Connect with us

Apple

5 Best Weather Apps for iPhone

Published

on

The weather is one of the most common things that everyone wants to know about, mostly because it can either make or break your day. Here are a handful of the best weather apps for iPhone that can make it easier to know what the weather is like in your area, with apps that are super simple for everyday users and even a couple of options for the more experienced weather geek.

Chances are, you’ve already talked about the weather to someone today, most likely when you got into the office first thing and discussed how nice (or bad) the weather was outside during your commute. It’s even something that we blab about when making small talk with a stranger, and knowing about these five iPhone apps will give you even more to talk about the next time you need to make small talk with someone.

The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel is perhaps the most popular iPhone weather app in the iTunes App Store, mainly because it’s free and it’s made by a super-popular weather company that has a very-helpful website along with the 24/7 TV network on cable channels.

twc

The app gives you everything you need to know about the weather, including all the basics like the current temperature and the hour-by-hour forecast. Plus, you can also view radar maps that show you where it’s going to rain or snow.

The Weather Channel app can also provide users with push notifications about various weather warnings, like an impending severe thunderstorm or tornado.

The ads can get a bit annoying, but that’s why it’s a free app. If you can’t stand distracting ads next to your weather forecast, check out some of the other apps we have picked out.

Yahoo Weather

Perhaps one of the best-looking free weather apps available in the iTunes App Store is Yahoo Weather. It doesn’t give you as much information as The Weather Channel or some of the other advanced weather apps, but Yahoo Weather gives you the basics that you need to know, like the current temperature, hour-by-hour forecast and even a simple radar map.

yahoo-weather

The stripped-down feature set of Yahoo Weather might be a turn-off for those wanting more weather information than what Yahoo Weather offers, but you can’t beat the design and look of the app, and it’s a personal favorite amongst the Gotta Be Mobile team.

Dark Sky

One of the most unique weather apps we’ve come across is Dark Sky. This app is mainly meant for users to simply find out if it’s raining or snowing outside, rather than giving you a whole set of information. The app does this in a terrific way, though, giving you straightforward precipitations forecasts and easy-to-understand responses like “it’s going to rain starting in 10 minutes.”

dark-sky

Dark Sky also provides users with a hour-by-hour forecast and says when it’s going to rain or snow during the day, that way you can be prepared for it. The app also provides a radar map for those wanting to see where it’s raining and when it’ll hit them.

The entire app is well designed and very simple and easy to navigate. However, the biggest downside is that it costs $3.99, but there are no ads and it’s definitely an app that we recommend for everyday users who want a simple and straightforward weather forecast.

Weather Underground

Weather Underground is pretty similar to The Weather Channel’s app, but it uses crowdsourcing for its weather information. It’s quite a unique method for gathering weather data, but works really well. However, what makes crowdsourced weather better than the weather that we get through traditional means?

weather-underground

For starters, weather stations that news outlets have are only located in a couple of spots within a city, so the weather forecast you receive may not be 100% accurate. With Weather Underground, the app boasts over 33,000 weather stations from users that report the most localized weather conditions, and this fills in the gaps from the traditional weather stations at airports or other big complex.

Users can also upload real-time photos of the condition outside, so that you not only know what the weather is like from the data itself, but you can also actually see what it looks like outside.

RadarScope

If you’re quite the weather geek, then the apps above might not be what you’re looking for as far as getting advanced weather data. However, that’s why RadarScope exists.

radarscope

It displays information that your local meteorologists are looking at when it comes to giving you thunderstorm and tornado information, and allows users to view NEXRAD Level 3 and super resolution radar data — stuff that mostly just weather experts and enthusiasts would be interested in.

The app is not cheap, however, costing $9.99, but for all of the advanced weather data that you can access, it’s quite worth the money if you know how to use the app and navigate through its many menus and options.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Steve Lipsey

    04/22/2014 at 8:36 am

    Weathertron is the most under-appreciated app – it had the best easy-to-grasp hourly graphical view, and is always accurate (it uses 16 other weather sources)

  2. davinia

    04/24/2014 at 2:14 am

    My favourite is accuweather, it is the most completed one but some metrics are missings, as severe alerts or pollen forecast, so I have both, Accuweather and the weather channel https://versus.com/en/accuweather-vs-the-weather-channel, here the main difference between both. They are really accurate.

  3. Pattie

    05/02/2014 at 8:43 am

    I use Yahoo Weather App for general information, but I started using a new app on my iPhone – Weather Wand 3 hour Rain Predictor by RainAware – https://www.rainaware.com/weatherwand/ . It gives me the start time and end time for when it is going to rain in the next three hours. I’ve used it to time when I’m watering the garden or taking a run or walking the dog. I live in the Florida and will be using it during the hurricane season for boating and fishing too.

  4. T.C.

    05/14/2014 at 7:22 am

    Re:Your comment on Dark Sky – it’s either unique or it’s not. It can’t be “one of the most unique”.

    “The primary meaning of unique is one of a kind; it’s an absolute, so something can’t be more unique than something else.” – The Grammar Girl and most middle school English teachers.

    Having said that, I agree it is “unique” and on your recommendation, I purchased it. Dark Sky is easily worth $3.99 not to be hammered with ads when all I really want to know is what I should wear and if/when I’ll need my umbrella or sunscreen. Deeper into the app, the maps are beautiful and again, easy for non meteorologists to understand and it’s not a resource hog, that responds without a hitch on my iPhone 4s running the latest iOS7 version.

    I travel a lot for work and Dark Sky readily adapts to current conditions whether I’m in Amsterdam or Abuja, Boston or Bangkok.

    Thanks, your review was spot on.

  5. Elina Bryan

    07/18/2014 at 4:45 am

    I would suggest Wthr, most intuitive weather app that I have never seen before. It has beautiful gesture driven interface which shows me hourly weather condition. The best thing I have noticed is the radar navigation which is very easy to use.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.