Hi everyone,

The US government is not interested in improving weather forecast models, especially under Trump. Budgets are cut and staff are lower, with little investment coming in new super computers. We live in a time when we all carry supercomputers in our pockets that also happen to have weather sensors inside, and I say it's time we start using what we have and making new kinds of weather data available that could improve forecasts eventually.

I'm working on a program that lets you measure and contribute to Hurricane Florence. Basically I'm using the barometers in Android phones to make every phone into a weather station. The barometers are in phones for Google/Apple to know what floor of a building you're on, but we can turn that around and use the sensors together to create a new kind of weather network.

There are many challenges of course but I think we can make a big impact in improving weather forecast accuracy. If you'd like to check it out it's called All Clear Weather (Android only for now, iPhone coming soon!)

I want all apps to do this kind of thing - use the device you have for the greater good. So the main sensor part of the app is open source if you're interested.

What do you think? And what other things can we do that seem small on a personal level but are huge when connected together? What can we do BEFORE Florence arrives, like what Uhaul has done here, that can help people who are likely to lose their homes or jobs or everything. I know that there are projects we can undertake even just with phones that can help.