Rain Alarm

Rain Alarm is a desktop gadget designed to provide basic weather forecasts for US and non-US regions across the globe.

The purpose of Rain Alarm is to deliver a prognostic of weather conditions (such as rain and snow) that does not include temperatures or an extensive forecast for days ahead.

It comes in the form of a widget that works on Windows Vista and Window 7 only, thereby it is useless on other operating systems. The program doesn’t require installation, as a simple double click will suffice to get it accommodated on the system.

The widget comes with coverage for the following states: Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Iceland, The Netherlands and Argentina, to name just a few (the complete list is revealed bellow, in the product’s description).

Following the same trend as most desktop widgets, Rain Alarm is characterized by a minimalistic appearance that can take a while to get used to, as it encases a set of indicators that cannot be comprehended by simply looking at them.

However, prior to any operation, it is mandatory to select the location for the weather forecast and this can easily be achieved using the Options window.

Here, you are provided with a little search box where entering the name of your town should suffice to retrieve the expected results on the adjacent map. If you haven’t been located correctly, you can drag the little pin to a specific area.

Also from the Options section, you will be able to configure parameters such as sensitivity, units, update interval, as well as to turn on notifications and sounds.

As soon as you press the ‘OK’ button, the widget displays a set of indicators for rain distance, intensity and affected area, which are represented graphically on top of three bars. If you click any of them, you will be redirected to a webpage where an extensive weather forecast is displayed.

Truth be told, we’re rooting for more suggestive indicators, as the current representation can be misleading. Also, support for more countries would be welcomed.