The Weather Channel Max

The Weather Channel Max is admittedly more temperamental than most of the Essential apps in our AppGuides, but it (or its free version linked below) is in a class of its own in terms of information. Visually-inclined app seekers may want to look elsewhere, as the Weather Channel Max has none of the beautiful graphics or animations of many of the apps in the genre. Instead, the Weather Channel Max’s layout is straight-forward and in service of the information presented, much of which can be found by scrolling a slider on the bottom that includes the local pollen report, severe weather listings, videos, a radar map, and social connections including local photos. The app opens to the current conditions in your “favorite” location and shows you everything from temperature, feels like, sunrise & sunset times, dew point, UV index, and a few other weather nuances. Hourly, 36 hour, and 10 day forecast information is easily accessible by touching tabs below the current forecast. A couple other things of note about the app: you can receive push notifications for severe weather alerts for one location and you can see your Facebook friends' or contacts' local weather forecast. The app comes in two flavors: Free and $3.99; the major difference is iAds at the top.