Mobile Weather

Capture in-field weather information for on-the-go decision making. Accurate information is critical when making decisions surrounding product application, so it is important to use weather information that is specific to the operator and area being covered. John Deere Mobile Weather displays five critical values needed when determining the effectiveness of product application.

Utilize the customizable alerts and weather information to make educated decisions about when to spray. Monitoring temperature, wind speed, wind direction, Delta T, and relative humidity on the go allows operators to quickly and easily understand if the weather conditions are favorable or not for product application. Built-in alerts make it easy for operators to set operational parameters to know when unfavorable weather conditions are present. Having weather information in the cab allows operators to increase product efficacy and decrease the risk of chemical drift.

Mobile Weather

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Millions of people in the United States regularly acquire information from weather forecasts for a wide variety of reasons. The rapid growth in mobile device technology has created a convenient means for people to retrieve this data, and in recent years, mobile weather applications (MWAs) have quickly gained popularity. Research on weather sources, however, has been unable to sufficiently capture the importance of this form of information gathering. As use of these apps continues to grow, it is important to gain insight on the usefulness of MWAs to consumers. To better examine MWA preferences and behaviors relating to acquired weather information, a survey of 308 undergraduate students from three different universities throughout the southeast United States was undertaken. Analyses of the survey showed that smartphone MWAs are the primary weather forecast source among college students. Additionally, MWA users tend to seek short-term forecast information, like the hourly forecast, from their apps. Results also provide insight into daily MWA use by college students as well as perceptions of and preferential choices for specific MWA features and designs. The information gathered from this study will allow other researchers to better evaluate and understand the changing landscape of weather information acquisition and how this relates to the uses, perceptions, and values people garner from forecasts. Organizations that provide weather forecasts have an ever-growing arsenal of resources to disseminate information, making research of this topic extremely valuable for future development of weather communication technology.

Millions of people in the United States regularly obtain essential information from weather forecasts for a wide variety of reasons (Lazo et al. 2009). With weather being perhaps the most routinely sought-after type of information, it is imperative to understand the many facets of how and why people procure this information, starting with their sources and then how people use their acquired knowledge in day-to-day activities. The rapid growth in mobile device technology has created new contemporary means for people to access weather forecasts, pointing to the need to update past literature in this specific niche of weather research.

With the rise in smartphone use, applications (apps) on these devices are also soaring in popularity. Surveys of the American public found that, between 2009 and 2011, nearly twice as many adults were downloading apps to their phones, increasing from 22% to 38% (Purcell 2011). This number has since soared to 77% of adult smartphone owners, indicating the continued surge in ubiquity of smartphone apps (Olmstead and Atkinson 2015). Adults are most likely to download apps that provide continuous information on news, weather, sports, and finance (Purcell 2011). While most popular mobile apps revolve around games and entertainment, apps for weather come in a close second followed by social media apps and those used for travel and navigation (Purcell 2011). More recent research on app usage by adult smartphone owners is in line with previous studies, while also adding other popular uses for apps including shopping, dating, and reading electronic books (Rainie and Perrin 2017).

Information-seeking and -consumption behaviors are rapidly changing as a result of continually evolving technology (Handmark 2010; Zickuhr 2011; Pew Research Center 2018), and previous research on sources of weather information such as that undertaken by Corso (2007), Lazo et al. (2009), Demuth et al. (2011), and Grotticelli (2011) indicated that television was the most popular medium for weather forecast acquisition. Though the work on the type of information sought from forecasts remains relevant, the research is potentially less applicable today because of their omission of smartphones and mobile devices as a weather forecast source. More recent research has captured smartphone use for retrieving weather information. A study of residents in Ontario found that the use of cell phone apps for weather information was not as popular as other modes, including talking with family and friends, local radio, and The Weather Network, a Canadian cable weather television channel (Silver 2015). A separate survey in 2015 revealed that MWAs are the preferred source for weather information, surpassing the more traditional source of television (Hickey 2015), illustrating the importance of the research undertaken here.

Other recent studies look directly at MWAs and their content. Yoder-Bontrager et al. (2017) analyzed information retrieved from focus groups to better understand the reception of smartphone weather warnings and design of weather warning features on MWAs. They determined that the content of the warning information is important to participants and suggested that future MWA developers focus on the information disseminated in alerts rather than directing attention to increasing ways of alerting the smartphone owner. Additionally, one study looked at 39 of the most popular MWAs from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy, analyzing their design and displays of information and relating this to the future of communicating uncertainty information (Zabini 2016).

The use of smartphones to access weather information has certainly shown explosive growth in recent years. Two models, the diffusion of innovations theory (DIT) and the technology acceptance model (TAM), may foster understanding of the rising popularity of smartphones in accessing weather forecasts (Chan-Olmsted et al. 2013). The concepts of relative advantage, complexity, and compatibility from DIT help to explain the adoption of a new product or concept (Rogers 1995). In the case of MWAs, if the apps are seen to be more valuable than a traditional weather source like television or a newspaper, then the app will likely become the preferred choice. Further, if an MWA is easy to use and aligns well with individual lifestyles it is likely to be adopted.

Similar to DIT, TAM emphasizes ideas of relative usefulness and ease of use, both of which have been shown to influence why mobile news applications are widely used by the public (Davis et al. 1989). If the user does not believe the product offers much utility, the new technology will not likely be successful (Chan-Olmsted et al. 2013). Additionally, the perception that a technology or product is easy to use and provides an added benefit to the user strongly correlates not only with current usage rates but also with predicted future use (Davis 1989).

Understanding both where people turn for weather information and the reasons and motivations for how people access and consume weather forecasts is fundamental to learning about how to best communicate weather (Demuth et al. 2011). The landmark study on sources and personal interpretation of weather data by Lazo et al. (2009) found that most people use weather forecasts for the city or area in which they live (87% usually or always). Location, timing, probability, and type of precipitation along with forecast temperatures are seen as most valuable to users (Lazo et al. 2009). This study also found that people use weather forecasts mostly to stay informed about the weather (72% usually or always), but other popular uses include how to dress and how to plan activities that could be affected by the weather (Lazo et al. 2009). 2351a5e196