HACKER Q&A
📣 contact9879

What is going on with Apple Weather?


For the past month and a half or so (I think ever since the iOS/iPadOS update that broke the weather app), Apple Weather has forecasted rain in the daily forecast without fail and sometimes even in the hourly forecast. I have only experienced about 7 days of rain since then. (7/45 = 16% accuracy, that would rank it far below any other forecast provider: https://forecastadvisor.com/Texas/Houston/77061/)

I am located in the Texas area and been between Houston and Dallas and Fort Worth multiple times throughout the past month and Apple Weather has forecasted rain every day. I eventually had to switch to another weather app because Apple Weather was unusable.

This is not a post to just hate on Apple Weather, but at this point, I had thought that the issue would’ve been realized and fixed by now. What is going on and is Apple going to fix it?


  👤 SkyPuncher Accepted Answer ✓
Most people don’t understand how rain is actually forecast. The forecast applies to an entire area, not just your point on the map. That means it could rain somewhere in the area of the forecast and the forecast would be correct. However, your experience of the forecast could feel entirely wrong.

Even if you see a 100% chance of rain, your specific location could remain dry. Likewise, a 10% chance of rain could have just you being rained on all day.

I personally find that I need to combine a forecast with a radar to understand how the weather is actually going to pan out for a day.

Explanation of rain forecast: https://www.weather.gov/ffc/pop


👤 samwillis
I'm usually a proponent of Apple, but the failure to deliver the same usability as DarkSky after the acquisition is so disappointing.

With DarkSky you could open the app and without a single click have an overview of the next 24hr, and only a single click for detailed figures such as wind speed. As well as an overview of the next week.

Now with Apple Weather you have to click after opening the app to get to a proper 24h overview, and the one you get is so much worse that the DarkSky one.

I'm sure the DarkSky team have war stories about the transition to Apple and how much they wanted to keep/change.

Bitterly disappointed in it.


👤 saaaaaam
Interesting. I’ve been feeling for the past couple of months that Apple Weather is wildly inaccurate suddenly, and when I’ve mentioned this to a few other people they’ve all said “what, you too? I thought it was just me!”

That could just be Baader Meinhof but interesting that I’m now seeing it mentioned here. It’s out by about 6-7C on temperatures and often forecasts rain when there isn’t any.


👤 beckler
I’m on the latest iOS version and I’m experiencing the same. However, my wife is a few minor versions behind, and her‘s is much more accurate.

👤 seltzered_
While I doubt it has the accuracy of darksky, it's worth noting there's been an alternative website with a similar layout: https://merrysky.net

👤 luos2
For me, in Central EU, Apple Weather is something you can not trust. It usually forecasts rain when there will be nothing, and nothing when it rains.

It is incorrect after the fact as well, ie. it says that there was no rain in the past 24 hours even if it was pouring. Another funny thing it does, it displays a warning about severe storms but forecasts 0 mm rain.

It's not something you can trust, at least here. It is so true we regularly joke about it in the family.

We have popular site here which usually is correct, so I am not sure what they are doing. I guess maybe their resolution of data is bad or just the data is bad.


👤 tracerbulletx
I've also been experiencing weird behavior like that. Also the radar map fails to load a lot, and sometimes it looks like the radar animation plays backwards? Seems pretty unreliable. I've been using Windy instead.

👤 contact9879
I realize my accuracy claim is not at all correct. Said more for reference.

👤 DHPersonal
My area is also similarly always labeled as being under a rainy weather forecast while the sources from which Apple claims to be pulling the information make no similar claims to precipitation.

👤 paulcole
Seems to work fine for me in the Pacific Northwest.

👤 threesevenths
It’s been terrible since the introduction of weather kit. It’s beyond useless.

👤 eriklarson
I’m in Texas and have had the same question.

👤 culopatin
This always happens in summer IMO.