Tempest App Feedback

Tempest Owners Feature Requests
1

After working for Earth Networks/AEM/Davis Instruments for 20 years, my time with them ended in September (so I’m on the job hunt if anyone knows of anything I can do!).

When I left AEM, I had to give up my Davis equipment, so I am 100% all-in on Tempest now (as well as pushing recommending tempest to people moving forward).

Overall, I’m enjoying the Tempest app (the forecasts are more accurate than the WeatherLink app, and I believe my temperature, humidity, and dew point readings are more accurate).

The biggest thing that bugs me about the Tempest app at the moment is I can only view my own weather station.

When traveling, I used to use the WeatherLink app to view the nearest Davis station to me. Now that I’ve given up on WeatherLink, right now I’m using Wunderground’s app for viewing PWSs on-the-go, but I don’t care for the ads (and don’t want to pay for ad-free since I’m a PWS contributor).

The Tempest weather station map website loads too clunky on a mobile device since there isn’t a way to set it to GPS locate the nearest station to me.

WindAlert and FishWeather are a little overkill for my needs, plus I need more current conditions and less wind data. Tempest One is way overkill (plus I’m unemployed, so out of my budget)

Doing something similar to the Tempest weather station map, but allowing one to search via location or GPS, embed it in the Tempest app, and favorite different stations would be huge.

I also like the HeatAlert map, but it might be more useful just to merge that functionality into the Tempest app under its own tab (then provide push alerts for WBGT readings).

Rain readings are still a little wild on my Tempest. I also use a CoCoRaHS rain gauge. Might be fun to partner with CoCoRaHS to show nearby CoCoRaHS rain readings in the app so users can compare them to their Tempest rain sensor readings.

I also had access to the Mobilize app. It showed when frost could occur, but it didn’t have a way to push frost alerts out to people (which I thought was a glaring omission). Adding Frost push alerts to the Tempest app would be fun.

I no longer have my AirLinks, but I have a PurpleAir, and I’ve found the sensor to be better than my AirLink anyway. It would be fun to team up with PurpleAir and add their AQ readings and AQ alerts to the Tempest app, maybe even look at Tempest+PurpleAir package deals if you want to compete head-on with Davis.

Just a few pieces of feedback. Now that I’m no longer with “the other guys”, I can give you all the feedback you want to make Tempest the number one weather station vendor and dominate the market.

3 Likes
2

In the Tempest App. . .Please ADD the times that the Daily MAXs and MINs occur for . . . . Temp/RH/SLP/Wind/Light UV & Radiation.

I have used a DVVISS (DavisVantageViewIntegratedSensorSuite) since Decembr 2011. . .and they have ALWAYS fastened the Daily MAX / MIN times that have occurred especially for High Temp / Low Temp and Wind Gusts. That surely beats having to go into the graph each day and “Hunt Down” the times for MAX and MIN parameters like have to do now with Tempest! Coming up next month. . .I will have a 14-year Climo Archive of data for DVVISS.

2 Likes
3

Good feedback. I’d also like to see ET and TSHW in the Tempest app.

I need to see if Moon Phase is in there. If not, that’d be another good add.

I know WindAlert/FishWeather can offer iFrames for a website, and Tempest has the share link in its dashboard, but I’d also like to see an iFrame in the Tempest app itself I could embed in the website.

Plus some settings changes have to be done on the Tempest website. Bringing it all under the Tempest app would be great.

4

A little confused. Are you ‘working’ for WF now ? If not and you’re just another user, surf the Feature Requests tag in the forums for things people have asked for and voted for.

If you can find (a) the list of things and (b) even as few as three items that were actually implemented, let us know. All I’ve seen is many many feature requests that just are barking into the wind with nothing done after that.

The Feature Requests tag has been around for 5-1/2 years now. I can’t find mention of ‘any’ that were actually implemented.

5

I’m not working for WF at the moment. I’m in between jobs, so if WF ever wants me on their team, my resume is up at my personal website (parkernathan.com).

However, now that I no longer own a Davis station and only own a Tempest, I’m highly recommending the Tempest to everyone and going “all in” as a Tempest user.

It is sad that a lot of the feature requests haven’t been implemented yet, but that was a similar situation at Davis. Their engineers were pretty backed up, so most customer requests, while I logged them when I received them, wouldn’t be implemented for quite a while. Not sure where WF is at on their engineering, but it’s probably in a similar situation. Hopefully they’ll implement a handful of things here and there. I’d love to see them dominate the weather station market.

6

Funny how people assume that it’s an engineering problem. WF has a day job that pays everyone’s salaries, and that comes from operating a commercial weather network (that doesn’t use Tempest hardware) and selling data. If you look at half of the recent feature requests here against the Tempest Home license terms, you will see why they will never be implemented (because they are paid data options in the commercial network and/or TempestOne license that they aren’t going to give away for free).

As for iframing their web site, I suggest carefully reading the home license terms. Believe it or not, a local church putting up a home Tempest and sharing the info with their congregation is not permitted without a TempestOne license…

7

YIKES - to use a technical term repeatable in their congregation :frowning:

A little unrelated - has anybody gotten their few $$$ for the use of their data ?

From the Tempest kickstarter (link)

“For sharing your Tempest data we’ll send you an annual dividend check. Just install it, upload some photos and keep the data coming. In 2020 and 2021 we’ll send at least $15 per year. *Future year dividend depends on WeatherFlow revenues.”

They interestingly did say in their kickstarter FAQ circa Nov-2019 that multiple displays were planned but things of course changed after that. Kinda interesting revisiting the history

8

Good feedback.

I understand that Tempest needs to sell TempestOne to their B2B customer base in order to stay in business and pay salaries (a big bulk of the work I did over at AEM was on the B2B side until about my last year there where I did some B2C stuff on the Davis side).

However, the current problem that Tempest is facing is you either have the current Tempest B2C stuff or the Tempest One B2B side which is overkill for most consumers, and I would even argue, small/nonprofit organizations (like many churches, maybe some megachurches could afford TempestOne and likely benefit from TempestOne, but I’ve also served in small churches that definitely couldn’t).

I’m overall pleased with the current feature set in my Tempest (and my main feedback here is just providing what gaps Tempest currently has compared to their competition in order to improve their competitive advantage, although most of it likely won’t be implemented unless one turns to third-party options). Except for one thing: I really want a clean way to see all Tempest stations when traveling without the clunkiness of the map website or the data overload of WindAlert/FishWeather.

What I would advise Tempest is to come up with some form of way to implement some of this premium functionality in a way that can serve the B2C market, as well as smaller non-profit organizations, in a more cost-effective solution than TempestOne. Save TempestOne for the organizations who could benefit the most from it and pay it, but still look for a way to get some funds from the prosumers and smaller organizations. Davis offers a “Pro” and “Pro+” tier of WeatherLink which adds some premium functionality to WeatherLink. Some users who only want to own hardware and never pay a subscription stick with the Basic tier, but the prosumers and even some smaller organizations who wouldn’t have the funds for AEM’s enterprise offerings still signup for a WeatherLink Pro or Pro+ subscription, gain premium features, and that’s still revenue for AEM. Tempest is already offering a Pro version of WindAlert/FishWeather with access to their higher-end stations, but the price is still a fraction of TempestOne. Tempest could consider a “Tempest+” plan that offers some (but not all) of the premium features that customers are asking for in an affordable package, then still reserve the enterprise stuff for TempestOne.

I mentioned the engineering side of things since that’s what is commonly said in this industry, although that may or may not always be the case. :slight_smile:

I’ve never received any money back in exchange for them using my data. I didn’t buy mine on Kickstarter (the Tempest was out when I bought mine, got mine during the $199 sale). However, Tempest has given me access to WindAlert Plus in exchange for keeping my Tempest active. I wonder if that’s the replacement perk. I have to email them about once a year and ask them to extend it, and it’s only Plus (not Pro, but I live in Arkansas, but I don’t have any Pro stations near me). I have access to that perk if need be though.

9 
https://tempestwx.com/map/40.7127/-74.0059/12

This gets you public stations around New York city or so at zoom level 8.

I don’t remember if you have to be logged in or not, nor if cookies keep you logged in.

Drag the map around to your location and adjust zoom to taste. There are a LOT of WeatherFlow stations out there. The old Air/Sky still show up too.

10

Thanks. I have this map bookmarked, but I keep having issues where it’s glitchy when zooming/panning and ends up freezing up my browser, especially when using an iPhone or iPad. Is there any way to search by a particular location or zip code for stations and have it zoom in on just that area?

11

No idea. Bookmarks perhaps.

12

That’s been my only issue with it. If I can better zero in on locations and the performance was a little better, then it would be ideal for my needs.