The capricious tendency of typhoons (now in season in Tokyo) to change their course at whim means that no matter what the weather forecast predicted in the morning, the details of exactly when and where you might get caught out in a trouser leg soaking down pour are hard to pin down.
While we tend to think of this as a fact of life, the National Weather Association has teamed up with mobile phone provider NTT Docomo to offer a “rain cloud mail messaging” alert service. Yes, this means your mobile phone alerts you of the approaching presence of a big fat rain cloud that you probably can’t detect from within your cubicle. It also means that you know to go pick up your take-out lunchbox from the convenience store now because in 30 minutes it could get ugly outside.
Specifically, subscribers to the service, which has a monthly service charge of ¥105 (about $1), input their location and the strength and proximity of the rain clouds about which they would like to be notified. At the bottom of the mail is a link to the current 6 hour forecast for your area on the National Weather Association mobile site.
Meanwhile those with GPS capable phones can take advantage of a new service called “10 minute furidasu” (“furidasu” means “begin to rain”) from Dwango and Life & Business Weather that offers a rain forecast in 10 minute intervals based on your current location.
The ¥105 a month service rates the weather within a 1kg radius on a seven-point scale from “clear” to “violent rain.” This type of live feed is also intended to track “guerilla rain,” the aforementioned shoe soaking variety that, due to its strong but short-lived nature, could easily be avoided with accurate, up to date information.
Not only are these services time and place specific, they are also season specific. Like the UV level forecasting services we covered during the summer months, these new rain sites address a concern that is fortunately (for us) not year round. On the other hand, together they display a level of customization that makes the standard nightly news forecast seem down right obsolete.
