The weather is one of precious few subjects that’s important to us all, whether we live in Alberta or Zimbabwe. It’s also notable for its extremes, that seem to be growing increasingly frequent with climate change. Over the last week or so, we’ve been through two bouts of severe weather: last weekend we had gales, then overnight into Wednesday we had unusually heavy rainfall causing local flooding. This should have been just the time to turn to Apple’s Weather app, across iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Then on Thursday, as we sat looking at the prospects for the weekend ahead, Weather alerted us to not one but two severe weather warnings from the UK Met Office, the government agency responsible for weather forecasting, and one of the leading met organisations in the world.
We then viewed the warning in the Weather app.
There was no doubt in what we saw: a “significant threat to life or property” that required us to “take action immediately”. As our kitchen features large windows on two sides, we looked out quizzically. Compared to recent days, it was fine, there was no sign of heavy cloud let alone imminent rain, and winds were light. So we went on to look at further details using the link provided. There appeared to be no such warnings in force for any part of the UK.
However, the Met Office website isn’t always as up to date as the warnings pushed out by urgent alerts. So we viewed the alert source on EUMETNET’s Meteoalarm service.
Both severe weather warnings were just a test scenario, and not intended for “operational use”. The Weather app had cried wolf.
For the rest of that day, until midnight, those two warnings continued, on our iPhones, iPad and Macs. As it was Thanksgiving, there seemed little point in trying to contact Apple, whose staff were probably more concerned with turkey than torrential downpours.
It’s only a few weeks ago that the BBC’s weather site was forecasting hurricanes throughout much of the UK as the result of a ‘data problem’. That was more obviously absurd, as the predicted windspeeds were far in excess of anything ever experienced on planet earth.
Although I have other gripes about the Weather app, they pale into insignificance compared to that day it told us that there was a “significant threat to life or property” that required us to “take action immediately”, merely because it couldn’t tell a test from a real severe weather warning.
This year has seen many people throughout the world suffer in extreme weather, with their homes washed away by floods from rain of Biblical intensity, farmland and businesses destroyed, and far too many lives lost. Never have reliable weather forecasts been more important.
This is horribly reminiscent of what happened during the Covid pandemic with contact-tracing apps. Despite unprecedented collaboration between Google and Apple, and the best efforts of teams of engineers, most of the apps that could have helped control infection with the virus were rendered ineffective by political gaming and human greed.
It happened again with the destruction of Twitter, when numerous governmental agencies were driven away by the political aspirations of one man. That turned what had been the most effective worldwide emergency alert system, warning of everything from local travel disruption to weather catastrophes, into a channel for disinformation and hatred.
One way or another, it seems that we’re increasingly incapable of using the rich technologies that have been expertly engineered for our benefit, except in the pursuit of power and profit. Maybe someone in Apple will realise the importance of its Weather app, and refocus it for its role in extreme weather events, rather than nagging us to apply sun protection on overcast summer afternoons. And please never cry wolf again.
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