Every year between June and November the North Atlantic is subjected to some of the harshest weather on the planet. Hurricanes and tropical storms takes lives, ruin homes, and have been known to commit large portions of poorly-fortified cities to the briny deep. Predicting these destructive forces of nature is no game, only now it is.
Weather Decision Technologies, a world-leader in weather detection, alerting, and forecasting, has just entered the iOS game business with Hurricane Weatherman, "the World's First Reality Weather Game." I won't begrudge them that proud title, as I've never before experienced a game in which players advance up a leaderboard for predicting the when and where of actual tropical weather systems.
Weather wizards need only download the free app from iTunes and register in order to join in on the fun-ish-ness. Once in the game, they'll be able to submit their guesses as to when tropical storm systems will form, what they'll be named, and if they'll touch down on U.S. soil. Players can change their guesses at any point up to the day the next storm is named, so staying on top of the weather situation in the North Atlantic will be important for those hoping to rise to the top of their class.
When the season ends and the (hopefully figurative) smoke clears, the player at the top of the leaderboards gets his very own warm and fuzzy feeling, and the knowledge that his powers of prediction might have saved lives were he not busy playing games on his iPhone. Yay.
Hurricane Weatherman [iTunes]