Some of you may be thinking, “a weather app? Are you serious?”

Alright, so compared to yesterday’s Survival Guide, the WeatherBug app seems a little trite, a little less mind-blowing. But, as any outdoor enthusiast knows, preparing for whatever weather lies ahead is tantamount to a good trip – and your safety. With the way California weather has been going lately, with hot days lasting into November, it’s all too easy to assume random showers won’t strike at the least opportune moment. Or, you might find yourself stuck in an unforeseen, but nevertheless awesome lightning storm, as we Bay Area residents experienced out of the blue back in early October. When it comes to snowfall, and extreme temperature changes, these are weather patterns you want to be prepared for. Wearing those Hunter Wellies in the rain won’t cut it in hard ice – you’ll need to break out the Adirondack and sherpa-lined boots with duck fronts for that.

More involved than other weather apps for the iPhone – including the stock weather widget – WeatherBug gives you a vast array of information, maybe more so than you really need. What really sets WeatherBug apart from other apps is it gives you live, local weather conditions and forecasts from both NWS (National Weather Forecast) weather stations and WeatherBug’s own proprietary weather stations. This means you pick the nearest weather station to you rather than simply selecting a town, which is pretty limited in the grand scheme of things. This means if it is hailing in your neighborhood, yet sunny across town, WeatherBug will help you to determine this. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve checked the forecast for Point Reyes, had it read a very chilly 55 degrees F, only to begin my hike with sunny, blazing skies and warm enough weather for a tank top even before my heart rate starts pumping. Phooey.

Some key features of the app include 7-day and hourly forecasts; daily national weather outlook video; radar maps with zoom feature; live weather cameras of which you may view 5 at a time and view in time-lapse mode; cached weather data for offline viewing (of particular use for we, hikers); National Weather Service alerts, touch map interface that allows you to view weather conditions for any location touched; and -way cool – temperature contour and satellite infrared maps. Phew! Think that’s enough to keep you busy?

When you first open the app, the most basic and necessary information is given up-front – the current temperature with hi and lo of the day, along with a weather description for the day (“party cloudy in the morning then becoming mostly sunny…”). It’s nice that Weatherbug includes on the first page other details like wind chill, humidity and dew point, and if you want to see more specific details on any of these, just tap the arrow pointing to the right – you’ll be taken to a page of “current conditions” detailing wind gusts, rain rates, and everything else so far occurring on that day. Funnily enough, despite all these details, there’s no way to change the temperature reading from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Too bad for the Canadians, eh? Should any weather concerns be pressing, the center of the main page has a bar indicating those NWS alerts I mentioned earlier – if you’re in Pennsylvannia and a tornado warning is issued, you’ll be sure to see it blazing in that bar.

I have my WeatherBug following Petaluma, CA; Point Reyes Station, CA; San Francisco, CA; and New York, NY, but you can set WeatherBug to follow up to 10 separate locations if you wish. Flipping through these locations is just a matter of using the navigation bar along the top of the main screen, which reads “Petaluma, CA,” or whichever location you’re currently viewing. The Forecast button in the bottom navigation bar is self-explanatory – check out the written forecast blurbs, and tap on them for more detailed blurbs. The Maps page is where things get exciting. Powered by Microsoft Virtual Earth, you’re able to navigate with your finger, much like Google Maps, only this one contains weather pattern imaging; satellite, radar and temperature views; and an opacity setting (whatever that means, just pretend you’re a forecaster). You may watch live weather videos if you ever want an immediate, personal connection to your weather updates, conducted by the less-lusty-than-usual Rachel, with her dark lipstick, highlighted strands, and cat eye glasses.

Definitely worth it for outdoorsmen in the long haul, WeatherBug will keep you up-to-date with detailed information of weather patterns and forecasts from anywhere in the world. At no cost to download, it’s a small price to pay for being prepared.