Do You Use It? Apple's Weather app on the iPhone

[wunder (Walter Underwood)]

I also useTempest, which reports from our own backyard weather station and includes forecasts.

[keeswisman]

Weatherbug

[noone001 (Bob Noone)]

I have been using the weather app since dark sky went away. I really miss dark sky, and a bit confused why Apple weather isn’t as good. However, it does tell me the hourly forecast and rain predictions, so it gives me what I want. I agree that the radar can be buggy but generally it works fairly well for me.

[emiron (Ed Miron)]

Wasn’t sure how to vote as I usually look at a few apps. Occasionally Apple’s weather app, but frequently Wunderground to check local temperature since it identifies a weather station near my home, and frequently Carrot. I voted twice, once for Apple’s Weather app and another time for Other.

[steve25 (steve727)]

I’m yet another Dark Sky to Carrot refugee. You can configure Carrot to look a lot like Dark Sky, so I like that, but the weather map function doesn’t seem as good as Dark Sky’s was, at least it doesn’t look as nice.

[derek.ledayn]

I don’t use Apple Weather.
I live in Aoteatoa New Zealand I use the NZ MetService app, or Ventusky for more granular detail.

[joe-rey (joseph reynolds)]

I go to NWS special sites to check winds and weather. I use USAirNet for ordinary forecasts at airports. I use TV Station weather.

[ace (Adam Engst)]

I’ve now collected the top 20 recommendations into a follow-up poll, so you can vote for your favorites there.

Do You Use It? iPhone Weather Apps

We’re closing in on 200 replies in the poll that’s trying to figure out what percentage of people use Apple’s Weather (it’s looking like about 60%), and I’ve collected what I believe are the top 20 other apps mentioned. Actually, 19, because it became clear that a lot of people who use Apple’s Weather app also use something else, so it’s included as well. This poll is designed to tease out which apps are the most popular so those looking for a new one have the collective wisdom of TidBITS reader…

[dave8 (Dave Sacher)]

Do you think eight WX apps on my iPhone are more than enough? Current go-to is Hello Weather. Seems to be fairly accurate for my locale (Denver, Colorado) I also check TMRW, Carrot, and Apple Weather, to compare findings. But no matter what the app, or forecast, anything beyond 24-48 hours is just a guess!

Dave Sacher

[Tapper (matthew)]

My default weather app is Apple’s Weather. But sometimes I use Wunderground for more detailed info.

[jrg]

That Dark Sky was so popular, and deemed to be brilliant at forecasting, is interesting.

Perhaps I first read it in a thread here on Tidbits, but didn’t it mainly use just image processing of radar images to tell when it was about to rain?

It Changed How We Get the Weather. Meteorologists Hated It. It’s About to...

[Shamino (David C.)]

@ace

I’ve now collected the top 20 recommendations into a follow-up poll, so you can vote for your favorites there

Does it count if I use a company’s web site but not their app? In particular, I frequently use AccuWeather, but via a Safari bookmark and not with their app.

[bettytaylor777 (Betty Taylor)]

I use Weather Underground because my neighbor has his weather station linked, so we get ultra-local reports. I also have a couple of other apps as well as links to the local national weather service alerts page.

[aanestad (KJ Aanestad)]

I use this as well.

[anchmike (Mike)]

I also use weather.com. It has better radar.

[ddmiller (Doug Miller)]

@steve25

You can configure Carrot to look a lot like Dark Sky, so I like that, but the weather map function doesn’t seem as good as Dark Sky’s was, at least it doesn’t look as nice.

One of the things that I didn’t like about Dark Sky (and the same now goes for Apple Weather) is that the radar used some sort of image smoothing, so the radar looks like smudges rather than sharply defined areas. What Carrot does lack compared with Dark Sky and Apple Weather is the projected radar for the next hour. Of course the projections aren’t always right, but they are somewhat useful to me.

I should also say that I used Dark Sky, mostly for the precipitation notifications, but generally found the the precipitation projections to be unreliable. About half the time that it projected rain starting it never came, or we had rain while Dark Sky said (and the radar showed) no precipitation in the area. Apple Weather has been a little better, and lately it’s been better than Carrot.

If Apple Weather ever fixes the weird radar anomalies I may stop my subscription to Carrot.

[Incompatible]

I hacked up a personal page that uses the browser’s geolocation function and redirects me to the NOAA forecast for wherever I am at the moment, then I saved the bookmark to my home screen. But mostly I use Apple’s much slicker app.

I do wish NOAA would stride boldly into 2010 and add location detection to their site.

[Felix01 (Felix)]

After seeing ForecastAdvisor (https://www.forecastadvisor.com) discussed in the Time Newsletter (The Most Accurate Weather Apps Right Now | Time), I started using The Weather Channel App on my iPhone and iPad since it was rated #1 in accuracy by a slight margin. And I keep the Weather Channel webpage bookmarked on my Macs. Note: Weather Underground uses the same forecast as The Weather Channel if you prefer their layout.

[JeffH]

Weatherstrip

[meniall (Niall O’Mara)]

Yeah I’m another who uses Apple Weather and another app.

I have the Apple Weather widget on iPad and iPhone Home Screens but use the (Irish) Met Eirann App for confirmation - it’s a little bit more likely to be accurate but forecasting is nigh-impossible in Ireland really - so mainly I just look at the sky in the direction the wind is coming from