Ever sit there, staring at iCal, wondering how you’re actually gonna get all the crap you have scheduled done, and think to yourself, “I wonder if it’s gonna rain the day I’m supposed to go to that sweet outdoor live Diggnation in the park?” [Ed: No, not really, but please continue] Well, thanks to WeatherCal from BareBones software, you’ll never have to worry about that again.

It’s a genius idea actually. You set up WeatherCal as a preference pane, and it downloads a five-day forecast automatically. Because it’s not an iCal subscription, it syncs over MobileMe too, and over to the iPhone. So every time I pull up my calender on my phone, the weather forecast shows up as well. It really helps for planning events and reminding me when I might need an umbrella, or what clothes to pack. You don’t get a detailed forecast, just general conditions and temperature. Set up multiple locations, and you can track weather across all of your travel stops.

The beauty of WeatherCal is in its simplicity. Set it up once on your Mac, and forget it. It’s constantly updating, pushing them on to your iPhone. It’s well worth the $10 price. I’ve used it for a month, and wouldn’t wanna leave home without it again. You can download a 30-day trial version to see how it behaves.

Ed Note: Why is this different from using the Weather Widget on the iPhone and your desktop? Convenience. If you’re a regular user of iCal, while planning your day you also have ready access to the weather. It’s also the same across all your devices, including MobileMe iCal on the cloud. And lastly, you don’t need an internet connection once the events are synced over, which is something you need to worry about in bad weather.