The 10 Best weather apps

Avoid spending the night in a service station by getting the finest meteorology services in your pocket.

1. Weather Live

A beautifully designed and thorough app that gives you forecasts for multiple locations around the world, as well as animations and live-weather scenes reflecting real-time conditions.

iOS, £1.49, Android, £0.99

2. Weather Pro

Europe's leading weather-forecast app, which features reports from more than two million locations worldwide in up to three-hourly intervals. It also includes high-res weather maps and radar images, for the amateur meteorologists who want to judge for themselves.

iOS, £2.49, Android, £2.49, Windows, £2.59

3. Amazing Weather HD

A graphically stunning weather app, which features sharp colours and clearly displayed information. It is definitely the best of its kind for Windows Phones. Some of the many features on offer include hourly data, weather warnings, satellite images and beautiful dynamic- lock screens that you can customise to suit your needs.

Windows, £0.79

4. Swackett

A fun, alternative take on the more traditional weather app, Swackett shows you what the weather is through the use of "peeps" – cartoon characters who are always dressed appropriately for the elements. If the peeps have an umbrella, then it's pretty clear that you should probably have one, too. Of course, all the conventional weather data is also included.

iOS, Free, Android, Free

5. Dark Sky Finder

A stargazing app that helps you to locate nearby dark skies, directing you to hundreds of locations around the world where you can find a spot with no light pollution or cloudy weather. You can also help your fellow astronomers by adding more locations.

iOS, £0.69

6. MagicSeaweed

Surf's up! Or is it…? Save yourself a wasted trip to the beach with this surf report app, which gives you detailed short- and long-range swell forecasts collected from local buoy and wind-station data.

iOS, Free

7. Wind Speed Meter

An ingenious app that analyses the sound of the wind through your phone's microphone to estimate wind speed and direction. Might not be accurate enough for sailors, but definitely worth having if you're a windsurfer or enjoy kite sports.

Android, £2.49

8. Winter Survival Kit

Designed with adverse weather conditions in mind, this app is a one-stop advice centre for stranded drivers. It helps you find your location, calculates how long you can run your car engine to keep warm and advises you on how to stay safe from carbon-monoxide poisoning.

Android, Free

9. Sunsafe

Don't fall foul of the sun's rays (although chance would be a fine thing right now) with this very sensible app. It calculates the safe time to stay in the sun according to all skin types, gets the UV index for your location and is full of tips and advice.

iOS, £0.69

10. AccuWeather for iPad

Unlike some lovely looking apps such as Beautiful Day, this iPad weather app covers the UK. Steven Mesko's app looks good, works well and is easy to use. It even offers advice on how the weather my affect you: "An excellent time for respiratory health."

Android, iOS, Windows, free