WeatherBug Lite – My Favorite Menu Bar Weatherman

I’ve been obsessing about the weather lately. Maybe this is because the weather is changing from summer to fall to winter, or maybe it’s because my car has a chip in my windshield that I can’t repair until it stops raining, but for whatever the reason, I’ve been obsessing about the weather.

For years, back in the mid/late 1990s, when I was using Macs exclusively, I had used a program called WeatherPop. I think I may even have purchased the shareware license so that my WeatherPop upgraded to WeatherPop Advance.

Well, it’s been a few years, and I see that WeatherPop is still around. I downloaded it, but it was very flaky on my computer. The demo for WeatherPop Advance worked fine, but the free version refused to use my state, city location, even though the demo for the shareware version displayed it fine.

So, I’ve been looking for other solutions. I found Meteo, which I like very much, although I’m a bit leery since it seems that it only works with a hack, and who knows how long that will work? I also recently tried a free program called Outside, which is nice, but only shows the current weather. If it had an option for displaying the weather forecast, I think Outside would be my menu bar weather forecaster of choice, but it does not, so my search continues.

When I wrote a recent review of the new version of Netscape Navigator, I noticed that Netscape had a status bar weather display. I saw that this used the WeatherBug service, and after browsing the WeatherBug website, I saw that they have a free menu bar weather applet, so I decided to give it a try.

Once again, I think I’ve managed to find a program that works exactly the way I want, so I’m thrilled.

WeatherBug Lite is the name of the free version (a version is also available for purchase that includes a few more options, but I didn’t try it out as it isn’t available for Macs). In spite of that, however, the free version suits my needs very well. When you use WeatherBug Lite, all you really need to do is input your location. Simply type in the name of where you live, find the state in the drop-down menu, or enter your zip code. WeatherBug Lite will find your location. Select it, and WeatherBug Lite goes to work.

You’ll now notice, in your menu bar, a tiny temperature display. Unlike other menu bar applets, WeatherBug Lite doesn’t show a yellow sun when it’s shiny, lightning when it’s stormy, or a grey blob when it’s foggy. I know some people will miss that feature, but I’m fine without it.

One thing that WeatherBug Lite does that I haven’t encountered from other weather applets is the option to receive alerts when weather-related warnings happen. For instance, if a flash flood watch is put into effect for my area, WeatherBug Lite will see that and up will pop a window informing me of it. This is customizable, which is a good thing, since there are 23 alert types that will, by default, trigger a new message. You can set it so that only the 13 highest priority alerts trigger a new message on your screen, or so that you never see any weather alerts.

This, I find, is almost more useful than the temperature display. My window is two feet from my desk, so I can always see what the weather is like. The alerts let me know what might be coming.

As do the forecast and radar menu options. These options aren’t built into the applet itself, which might be a good thing, but – when clicked – take the user to the WeatherBug.com website, where a full list of forecast information (and detailed radar images), can be viewed.

As I mentioned earlier, WeatherBug Lite isn’t “complete” (because of a lack of weather icons), but for my purposes, it’s pretty much perfect. It’s lightweight, doesn’t take up a lot of room in my menu bar, and gives me the information I want, while not taking up a lot of system resources. You can download the Mac version of WeatherBug Lite here.