Oz Weather - Settings

There are a number of app settings that help you customise the behaviour of Oz Weather. These can be accessed via the Info button / About Oz Weather / Select Theme and Settings buttons.

Startup Options

Theme

  • There are 6 different colour/image themes to choose from. The "Oz Sky" theme is the one that was used in all previous versions of Oz Weather, and is the default setting.

Open with

  • Last selected city - this option (the default settings) was always in effect in previous versions. It causes the app to always re-open showing data for the same city you had last been viewing.
  • City at top of list - when you edit the list of cities you can drag any selected city to the top, and typically you would put your home city there. The advantage of this option over the "last selected city" option is when you sometimes want to view weather in other cities than your own, but make sure it always start on your own
  • List of cities - if you often look at weather in different cities, then you might prefer to have a quicker startup which takes you to the list of cities, ready for you to select one.

First View

  • Forecast - this option ( the default setting) was always in effect in previous versions. It shows you the forecast page first when the first city is selected/opened.
  • Observations - this shows you the current observations page when the first city is selected/opened.

NB - This option only affects the first city weather view during an application session. For any subsequent cities you choose, the application remembers which type of view you  last used.

Weather History

  • Today only (faster) - tapping on the "Extremes since midnight" section displays a new view with the weather history, typically including readings at half hourly intervals. Items shown in red or blue colors indicate the direction that the value has changed since the previous reading. Red indicates warmer, drier, calmer, whereas blue indicates cooler, wetter or windier. White values indicate no change.
  • Last 72 hrs - this extends the history to include the past 3 days. This requires a slightly larger data download, and due to the amount of data, the table may not scroll smoothly on older iPhone/iPod models.

NB - Some weather stations do not have equipment to record all weather variables. For example some stations in coastal areas record wind and gust information only.

Radar preloading

  • On (faster) - this option (the default setting) was always in effect in previous versions. It causes radar images to load at the same time as the forecast and observations data, so that when you view the radar image, is has typically already finished loading. Unless you have very limited data download allowance, this is generally the preferred option.
  • Off (less data) - this prevents radar images from loading until you actually choose to view them. This reduces your data download requirement, but introduces a delay before the images become available. This option might be useful if you don't often view radar images and/or want to minimise the app data usage.

NB - A typical set of radar images for a city ranges from about 10kB to 40kB depending on how much rain activity is occurring.


Sunrise/set times

  • On/Off - when switched on (the default) sunrise and sunset times are shown under today's forecast for each city.

Fcst temps in obs

  • On/Off - when swtiched on (the default) todays forecast min amd max temperature are shown on the current observations page to the left of the weather icon. This allows you to see and compare the current temperature with what was forecast.

Units


  • Temperature - you can choose between Celsius (C) and Fahrenheit (F)
  • Pressure - you can choose between hectoPascals (hPa) and inches of Mercury
  • Rainfall - you can choose between millimeteres (mm) and inches
  • Windspeed - you can choose kilometres per hour (km/h), metres per second (m/s), knots, miles per hour (mph)

NB - Sailors and others with nautical interests should choose knots for windspeed.

Radar Location

Remember changes

  • ON - this option was always in effect in previous versions. When you change the radar location, that changed location is remembered by the app next time you select the radar for the same city. This is useful is when you want to make a permanent change to which radar to use for the a city.
  • OFF - this is the new default option. It allows you to change radar locations without affecting the standard radar location for the current city, so next time you view weather for that city, the radar location won't have changed.

NB - This option does not affect the radar range - only the radar location. Any changes you make to radar range are remembered for next time you view the radar for the same city.