "Feels like" temperature in the summer and windchill in the winter. For those who like our 'Feels like' the way it is, you'll be able to change it back to the hybrid version we currently use in the app. This will work for the current condition, minute, and hourly pages.

Several in this community have mentioned they'd like to see more maximum/minimums in the "Day" product dropdown and perhaps "Feels like" in there two. I love the idea but this will likely take us some time so keep on us about it. :D

For those who may not know, you can click on any of the blue bars on the daily product and it will expand with more details such as sunrise/sunset and a text summary of the forecast for day & night.

Stuck alerts have been temporarily addressed but we plan to work on a more comprehensive fix that should mitigate any issues with one part of our system affecting another part as we currently have a couple unnecessary dependencies.

If you've made it this far, you win life. <3

Adam

Demonstration with tips

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Adam posted on Facebook a video that demonstrates some features of the app. You can check it out here.

HUGE upgrade

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Early this morning, we’ll be deploying and testing a HUGE upgrade to our system that we’ve been designing and coding since the app-meltdown on June 10th, when we doubled our user base in only a few hours. This happened because of a severe weather and possible tornado outbreak in southern Ontario. I say “possible” because if only one more tornado is confirmed, we’ll have reached the minimum number of tornadoes to be classified as a “Tornado Outbreak”; 6.

We’ve already upgraded our servers quickly to bandaid the issue and this allowed us to work great during several large events in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. This was put to the test in southern Ontario today with widespread alerts and big stress on our servers but thankfully, our bandaid fixes held on!

Long story longer, I’m super excited for the upgrades today!! If all goes well (and we should probably do a big notification test to make sure), we will now automatically deploy an infinite number of servers to handle any level of traffic the app receives for all major processes.

Sunday looks possibly severe in southern Ontario and that’s what we’ve been preparing for. What’s a good time for a notification test? 🥰

Adam

BIG SERVER UPGRADES

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You have may have noticed notifications coming in even faster than before and that's just the first step! We're working extensively this week on major server upgrades for all aspects of our free app Instant Weather.

Wednesday's significant weather in Ontario was an eyeopener at how quickly we can grow as we doubled our app user base in only a few hours. 😳 Wow. However, the first impression of our app for so many of those new users was a spinning loading wheel... sigh...

Saturday was the first big test since Wednesday when Alberta (our second largest community in Canada) had a severe weather outbreak and the app performed incredibly fast the entire time even with a boatload of app downloads! This was due to some initial server upgrades but we're not done there! We have big plans to add load-balancing and auto-scaling servers for all aspects of our system so that no matter how many new users join the app during any given event, it'll remain stable and fast for everyone.

If a spinning wheel was your first impression of our app, we sincerely hope you give it another chance as it's working great now and we're working very hard to ensure it can rock'n'roll during the next big weather event. Thank you.

- Adam #TimeToScale

P.S. To download our FREE app, please visit http://InstantWeatherApp.com and choose Apple or Android.

Environment Canada Alert Criteria

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Ever wonder about the criteria that Environment Canada uses to issues their alerts. Here is the link for severe thunderstorms watches and warnings https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/types-weather-forecasts-use/public/criteria-alerts.html#severeThunderstorm. If you scroll up and down the page you can see all the other alerts as well (for example Wreckhouse Winds 💨😮). Some of the alerts are location specific and also the criteria can be different for different locations and different times of the year as well. Our app will send out push notifications (if enabled) and the Environment Canada alerts will appear in our app. Not all thunderstorms for example meet the criteria for a watch or a warning.

ALL FIXED!

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Hi! We had an unprecedented amount of new app users last night which caused our servers to be overwhelmed. This issue has been addressed and will not happen moving forward. We're also planning on upgrading our app server today and this will definitely improve notification speed, loading speed, etc! Thank you so much and our apologies for the downtime.

NEW SUBSCRIBERS: If you have subscribed to Upgrade Radar and Remove Ads but you're still seeing the free version of the app, please follow these steps:

1. Open the "Remove Ads" page in the menu (top left of the app)

2. Click the green "Restore Purchases" button down the page

3. Restart the app and/or restart your device

If this still does not work, please try tapping the "Restore Purchases" button several times. Also, please ensure you have upgraded to the latest iOS version 13.5.1 or the latest Android software for your device.

Additionally, if the top of this "IMPORTANT NOTE" alert bar is white and not green, please update your Instant Weather app to version 1.0.480 by visiting InstantWeatherApp.com and choosing your device type. Then click "Update".

Thank you and if you still have questions, please email help@InstantWeather.ca

Thank you so much!

- Adam & the IW team

Upgrading to RN

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Hi! Now that Instant Updates™ and some major server updates are completed, we have one more server upgrade to finish and then we’re going full blast with our plan to upgrade to the React Native platform! RN is what Facebook and many other world-class apps are built upon.

Some reasons for this are, it loads extremely fast, not just on iOS like our current app but also on Android. It makes it much easier to create a comprehensive widget which is a big priority. It allows us to use Apple Maps on iOS as well as a more stable version of Google Maps on both platforms. It allows us to mix with other unique mapping platforms down the road which would allow us to bring back cool features like 3D radar. And last but certainly not least, a few of the remaining device-specific bugs would likely be solved by simply switching platforms.

Thankfully, we built the current app using React JS (through Cordova) and this means, half the work of switching platforms is already done! Another huge benefit to originally building the app in Cordova is that we can launch the website version very soon! 🙂

Exciting times! Thank you so much for making this possible!! ❤

Adam

Feels like temperature

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We often get questions about the ‘feels like’ temperature on our free app Instant Weather and why it’s lower compared to other popular apps.

To clarify, our app takes several factors into account including humidity, wind, and cloud cover. Most apps only use humidex but that’s likely over-estimating the ‘feels like’, big time.

Eg. Temp: 29c - Humidex..37c... yeah... no.

It does make sense that if you’re used to seeing over-estimated humidex ‘feels like’ temperatures, it may seem odd that ours is a lot closer to the actual temperature.

Realistically though, our ‘feels like’ is likely a lot more inline with reality. 🙂

Hope that makes sense! ❤

- Adam

Huge App Update version 480

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HUGE APP UPDATE!
Version 480 is available to download on the App Stores! Woohoo!

iOS: http://apple.instantweatherapp.com

Android: http://android.instantweatherapp.com

1. No more missing radar imagery. Yes!!!

2. Improved severe weather notification system (custom Instant Updates for severe weather now included)!

3. When the app is minimized and opened, it stays where you were. Only when the app is completely closed does it open back to your top location

4. Alert pop-up box for all notifications that can be dismissed or take you to the new alert by pressing "Display"

5. Fixed UV colours

6. Several bug and performances tweaks

Woohoo! Thank you!! - Adam

Version 480 coming soon

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Version 480 has been submitted and we're waiting for approval!!!

Our internal testing looks good! I've submitted 480 for approval on both iOS and Android!

Here's what 480 brings:

1. No more missing radar imagery. Yes!!!

2. Improved severe weather notification system (custom Instant Updates for severe weather. See image for example)

3. When the app is minimized and opened, it stays where you were. Only when the app is completely closed does it open back to your top location

4. Alert pop-up box for all notifications that can be dismissed or take you to the new alert by pressing "Display"

5. Several bug and performances tweaks

Woohoo! Thank you!!

- Adam

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