It's come to this? We need an app to check the forecast now?

Lol

weather channel app has some options for alerts including "change ahead" which might show temperature drop? the premium option may give you a choice for temp. also significant weather, rain,, lightning, snow, pollen.....

"It's come to this? We need an app to check the forecast now?"

If I could like this 100 times, I would...

Yes why would anyone ever want to use technology to automate repetitive tasks? 🙄

I think it's a cool idea! Search for "custom weather alerts" and you'll find quite a few options between web services and apps that can do what you need.

Alex, I agree. I don’t check the weather daily unless I have to worry about rain for some reason. If you have tender plants and don’t want to waste time looking at weather every day, then a notification would be a nice feature.

I wish that there were an easy way to measure winter chill hours. I can keep track of freezes (we get very few and it is generally trumpeted loudly when one is expected) but the winter chill thing is much harder to figure out. I have a Cladrastus kentukea that has been in the ground for 20 years and has only bloomed twice (this year is one of the times and it's going to be a big show) and my theory is that it needs a certain amount of winter chill.

My laptop under Windows 10 comes with a local weather app. All it takes is a single mouse or touchpad click to see a week long forecast display with both minimum lows and maximum highs. My browser (not Edge) also offers a local weather app accessible as a desktop icon. It couldn't be any easier with any other sort of app.

In zone 10b you won't have to worry about below 40 degrees for many, many months.

Back in the dark ages, the Weather Channel had a sign up for free email forecasts. There were also several 'special interest alerts' you could sign up for which included frost alerts. I miss those. My desktop Mac had a weather feature, but apparently it was only good for a certain number of years. It stopped working a few years ago. The supposedly 'useless' iPhone that I rescued from being recycled last year has a weather app that I check a few times a day. It isn't as thorough as the old emails were, and not infrequently claims it is raining when there is barely a cloud in the sky.

The good news is that I have finally found a radar webpage I like. radar.weather.gov I grew up with radar as a regular sight on TV. There were times when there was 30 seconds of radar practically every commercial break. NYC stations barely believe in radar during the weather forecast. Seeing the storms move from west to east often gives me a better feel for what is coming than anything else.

"Seeing the storms move from west to east often gives me a better feel for what is coming than anything else."

Agree. It's quite helpful to check the radar. I live in the southwest corner of a very large county, so weather alerts of severe t'storm warning mxk county aren't all that helpful to me if they don't include details of storm location in the broadcast/notification -- easy to spot on the radar, though. Same with rain events -- can usually get a pretty good sense if likely to miss rain based on direction of system movement.

Well I'm glad to see there are a few people that can understand why it would be very convenient. We have beautiful weather in Southern California, but I just got a plant that does not tolerate temperatures below 40°F. I know I don't have to worry about it for a while; but come winter, it would be nice to have a notification at least the first time of year that the temperature drops below 40.

My local news channel has a weather app which provides frost freeze notifications; maybe you could check your local weather channels to see if they have the same?

i have 5 acres .. 500 feet square ... with a 8 foot deep valley across the middle .. east to west .. you wouldnt think that would matter .... but it does ....

i can have heavy frost in the bottom ... light frost on top ... and no impact on the decline ... probalby due to cold air moving to the low spot ...

in other words.. i have 3 micro climates on the parcel ...

such could not be addressed by some gizmo based thingee ... lots of technical terms there.. lol ... especially when the nearest weather station if 5 miles away ...

in essence.. you are playing the zone pushing game ... it has cost me a lot of money and plants over the years ... thinking i could outwit ma nature... its part of the game.. we all want what we cant grow ...

you should be able to beat one zone.. in the city .. by proper placement within your garden ... e.g. against the house is usually warmer at night ... the side of the house out of prevailing winds that bring in cold air at night ... under larger evergreen plants.. etc ..

at some point this game involves putting down the gizmo.. and turning those thumbs green ... thru experimenting .. and no gizmo based alert is going to make your thumbs green ...

i dont think you told us what the plant is ... and most of us dont do CA or z10 ... but we would like to help if we can ...

as you were private ...

ken

"i have 3 micro climates on the parcel ..."

wow that sounds complicated !!

not once i figured it out.. lol ...

i had 1650 hosta in mostly 3 giant beds .... and it didnt take me long to realize,. the lowest bed leafed out a week or two later ... depending on spring ... whatever soil warmth was generated during the day.. was lost at night because of the pooling cold air ...

the upside was.. the higher bed was repeatedly hit with frosts or freeze because they came up two weeks earlier ...

and then.. i learned about micro climates thru experience ...

as i said.. it only took 3 or 4 years.. lol ..

the other example was... the forsythia at the bottom.. bloomed a few weeks later.. if the buds were killed by cold in winter ... and.. i noticed in the local small town.. with all that pavement to retain heat into the might.. the forsythia bloomed two weeks earlier than all my Fs ...

ma nature is a wicked wicked woman .... there is a word i would prefer to use.. but i dont want to offend your sensibilities.. it rhymes with cross stitch .. lol ... well.. part of those 2 words ... lol

ken

"ma nature is a wicked wicked woman"

Great. Now I can't this song out of my head...

Lol mxk3 I thought it would be this song

no cross stitch rock and roll.. eh ... lol

Well Ken.....there is Crazy stitch but it might offend some peoples sensibilities.