Did you know that the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) has its own weather app?
Developed in 2014 and released in 2015, it remained obscured for many years as most Malaysians either rely on the weather app preinstalled on their smartphone or ignore weather apps altogether.
However, since the recent bout of floods all over the country, Malaysians realised the importance of using technology to know and understand the weather to avoid future disasters.
MetMalaysia’s Strategic and Technical Deputy Director General, Dr Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip told Kosmo that since the floods, the number of users of the app has doubled from 150,000 to 300,000.
In addition to weather predictions, the myCuaca app also has information on other natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, rough seas, and cyclones.
The app has been continuously improved over the years and has received three major updates so far.
In 2017 GPS support was introduced. With it the app can present weather predictions based on location. It could also display weather radar images predicting weather patters three hours ahead.
In 2018 Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) support was added. With it, the app can alert its user of bad weather, earth quakes, and tsunami.
In 2020, METMalaysia added RaINs data to the app giving it’s users weather information that is updated every 10 minutes.
The myCuaca application is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store now.
