As bandwidth increases, desktop applications naturally grow more elaborate; and may someday give local weathermen a run for their money. Desktop weather applications make an easy way for people to check their local forecast, their temperature, and a wide variety of other weather-related data that gets updated on the fly. How involved and technical they want to get in predicting the weather is up to them.

One of the more popular weather applications is WeatherBug. Weatherbug details the wind speeds and direction, the humidity, dew point, wind chill, Barometric pressure, and offers up a wide variety of rain data. It of course also offers a traditional forcast and other information on weather patterns as well. For $19.95 a year, you get added functionality such as weather alerts, reports for multiple weather locations, live weather cameras and more. It also provides a temperature gauge in the system tray for a quick glance. Some users report that the program does have its fair share of spyware, though the company itself claims the program is getting a bad rap.

Weather Pulse, designed by Tropic Designs, doesn't have all the pretty colors of its competitors, but still has most of the goods that you would expect to find in a desktop weather application. On top of the basics, it can show you satellite images and videos from around the world. It even includes a feature to take advantage of your active desktop by displaying the latest satellite image as your background image.

For those with broadband (or dial-up customers with endless patience), there are streaming video forecasts by weathermen explaining the latest weather patterns. Weather Pulse even has a system tray icon, just like WeatherBug. Weather Pulse's strongest selling point is that the application is completely free.

For those that travel, Wetsock provides some great information about aviation weather and forecasts for more than 4,000 cities worldwide. It also provides a way to monitor multiple cities at once for weather nuts who love to multi-task. Wetsock is free to try, but a full license will run you twelve dollars.



Wetsock also allows you to setup filters to better streamline the exact weather information you want. If you wanted to know only the Barometric pressure for ten different cities, then Wetsock can give an easy on-screen display. Wetsock also gives weather details for nearly a thousand cities in Canada.

For those that want a little more personality in their weather forecast (or perhaps just really, really enjoy amphibians) you could try Froggy the WeatherFrog.

Froggy has different animated behaviors based upon the weather, and likes to hang out in his jar. When the weather is warm, he climbs up his ladder to relax in the sun.

When it snows, he sits at the bottom of his jar, shivering. Aside from his charming temperature based personality, he also provides support for over half a dozen different languages. The download is free, and is only a megabyte.

You can learn more about the weather predicting amphibian via the site's faq.






There are many different desktop weather applications out there, with various feature sets. It's simply a matter of choosing which one best suits your taste. Those looking for simpler fare might like Weather Watcher, or those interested in a cool screensaver could try Eye of the Storm. Other weather services users might be interested in include programs such as WeatherAloud, which offers weather forecasts for 7,500 locations worldwide with many of the same feature sets as the above products.

There is also Desktop Doppler, which is free for twenty-five days but eventually will cost you $29.95 to own. Again, ir offers much of the same features as other products, including automated storm detection; which alerts you of an impending weather event no matter where you're located in the United States.

You can find a broad range of user feedback on preferred weather programs in our Cool Broadband Bookmark forum.

Desktop weather applications have come along way from their origins and will likely further evolve as bandwidth to the home increases, allowing you to get angry at the weatherman three times faster.

Broadband Reports user Archivis contributed to this report