How to get weather on a flip phone

Most flip phones have a weather widget or a preloaded app, and most of them are bad. They show a current temperature and a five day forecast with icons, and nothing else. No hourly breakdown, no precipitation amounts, no wind, and no severe weather alerts unless your carrier pushes one.

If you need to know whether it is going to rain in the next four hours, or how much, the built-in weather does not answer that.

What matters on a flip phone

The screen is small, so every line has to earn its place. A useful weather display on this screen needs three things: what it is now, what it will be over the next twelve hours, and whether rain is coming and how much.

Percentage chance of rain is the standard display on most weather apps, but it is not very useful. Sixty percent tells you very little about whether to move hay or cancel a pour. Inches of expected rainfall is a number you can act on.

Weather in Flip Assistant

Free, even without a subscription

Weather in Flip Assistant comes from the National Weather Service, which is free and public. It never counts toward the monthly allowance, and it keeps working even if you cancel your subscription or never start one. Weather works before you have set up an account at all.

Other options

• The phone's built-in weather. Shows current conditions and a multiday forecast. Usually no hourly detail and no precipitation amounts. Fine if you only need to know whether to bring a jacket.
• Call the NWS forecast line. Dial (866) 945-5456, enter a zip code, and hear the forecast read aloud. Free, works on any phone, but you cannot glance at it later.
• Text-based weather services. Some services reply to a text with a forecast. The format varies and the detail is usually limited.