Sure your fridge is stocked, extra water on hand and trusty flashlight has new batteries. Don’t forget your smartphone has one of the best flashlights to help see through an outage. And if you do lose power, remember your car battery charger is a good source for recharging your portable devices. Just don’t run your car while in a closed garage no matter what.
Taking your smartphone out into the cold is a sure way to zap the battery life. Keep it near your body heat and tap into helpful apps to get essentials done. Here are a few apps that can help you weather the winter blizzard storm season.
SNOW PLOW ON DEMAND APP
Need a snow plow? App for that. On demand snow removal. They text you a photo once your driveway is clear. A list of cities where service is available can be found at the bottom of the plowz site.
http://plowzandmowz.com/
CITY SNOW PLOW TRACKER MAPS
Snowplow tracking apps are found in most wintery city government sites. Some that are doing well to inform are listed below. I think Pittsburg wins the prize for best interact map showing the location of plows and streets that have been cleared. The City of Boston lets you send the city services a request to have your street plowed.
City of NYC plow status map
Chicago PlowTracker
Boston plow request
Pittsburg Plow tracker map
HYPERLOCAL CROWDSOURCED WEATHER
http://weathermob.me/
Want to be a weather reporter? WeatherMob app sources everyday people to report what the winter weather is like in their neighborhood to give you a hyperlocal weather report. I want this app to function better than it currently does, and I’m holding out hope cause its a darn good idea.
(Ever wonder why your street has not been plowed.. this app could show that other streets near you are clear while you still wait)
DARKSKY APP
http://darkskyapp.com/
My favorite weather app and best at notifications of bad weather. Hyperlocal (and strangely accurate) alerts tell you when it is about to snow, sleet and rain at your location.
I want to hear from you! Comment below with any great apps or technology that you’re using to weather the storm. Stay warm!