As previously announced, the Dark Sky weather app that Apple acquired in 2020 is set to shut down on January 1, 2023. Ahead of that shutdown, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite alternative weather apps for iPhone and iPad…
Apple’s weather app
Since Apple acquired Dark Sky in 2020, it has implemented a number of Dark Sky features into the stock Weather app on iPhone (and now iPad and Mac). Thanks to these improvements, Apple’s weather app is now more powerful and useful with a number of awesome features.
The Weather app features a modular design that dynamically adjusts based on current weather conditions in your area. There are also detailed maps for things like rainfall and temperature. Similar to Dark Sky, Apple has also added real-time notification support to its Weather app. This indicates that you can receive hyper-local notifications about rainfall in your area, including the start and end of that rainfall.
With this year’s software updates, the Weather app is now also available on iPad and Mac, with many of the same features.
Weather Carrot
You can’t have a roundup of weather apps without experiencing Carrot Weather. This is easily one of the most impressive and customizable weather apps for iPhone. You can choose from a number of different data sources, and even link Carrot Weather to your own weather station if you wish:
Premium Club members can also use Dark Sky, AccuWeather, ClimaCell, MeteoGroup or AerisWeather as alternative data sources. Specific regional sources are also available: Environment Canada in Canada and WillyWeather in Australia.
Subscribers can also connect to data pulled from personal weather stations right in their backyard. WeatherFlow/Tempest and Netatmo stations are directly supported, while any station that connects to PWSweather can also be viewed in CARROT.
Carrot Weather has all the features you would expect from a weather app, and more. The app layout is fully customizable, there are detailed maps for different types of data, you can see long term forecast data, and much more.
One of my favorite things about Carrot Weather is the collection of home screen and lock screen widgets. There are an endless number of different options, and you can even change the design of the widgets based on weather conditions and consumer updates. There’s also deep integration with Live Activities on the lock screen and in the iPhone 14 Pro’s Live Island.
Carrot Weather is known for his sarcastic personality, putting a fun twist on current cravings and conditions. But if it’s not something you care about, you can easily turn it off and also get boring, personalityless descriptions.
You can download Carrot Weather from the App Store. If you’re looking for a Dark Sky replacement and can’t find the built-in Apple Weather app powerful enough, Carrot Weather can probably provide that vacuum quite easily.
AccuWeather
AccuWeather is a household name in the weather industry, and there’s a reason it usually tops the App Store charts. The AccuWeather app offers an awesome experience on iPhone and iPad, with design customization options, real-time alerts, detailed forecast information, and more.
One of the most useful parts of the AccuWeather app is its advanced weather radar features. These allow you to view longer term data with radar views for water vapor, precipitation, sustained winds and even storm surges. Other AccuWeather features include:
- Live weather forecast – including expected MinuteCast for minute-by-minute rainfall updates
- Local weather – including severe weather alerts, temperature, precipitation and allergy outlook for your day
- WinterCast: Expected winter weather – giving you advanced warnings about the likelihood and accumulation of snowfall
- Daily forecast – includes chance of rain, cloud cover, wind, live radar, air quality index, snowfall and even UV index
- Advanced weather radar – gives you up-to-the-minute views tracking storms, snow, rain, ice, temperature changes and more
- RealFeel Technology and RealFeel Shade Temperature™ – helping you get a better sense of how the weather really feels
You can download AccuWeather for free from the App Store with in-app purchases for premium features.
weather band
Weather Strip is an app for iPhone, iPad and Mac with a unique twist. The app is known for its week-long hourly view, which “shows you all consumers at a glance, so you can pick the best times to hang out faster.” The app also offers some very useful home screen and lock screen widgets based on this data.
Use the interactive map to see uses for any location in the world, including mountains, trails, lakes, and literally anywhere you place a marker.
Severe weather warnings are displayed right on the wearables timeline, letting you see exactly when danger is expected, including storms, fires, hurricanes, floods, landslides, and anything else tracked by NOAA meteorologists.
Weather Strip is completely free for two weeks, after which you can subscribe with an in-app purchase. Download it from the App Store.
More options
Beyond these, there are a ton of other weather apps on the App Store, with different features and capabilities. Here is an overview of the most popular options:
Do you have any recommendations for Dark Sky replacements? Let us know on our social networks.
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