WRAL Weather 4+

Edit: Haven't looked at this review in a long while so hadn't seen the developer response that "it isn't the intent of WRAL to 'force' anyone to go online to do anything". Sad to say, that part has only gotten worse. The detailed video is what I'm talking about and now you can only get a brief video without going to the Live News and Weather and wait for the ads to play. In a severe weather event the app and WRAL seem to have improved the availability, otherwise I'm likely to miss the video weather - but I can always find it at ABC 11, so I'm good. (End of updated review, May 2019)
WRAL weather reporting is good because of the expertise of the the weather staff. This new app is disappointing because it's clear that it intentionally forces users to go to WRAL online to get in depth reporting, especially video reporting (join us at WRAL online for the details'). When you go to WRAL online you get 10 minutes of ads before you can see any report, weather or anything. That's really bad in a severe weather event. I know you have to pay for things, but it's so much that busy people will walk away.

Isn't that what a mobile weather app is all about? Busy people turning to a quick look at the weather? Too bad I too often have to miss the details and go to another source for them.

Good afternoon,

Are there any specific features that you are looking for in the WRAL Weather app? We can confidently say that it is not our intention to "force" you to go to WRAL.com when you are using any of our apps.

You can reach us directly at support@wral.com.

Best regards,
WRAL Support

I miss the old layout of the 7 day forecast. The new version has WAY too many ads. I dislike the fixed portrait orientation and haven’t found a way to adjust it to landscape for my iPad.

I also can’t seem to get a good setting on the “special weather bulletin” alerts. I want to know if there is bad weather coming or maybe thick fog in the morning, but I don’t want to get alerts for every time the wind blows or all night long while I’m trying to sleep. I checked the other alerts I want to get, but if there is a special weather statement concerning, say, air quality, and I don’t have “air quality” checked, I still get the alert. The last round of storms we had roll through, I had to finally shut off the audible alerts because they were going off almost every 30 min for lightning advisory updates and flash flood advisories. I don’t need that at 3:00 in the morning, especially since the storm had already passed my area! It would be nice if there was a way to set a schedule for muting non-emergency audible alerts especially if one chooses the special bulletin alerts.

Good morning,

Thank you for your feedback, and thanks for checking out the new WRAL Weather app!

We are currently exploring a lanscape presentation for tablets. This was a feature we've intended to include from the beginning, but also knew if would come post-launch so we had ample time to make use of the additional screen real estate.

We are also looking at our current alert offering and discussing ways we can allow users to better fine-tune the alerts they receive without making the experience too busy or confusing.

Best regards,
WRAL Support

I just switched over to WRAL from The Weather Channel because I was getting sick of the ads from TWC. All was going well until my app updated today. I guess they updated accessibility for large print users (I'm visually impaired), but didn't fully test it out. Half of the information on my screen is large print, as it should be, but I can only see half of what each thing says. At least some of the major info is still visible, but it almost makes me want to go back to TWC if I can't get the full weather info. I'd be more than happy to send screenshots or share accessibility info with the app devs. Hoping to see this get fixed soon.

Edit: It's been several months since WRAL said they were aware of the issue and it still isn't fixed. I do like using WRAL compared to the other weather apps I've tried, but I would like to see the large print compatibility get fixed sometime soon. Thanks.

We are working on an update to fix this display issue when users have enlarged fonts for accessibility. We appreciate your patience as we address this issue.