For the first time in a very long time, I’ve crossed a major goal off my list. I finally shipped an iOS app, albeit a very simple app.

Snow Day is a single-purpose weather app; it tells you how likely you are to be able to drive to work tomorrow (or today, if it’s before 10 a.m.). It ties into the Forecast.io API to pull weather data, and uses the new(-ish) Background Fetch iOS feature to pole for forecast changes from the background.

The app is free with ads and the option for a $0.99 In-App-Purchase that will disable the ads and enable background notifications. It’s been in the store for one week and seen 27 downloads (not that great, but still interesting, considering I’ve done nothing to promote it). It’s earned a whopping $0.09 from ads so far, and no one has bought the IAP yet. I’ve already submitted an update that shows 5 background notifications for free, with a prompt to purchase the IAP to unlock unlimited background notifications; we’ll see if that changes anything.

I built this in a day, during one of the many blizzards that’s pummeled New England over the last month. It turned out to be an ideal exercise in launching an app, since I’ve been tinkering with Objective-C for years now, but I had never dealt with the App Store side of things. I’m so glad I did this.

Snow Day in the App Store