Now that Google Weather is going away, lots of us are in the market for a new weather app.
As someone who once stayed completely dry in a downpour because Dark Sky was accurate to the minute, I miss it the most and was excited to see that its founders have released Acme Weather. But there were two big drawbacks: one was the $25 annual subscription cost and the other is that there’s no Android version yet.
Because it’s been a particularly snowy winter where I am and I’ve had to contend with confusing forecasts, I set out to find a few weather apps that will fill the void of Google Weather.
Check them out to see if one is right for you and suggest any you like in the comments below.
WeatherBug
WeatherBug is my favorite weather app overall. While it’s not the most attractive and you can’t change much about it lookswise, aside from the text color of the status bar, there is much to recommend it.
In settings there are adjustments for the units of measurement for temperature, distance, precipitation, wind, and pressure. On the main screen you can shuffle between the current conditions, hourly ones, a 10-day forecast, and maps.
As someone with seasonal allergies in pretty much every season, one thing I particularly like about WeatherBug is that it puts a pollen widget front and center on the app. You get a low, medium, or high score for that day along with what the predominant pollen is. Clicking on Map gets you a visual for where pollen is around you and more detailed information about the conditions for the day.
There are also widgets on its home screen for air quality, precipitation, fire risk, outdoor sports conditions, and more.
The free version of the app is feature-packed and while the ads are fairly hideous, they do not get in the way. You can pay for a subscription to remove them.
Carrot Weather
Do you like your weather served with a side of personality? Well, that’s what Carrot Weather has to offer. It has cute illustrations and you can set the app to one of four personalities: Friendly, Snarky, Homicidal, and Overkill (which includes profanity). And to further fine-tune things, you can also choose your politics: Liberal, Conservative, Centrist, Libertarian, Communist, and Apolitical.
As for the data, it comes from Foreca, a Finnish weathercaster, for those who use the app for free, and those who pay for a premium subscription can choose from other sources like Apple Weather, AccuWeather, Tomorrow.io, OpenWeather, and Xweather.
There’s not a lot of depth to the information given, but it’s good for when you need an at-a-glance idea of what you can expect on an hourly basis that day and a daily forecast for the week ahead. And it offers a touch of whimsy, which we could all use more of in our days.
The free version is ad-supported (the ads are not too intrusive).
Weather Underground
Weather Underground boasts its hyper-localness, saying it gets its data from 250,000 personal weather stations and a proprietary forecast model.
The current conditions show temperature (including “feels like”), precipitation, and wind right up top. The weekly forecast has the typical symbols but also a graph charting temperature and precipitation. This is great for those who love a chart, but it’s not for me personally. You can tap for more data, including the UV index.
One of the things I like most about Weather Underground is that it tells you how close the temperature the next day will be to today’s. It’s nice to know what type of jacket you can plan on wearing during times like the early spring where temps can vary widely from day to day.
The free version has some ads that don’t get in the way. You can pay to remove the ads and to get more advanced and extended forecasts.
The Weather Channel
Ah, good old Weather Channel. The Weather Channel app is a reliable fave. I appreciate that it puts an outlook in plain terms right at the top. Right now mine reads: “Rain possible around 5:30 pm. Locally heavy rainfall possible.” Right under that is a bar graph of how much rainfall I can expect over the coming evening.
You can scroll through the hourly forecast for things like wind, humidity, dew point, and more. Further down is an allergy forecast with levels and key factors, and a Health and Wellness section that includes risks to skin health, breathing, and cold and flu. There are activity forecasts for running, hiking, golf, camping, tennis and pickleball, gardening, and cycling. If you’re the sort of person that loves looking at radar, well, there’s that too.
The app also has plenty of video content from The Weather Channel.
The free version of the app has ugly but not invasive ads. A subscription removes them and adds enhanced forecast info, including 15-minute forecasts.
