Go Back
  • For Business
  • |
  • Warnings
  • Data Suite
  • Newsletters
  • Advertising
  • Superior Accuracy™
A week after deadly Texas flooding, hope fades but resilience grows. Chevron right
Recovery teams, displaced residents in Texas face brutal heat. Chevron right

Columbus, OH

72°F
Location Chevron down
Location News Videos
Use Current Location
Recent

Columbus

Ohio

72°
No results found.
Try searching for a city, zip code or point of interest.
settings
Columbus, OH Weather
Today WinterCast Local {stormName} Tracker Hourly Daily Radar MinuteCast Monthly Air Quality Health & Activities

Around the Globe

Hurricane Tracker

Severe Weather

Radar & Maps

News

News & Features

Astronomy

Business

Climate

Health

Recreation

Sports

Travel

For Business

Warnings

Data Suite

Newsletters

Advertising

Superior Accuracy™

Video

Winter Center

AccuWeather Early Hurricane Center Top Stories Trending Today Astronomy Heat Climate Health Recreation In Memoriam Case Studies Blogs & Webinars

Weather Blogs / WeatherMatrix

iPhone Barometer, Eat My Weather Dongles!

By Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather meteorologist and senior weather editor

Published Sep 9, 2014 3:25 PM EDT | Updated Sep 12, 2014 8:12 AM EDT

Copied

The iPhone 6 and Apple Watch were announced today. One of the "big" pieces of news was that the watch now comes with a barometer inside. First of all, I got a digital watch with a barometer in it for my 10th birthday in 1985. Secondly, Android cell phones have had barometers in them for years. There's a whole app written off this principle, and at AMS the developer said there were 300 million phones that already have one. Here's a graph from my Samsung Galaxy from week before last:

590x331_09091934_10650516_10203765407111134_1842548051_o

So eat that, Apple.

Many Android phones also have additional weather sensors onboard. When I bought a Samsung Galaxy S5, I was super-disappointed to find out that they dropped the thermometer/hygrometer (temperature/humidity) sensor, in exchange for waterproofing the unit and adding the Finger Scanner and Heart Rate Sensor.

That left me with only pressure, so I looked to outside vendors for a more complete weather station. Yes, having any weather sensors on your phone seems kind of silly... how much wind would you really put your phone in front of, and how far away from the phone would the temperature sensor have to be to be accurate, and what happens when you take the phone inside? These are all good questions, but let's take a look anyway.

PRESSURENET (SOFTWARE):

Before we go into the various weather dongles, let's talk about that app "PressureNet." Jacob Sheehy, CEO & Co-Founder, gave a presentation at the Summer 2014 American Meteorological Society meeting, which I attended. His aim is to have access to pressure data on hundreds of millions of phones. Yes, the data needs to be quality controlled and his team has a number of inventive artificial intelligence ideas for that.

590x331_09091935_10614494_10203765491833252_783042650_o

The app plots your pressure readings along with other nearby sensors on a map, and graphs the data (although the Graph button frequently would say "no data;" if you click on "My Data / Graph," it worked better). While the short-term graphs looked pretty good, for example, my six-hour graph from the phone docked in York, Pennsylvania, on the morning of Aug. 31, 2014, shows the pressure falling slightly as a cold front approaches. However, the long-term graphs (see my week graph) had spikes and dips which were probably due to picking up the phone or traveling in the car. More quality control is needed on a per-phone basis, but I love the fact that it plots it on a map and graphs past data.

SKYWATCH WINDOO: The first phone dongle we'll examine is one that plugs into the headphone jack and costs $63 to $106 USD. The Skywatch Windoo 3 is a full-fledged weather station, even containing a tiny anemometer. Here's what it looked like connected to my Samsung Galaxy:

It displays and graphs wind, humidity, temperature (wind chill / heat index) and pressure. It also stores the last 30 days of data in the cloud on a map. Unfortuntely it didn't work with the Samsung case (because it wouldn't plug into the headphone jack all the way, and even without it, I got bizarre readings that were way off. It was supported on the Galaxy 4 so I assumed it would be supported on my phone. UPDATE: They say the hardware is not compatible with the Galaxy 5; I have requested the new version of the device. For what it's worth, here's what it's supposed to do:

If I can get it to work, I think it will be one of the neatest devices out there.

THERMODO:

The Thermodo device is a very simple thermometer for your phone, costing a much more reasonable $30-$45. It works on a larger range of phones than Windoo, but it still won't fit into the headphone jack for most cases. The current temperature display is more advanced than Windoo and was accurate (although still higher than it should have been, even with the calibration turned on). What Thermodo lacked, which caused me not to use it as much, was any storage of historical readings for graphing (there is an iPhone-only cloud storage & graphing app -- Apple, you win again).

Both Windoo and Thermodo recommend a headphone extension cable for better readings, but as a person who prefers his phone to be untethered, the only situation I could see myself using that would be hiking or perhaps biking. Overall, these devices aren't quite up to specs yet, but hopefully as technology grows, they'll improve. Meanwhile, PressureNet and your phone's built-in barometer may be the way to go.

STORMTAG:

One device I haven't been able to review yet is the StormTag. It was on Kickstarter and got 10 times its goal, but it doesn't ship until November. It can be pre-ordered for $59. I have high hopes for this one because it allows the sensor to be separated by bluetooth, for more accurate readings. It adds UV Index along with the temperature, humidity, barometer sensors that the previously reviewed stations had (no wind). Here's the scoop:

[vimeo 101693807 w=500 h=281]
Report a Typo

Weather News

Weather News

A week after deadly Texas flooding, hope fades but resilience grows

Jul. 10, 2025
Severe Weather

Rounds of severe storms to rattle, drench central US

Jul. 10, 2025
video

Abandoned cars submerged by severe flooding in North Carolina

Jul. 10, 2025
video

Before-and-after pictures show devastation caused by Texas floods

Jul. 9, 2025
Severe Weather

Severe weather to rumble in the central US through the holiday weekend

Jul. 6, 2025
Weather News

Record sargassum seaweed piles up on Caribbean islands, Gulf

Jul. 2, 2025
Weather News

Alabama teen in ICU after lightning strike hits boat, causing burns an...

Jul. 2, 2025
Show more Show less Chevron down

Topics

AccuWeather Early

Hurricane Center

Top Stories

Trending Today

Astronomy

Heat

Climate

Health

Recreation

In Memoriam

Case Studies

Blogs & Webinars

ABOUT THIS BLOG
WeatherMatrix
Jesse Ferrell
AccuWeather Meteorologist and Social Media Manager Jesse Ferrell covers extreme weather and the intersection of meteorology and social media.
  • Astronomy
    with Dave Samuhel
  • Canadian weather
    with Brett Anderson
  • Global climate change
    with Brett Anderson
  • Global weather
    with Jason Nicholls
  • Northeast US weather
    with Elliot Abrams
  • Plume Labs on Air Quality
    with Tyler Knowlton
  • RealImpact of weather
    with Dr. Joel N. Myers
  • WeatherMatrix
    with Jesse Ferrell
  • Western US weather
    with Brian Thompson

Featured Stories

Health

How can families handle new anxieties around summer camp?

14 hours ago

AccuWeather Ready

Floodwater rising in your house? Do this

2 days ago

Weather News

Orcas are bringing humans gifts of food – but why?

13 hours ago

Weather News

Earthquake swarm detected at Mount Rainier, biggest since 2009

18 hours ago

Weather News

The US has a plan to breed millions of flies and drop them from planes

13 hours ago

AccuWeather Weather Blogs iPhone Barometer, Eat My Weather Dongles!
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™ Personal Weather Stations
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™ Personal Weather Stations
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
© 2025 AccuWeather, Inc. "AccuWeather" and sun design are registered trademarks of AccuWeather, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | About Your Privacy Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

...

...

...