Nothing can be more dispiriting than showcasing your short shorts and snazzy flip-flops in torrential showers and winds strong enough to blow your sunglasses off. And with some youngsters going back to school as early as next week it is even more important that you make the most of the rest of the holidays. Here's Jemma McGuffie's shortlist of ten of the best free apps for tracking sunny days in Scotland.
1) Wunderground
A nice little app that tracked my exact location with an accurate temperature reading and even included a webcam video of an area near my location. The app also features a graph and a pie chart, which I think makes the information clearer and more attractive for users. But what makes this app stand out the most is the fact that it has a map, which gives you a clear overview of temperatures across the country. 9.5/10
2) BBC Weather App
For those of us who just want a simple, clear reading of the weather this app is for you. It takes second place as although it took on a simpler layout than Wunderground it pinpointed my exact location, gave an accurate temperature reading and was easy to navigate. However I do feel that Wunderground overtakes this app because as well as providing users with a map overview of temperatures across Scotland, it also gives them more information and I feel it has a better graphics. 9/10
3) Weather Live Free
Although you can manually add more locations in this app, it doesn't give the option of an overall map but it does have a stunning design, clear layout, functions are easy to use and find, and my temperature reading was accurate. 8/10
4) The Weather Channel
This app gave an almost accurate reading of my exact location, it was only one celsius out. It has an attractive layout, which is easy to read. It also has some cute animal videos to keep the children amused. I must add you can check the weather in other locations but it involves adding them manually. 8/10
5) Yahoo Weather
The weather forecast was slightly inaccurate but the app makes up for its inaccuracy with its attractive design and user-friendly layout. What is clever about this app is that although it includes a lot of information it still manages to look uncluttered. It is also quite easy to navigate through this app as all it involves is swiping vertically for more weather information about your location. 7/10
6) Weather HD free by Clear Day
This app had a completely different layout from the others and showed an effective comparison of the weather in two locations of your choice. The reason why I didn't put this up higher was because it only allows you to choose two locations and doesn't show you an overview of the weather in different areas across Scotland. 6.5/10
7) forecast.co.uk
I wasn't too fond of the design of this app, which looked less attractive than the others. However it did give a detailed and accurate account of the weather in my area. It also gave you the option to view a map with temperatures across Scotland throughout the locations but it didn't name each location, so you would either need to be good at geography or have a map on hand. 6/10
8) Weather+
The layout of this app is attractive, clear and leaves enough space to see the moving background, which isn't too distracting. The temperature reading of my location was accurate and you can add up to ten locations on this app, however there is no option of an overall look at temperatures across Scotland. 5.5/10
9) AccuWeather
Has a modern, simple design, which shows an image of what the weather is like in your location. Even though I liked the design of this app I have to take points off as it didn't find my exact location and it didn't give much information about the weather in my area. However there was the option to add other locations but again this is manually and doesn't give an overall map view of Scotland. 5/10
10) UK Weather Forecast
I would have scored this app higher if it wasn't for the annoying adverts. Although it didn't give an accurate reading, it wasn't far off but the random appearance of adverts flashing up on the screen put it to the bottom of the list. It's a shame because the app has a nice, animated design and clear layout. 3/10
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