Apple claims that Dark Sky’s features have been integrated into Apple Weather which the company says offers hyperlocal forecasts for your current location, including next-hour precipitation, hourly forecasts for the next 10 days, high-resolution radar, and notifications. So, why is Apple’s Weather app still so reliably wrong?
Apple claims that the Weather app “provides the most important weather information in a smart layout that adjusts to the current conditions,” but too often that information is just plain wrong.
Hello, Dark Sky, are you really in there? If so, where?
Michael Grothaus for Fast Company:
I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say Apple’s Weather app is the most beautiful app the company has ever made. Its full-screen weather animation backdrops are nothing short of stunning. There have been times when I’ve spent an extra several seconds in the app simply gazing at the particulates flowing across my screen in the breezy animation or at the flakes every so gently falling in the snow animation. But unfortunately, that’s where my love affair with Apple Weather ends.
One of the reasons for this is that I’ve lost trust in the weather data the app is showing me. Sometimes the forecast is spot on, and sometimes it’s so wildly off, it’s comical.
The biggest issue that I and many others have had with Apple Weather in 2023 is that it can be hard to trust the data. There are times when the information it presents is not just off, but the opposite of real-world conditions at that very moment.
For example, when I was on vacation earlier this year, one… false forecast appeared for three days in a row. Each day Apple Weather said it was going to be sunny, yet each day it rained—or poured. And this wasn’t just an incident unique to me.
The rain is POURING DOWN!
The Apple weather app is useless nowadays. pic.twitter.com/ijZypi48xr
— 𝒜𝓃𝓃𝒾𝒸𝒶 🌸 (@luminousepinoia) July 31, 2023
https://twitter.com/chiefkizzy01/status/1684979349571678228
Go home apple weather. You’re confused. pic.twitter.com/cR8loNukDu
— Matthew Beldon (@mabeldon) August 3, 2023
Apple weather app never is correct about how much rain will or has fallen. It’s been raining all day! pic.twitter.com/uhSscUH7Hw
— john harvey (@pjyankeeedved) July 29, 2023
Why is the apple weather app so bad? It rained as hard as I’ve ever seen here for about an hour and it’s saying 0 precipitation in the last 24 hours. It was flooding. The app is the worst. Never close to being accurate pic.twitter.com/C1XenY8c6K
— Brandon Stokley (@bstokley14) August 1, 2023
MacDailyNews Take: Dark Sky was uncannily accurate. When it said told us was going to rain in 10 minutes, it rained in 10 minutes. So, if Apple integrated Dark Sky into Weather, why doesn’t Weather work even remotely as well as Dark Sky? Did Apple change the data sources that were fed into Weather when they turned off Dark Sky? Is this a GIGO case, Garbage In, Garbage Out? Or is something else broken inside Apple’s Weather app?
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It sounds like Marketing has screwed this up and made a data deal with The Weather Channel… Seriously, nothing else could do this.
I have to agree with the author on this one. There have been several occasions where the app is showing as raining in my area. However, when I look outside, it’s still dry and cloudy. This happened in the last three weeks alone.
I always double/triple-check Accuweather and VentuSky on my iPhone to extrapolate, since each has idiosyncrasies. The biggest shortcoming to me is the failure to show full weather map radar coverage…can’t tell if it’s a local (So Cal) data source or Apple app issue… but the local quad typically stops displaying when zooming in.
Apple does provide Report An Issue in the App. be sure to report it.
Accuracy has suffered, but the user interface is simply awful as well.
…and would it be asking too much to put calendar dates with the days of the week?
It’s a deep state conspiracy!
(says the RightWingRetards)
They’re right on Climate Change for the Leftist Libtards to hang their hopes on.
You sound like the culprit- challenged, meaningless chaos.
Joe Biden said President Obama was the first Mainstream African American who was “articulate, bright and clean”.
Malcolm X said “The white liberal is the worst enemy to America, and the worst enemy to the black man. Let me explain what I mean by the white liberal”.
Thanks for telling EVERYONE what you support.
Can you not differentiate between weather and politics? Don’t blame the app… blame yourself.
Be a scared of “The Orange God” the reckoning is coming…
Ask Siri, “What’s the weather?” Then, “What’s the temperature?” Compare responses.
What I want to know is why doesn’t Weather have satellite images of clouds. We have radar, wind, uv index and so on but no images of clouds?
Weird.
Great question, MDN. It’s a mystery!
Scott Forestall was fired over how bad Maps was when it was released. Someone should be fired for not labeling Weather as a beta application. It has really tarnished Apple’s reputation and will take years to recover. It is a rotten shame since Dark Sky was a really good weather app. RadarOmega is probably the best weather app out there now that Apple has ruined Dark Sky
I usually have the opposite problem to the examples above, every time the forecast is for a cool/cloudy day it’s hot, clear and sunny all damn day. I routinely add 10+ degrees to whatever the forecasted temp is. Sometimes its been as much as 20 degrees (!) hotter, but never less than 5+.
In the middle of a rain storm I ask Siri “when will it stop raining?”, her reply “it’s not raining right now.” I’d understand if this was limited to Eastern Europe where I spend time and weather is highly variable, but it’s the same level of inaccuracy in Silicon Valley as well, you’d think they could at least get it right (along with Maps) on their home turf. They can afford to have a dozen of their own weather stations spread across each of the major metro areas in their biggest markets or at the very least to pay for more accurate data.
So sad and so typical: Apple bought the absolutely brilliant DarkSky app and turned it into a piece of useless nonsense. The video weather display doesn’t even work on my iPad or iPhone (WTF). I’m now using the AccuWeather app.
Dark Sky was my App of choice as I could rely totally on it for driving with the hood down.
I was disappointed when it was bought by Apple and their App has declined since then.
My Dark Sky app remains dormant on my iPhone in the vain hope that it may return some day….
To the fanboys out there great opportunity for Cook and all the Apple resources to integrate Dark Sky and make it BETTER. But instead without Jobs guiding hand, the creative deficit team with their PC principles dumbed down and messed up a superior app as all the testimonials posted here and thousands more, attest.
I’ve moved on from both, much better and accurate alternatives out there…
If you look in the weather data section you will see that the data source in the US is now “Apple Weather” and prior to IOS15.2 is was Weather.com. They have brought it in house and it is absolutely a mess.