What is it?

Rain Alarm does what it says on the tin. It tracks your location via GPS, and then the map shows areas where it's raining. If you see rain heading your way, it's a good excuse to plan a pit stop or if you're made of tougher stuff you can be well prepared with wet weather gear when the rain hits. The app grades the wet weather areas using a colour code, light blue being the lightest shower and an angry purple for the most severe downpours. After using it during a week of very unpredictable weather, we found the updates are usually up to date within 8 to 10 minutes. 

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You'll need to make an in-app purchase to get alarms that warn you of heavy rain approaching with a notification (it can also sync with Android watches for ultimate convenience), but a combination of looking at the clouds and then confirming your suspicions via logging into the app should be fine for most of us... 

We're good, not so much for Nottingham though..... Rachael Gurney

What so good about this app?

There are other weather apps, indeed there are others that give you live weather updates: but for just sheer simplicity and no frills, Rain Alarm is hard to beat. The location locks on quickly, and the visual key makes it very easy to see you much of a deluge you're in for.

Where can I get it?

Rain Alarm is free on iPhone, and Android, and you can always check the website too if you want to have a quick scan at your desk before riding out. In-app purchases include an ad blocker for £2.69, and a more in-depth version with multiple alarms, animation settings and the ability to set multiple locations for £5.49. Both are one-off payments with no subscription necessary.   

What other options are there? 

We've been reliably informed by the readers of our sister mag over at road.cc that there are plenty of other options out there. You can also look at Home and Dry or Rain Today.

Our Staff Writer, Rachael swears by the app Windy TV. It deals with all weather, not just the wind so don't let the name fool you. There's no alert for the rain but she says it's the most reliable and accurate weather forecasting app she's used to date. Check it out on the PC too, you'll be hooked (as we were) once we zoomed out and watched the weather travel across the world......

Windy TV is bang on everytime Rachael Gurney