Which Radar App Is Most Accurate for Oklahoma? We Tested It

As we collectively rolled through another night of nocturnal storms across Oklahoma, I'm sure I'm not the only one looking for as much information online as I could find.

Like many, I don't have a garage at home so I pay really close attention when the National Weather Service mentions things like hail, but the NWS doesn't provide a look into the future like other meteorological outlets do, so I obsessively check those.

Last night, in the most curious way, my two main weather apps were predicting vastly different outcomes for Lawton/Ft Sill. When I downloaded other apps to find a comparison forecast, I was left with more questions than answers.

The apps.

Odds are you've got at least one of these on your phone or tablet. The Weather Channel app and/or Accuweather. I think it's a rivalry as old as iPhone vs the far superior Android devices.

By the time that huge system that walluped Altus and Mangum worked its way over to and up I-44 and away from Lawton, I kept checking to see what was coming next.

There were a few apps that didn't provide a futurecast beyond one hour, and others turned out to cost money in the app store, so I didn't get any of them. I opted to stick with the two trusted names in mobile phone meteorology.

The Weather Channel's futurecast radar suggested things were going to crack off again at 1:30 AM with a big split system coming out of Texas... but Accuweather's radar futurecast suggested it was going to be very quiet during the same period of time.

They both agreed 5 AM was going to be loud with a chance of more hail, so I did what any normal half-broke, no-garage having person in Tornado Alley would do. I set alarms to wake up and check the radar every hour throughout last night.

To my surprise, The Weather Channel kept insisting on storms that never came to SWOK up until the point they were supposed to be here. Accuweather towed the same "quiet on the Western front" until things did pop off about 4:30 AM.

Weirdly enough, the sirens in Lawton didn't go off until about ten minutes after the straight-line winds came sweeping up the plains. Luckily, no hail in my corner of Lawton. Just a ton of lightning, thunder, and even more rain.

With several days of severe weather in the 10-day outlook, it might be worth you doing a little research on weather apps too. So far, Accuweather seems to be top dog in Southwest Oklahoma.