Get weather reports from Noah mobile app

The on-time weather information on the Project NOAH website of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) will now be accessible on mobile phones, thanks to a fisherman’s son.

Smart Communications Inc. is launching this week the NOAH mobile app for Android devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. “NOAH” stands for Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards, a responsive disaster mitigation program developed by Pagasa-DOST. The website was recently the target of a hacking attack, which was thwarted by DOST experts.

The prototype of the mobile version was originally done in HTML5. It was developed by Rolly Rulete, along with his teammates Pablito Veroy and Jay Albano, during the first HTML5 Hackathon in Davao City organized by Smart Developer Network. The prototype was awarded “Best Use of Smart APls.”

The NOAH mobile version to be launched was specifically developed on Android platform.

Rulete, who earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science as a DOST scholar, said his inspiration was his father Mamerto, a fisherman from the village of Bonggaitan in Bislig, Surigao del Sur.

“The weather is crucial to fishing. Fishermen are the first ones affected by weather disturbances because they are out at sea,” Rulete said. Constantly worried about his father, he became passionate about weather tracking, getting information from websites such as those of Pagasa and Japan Meteorological Agency.

“If there’s a brewing typhoon, I immediately call or text my father to warn him and his fellow fishermen,” Rulete said. “When I heard about Project NOAH, I imagined how valuable the information and the images could be, especially to them.”

Rulete was interested in the Doppler radars featured on the website. But when he first tried accessing Project NOAH on his mobile phone, many of the images wouldn’t fit in the screen and the menu was hard to navigate.  The only solution he could think of was to develop a mobile version of the site.