For the second installment on the series New Apps for the New Year I will go through some new replacement apps for your regularly used apps. Weather apps on our phones and tablets may be one of the most important apps we use. Even though most of the time we use the app there isn’t a big storm or blizzard, it is still important to get up to date and correct weather for our location. So here are some new weather apps that you may want to replace your old app with.

Because weather related apps is such a huge market different apps focus on offering special features in their weather apps. So even though you can get your local weather from Google Now, there are some free apps that can give you a better view of you current and future weather. Here are a couple weather apps I recommend and the different reasons why you may want to download these apps.

1Weather

1Weather app for Android is a powerful all around weather app, which makes it one of the best free weather apps on the Play Store. 1Weather has been around for a while so you may have heard of it or even tried it. The developers are continually working on improving the app so there have been many improvements done since it first launched. One of the reasons I recommend this app is the support for Android Wear. So here is why you might want to make 1Weather you new weather app.

To start 1Weather is a beautifully designed app for Android, but has a array of different features for the weather lovers. 1Weather features real-time local weather predictions, ranging from hourly to 7-day extended forecast and precipitation. Condition-based photo backgrounds provide the requisite eye candy, while detailed radar maps, severe weather alerts, sunrise, sunset and lunar phase indicators provide great weather data. 1Weather has a great many widgets you can add to your homescreen or lockscreen to stay up to date on your local weather. But the 1Weather feature I like the best is the support for Android Wear. You will get 1Weather cards on your Moto 360, LG Watch, or other Android Wear device. The beautiful look and features of the 1Weather app are transferred to the Android Wear device with weather based background, current weather, and weekly forecast.The 1Weather app is a great app to look at if you want to change up your existing weather app with cool design, features, and Android Wear support.

Yahoo Weather

On the other side of the spectrum of weather apps is Yahoo Weather. Yahoo has created several apps recently that focus on giving you an information overview in a simple and beautiful design. Yahoo Weather is a clean simple weather app that will give you weather information quickly and easily. When you open Yahoo weather it starts with a full-screen image from your local area, illustrating the current weather conditions. When you Swipe down it reveals the weather forecast for the rest of the day and the next five days.When you scroll down further you can get more weather details like humidity, visibility, and the UV index.

The app includes a map showing the weather in your region, the map is clickable which allows you to make it full screen and gives you additional functionality like viewing a satellite map of the region. You can also change the map to a color coded temperature map of the area. You can also view a map of the wind speeds of the area. You can scroll down on the app and get a very cool animation showing the current wind speed, as well as the barometer reading. The app also has the precipitation percentage for the next 12 hours. And lastly the app includes and animation showing the sunrise and sunset, and the current phase of the moon. As you can see the app includes an ad in the middle of all the information so even though the app is free you have to scroll through an ad which breaks up the clean look of the app.

You can add multiple cities to the Yahoo weather app by clicking the plus in the upper right. If you have multiple cities you can easily swipe left and right to switch between the weather screens for the city. This transition is easy and works very smoothly. Yahoo Weather also has been upgraded to work with Android Wear devices, so you can weather notifications on your moto360. Overall the Yahoo weather app is a very good looking and easy to use weather app that will get you all the essential weather information you need.

These two weather apps 1Weather and Yahoo Weather are my two new apps for the new year. Hopefully you have found a new weather app to check out to replace your existing apps. Let me know what weather apps you recommend.