Thanks, I hate it: alternatives to Wunderground

January 2, 2020 8:44 PM

My go-to iOS weather app just “upgraded” and I’m looking for a replacement. Specifications within.

Wunderground’s former default at-a-glance view made it easy to find the things I really cared about on the first screen: 1) predicted high and low temperatures for the next few days 2) % chance of precipitation 3) predicted amount of precipitation 4) sunrise/sunset for today.

The recent upgrade means that I no longer have an easy way to view the predicted amount of precipitation, which it turns out I really care about as an Alaskan living through weird climate-change winters; there’s a big difference between an 80% chance of 1 inch of snow and an 80% chance of 6 inches of snow and it is now essentially impossible to find that information. The native iOS weather app also fails in this regard.

Is there a weather app that would show me all 4 of my non-negotiables on the opening page of the app? Bonus points for easily-accessible tide information, but it’s not an absolute requirement. I’d happily pay for any app that shows me what I want to see in a clear way.

posted by charmedimsure to Computers & Internet (35 answers total)

Dark Sky! It's the best one out there. It does cost money.
posted by brainmouse at 8:51 PM on January 2, 2020 [6 favorites]

Dark Sky is excellent, and has most of your requirements. You have to scroll down slightly on the opening page, past the week forecast, to see precipitation amount, as well as the next sunrise or sunset time- not both. Precip percentage is shown in two hour blocks, not for the entire day. It does have neat alternate views like expected precipitation rate per block, or cloud cover. It does not have tide information.
posted by zamboni at 9:06 PM on January 2, 2020

CARROT. Plus it swears at you. And threatens your life with bad weather.
posted by po822000 at 9:19 PM on January 2, 2020 [8 favorites]

I use Wunderground, but through a bookmark / "top site" to the 10-day charts in my mobile browser. Would that work?
posted by Dashy at 9:39 PM on January 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Ugh, this happened to me last month in Android. The drop in ratings for the app over the last month has been impressive.

Agreed that Dark Sky will not quite get you all of the way there. In the week view (at least in Android), clicking on a given day expands it and puts the overall % chance of rain & temperature spread at the top with the rain volume, sunrise time, and sunset time at the bottom, with two hour chunks of additional info in between. Unfortunately, this is a swipe and a tap away from the starting screen, which is focused on a slightly simpler "today" view. So the info is there and it's relatively easy to get to, but it is definitely not as compact and at-a-glance as the old Wunderground app.

That said, it's still the least disappointing option I've found so far. I'll be curious if anyone has better suggestions, since I really miss getting wind, precipitation, and temperature forecast info immediately, as well as my 10-day forecast chart!
posted by ASF Tod und Schwerkraft at 9:45 PM on January 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Just in case the Wunderground people read this, here’s another long-time user who loathes the new design and will be using this thread to find a replacement. That said, I checked out Dark Skies and that doesn’t seem like the right substitute.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:58 AM on January 3, 2020 [8 favorites]

I moved from Wunderground to Dark Sky for exactly the same reason.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:09 AM on January 3, 2020

I also hate the new wunderground, after being a loyal user for years. I’m trying out Forecast Bar that mostly has your requirements - you have to toggle between percentage rain and amount of rain by tapping once, and to expand the day to see sunrise and sunset, but so far it’s been fine. My other requirement is radar, which this does have.

Also watching this post - I hope someone else has a better option.
posted by umwhat at 4:11 AM on January 3, 2020

Wunderground people! I want to bookmark the 10-day forecast view in my laptop browser and just load that immediately! Having to go through a "process" to get to the information I want has made me look elsewhere also!

I basically check the weather less, now. I'll look at the forecast every 3-4 days and listen to the radio for crisis events, but it's not ideal.
posted by amtho at 4:18 AM on January 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

I didn't know they changed it because I use the wunderground telnet interface which never changes.
telnet rainmaker.wunderground.com 3000
posted by Obscure Reference at 4:31 AM on January 3, 2020 [9 favorites]

Same here: longtime paid user, looking for an alternative. I've also had Dark Sky for a while (which I love for its very-near-term rain predictions), but I find that its vertical week-ahead display isn't as easy for me to scan as wunderground's horizontal one.
posted by sriracha at 4:39 AM on January 3, 2020

Have a look at forescast.weather.gov. For my area, the information you want is there in text. The maps are pretty old school, though.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:07 AM on January 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

dark sky is indeed great
posted by poffin boffin at 6:28 AM on January 3, 2020

Another former Wunderground user here, so disappointed in the removal of precip predictions. In snow country it's really a requirement; 1-2 inches and I don't need to get up early to shovel, but 3+ and I change my alarm. I've had Dark Sky on my phone for about six months and though I occasionally appreciate the "snow stopping!" notifications, it's no WU replacement. I did see that a WU developer responded to another scathing review in the App store that improvements were coming, so I hope that this is a temporary problem. ANyway I'm not deleting it yet because there really is nothing else that gives all the info at a glance and I'm an optimist that maybe they'll put it back.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:41 AM on January 3, 2020

Another vote for Carrot. You can completely customize what details show in each location. Additionally, if you become a paid subscriber (a few bucks a year, as I recall) you get more options for data sources.
posted by bluloo at 6:47 AM on January 3, 2020

Following - I've found Wunderground on my laptop to be unusable since the "upgrade" - I use windy for radar now, still using WU on my phone until it becomes similarly awful. Wunderground got bought by weather.com a few years ago and I don't believe any of the original developers are still there as a result.
posted by leslies at 6:52 AM on January 3, 2020

I love, love, love Carrot. I initially picked it because I wanted an app that also worked well on the watch, but I've come to abandon all other weather apps on my phone in favor of this one -- plus I bought the MacOS version.

Much is made of its snark and and vulgarity, but both can be turned off if such things don't amuse you. :) It also has configurable data sources; options include Dark Sky, Foneca, ClimaCell, AccuWeather, Aeris Weather, and MeteoGroup.
posted by uberchet at 7:22 AM on January 3, 2020

Looking at Carrot right now, it does this very easily. I do have all the jokes turned off because that got old quick.
posted by The AhForgetIt Tendency at 7:36 AM on January 3, 2020

I have and use DarkSky, and it has an excellent UI. However, it is not very good as far as accuracy in my area and I find myself having to use another app/service when I hear friends talking about inclement weather that just isn't showing up on DarkSky.
posted by terrapin at 7:58 AM on January 3, 2020

Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but since the main thing needed is precip amount predictions, can someone who uses Carrot tell us how to configure it so that data shows in the main several-day forecast summary? I see how to get it to show for the widget, but I don't see precip amounts in the app unless I drill down. And since I just paid five bucks for this app I really hope it actually does provide this info without clicking!
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:07 AM on January 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

So amtho:

I want to bookmark the 10-day forecast

I think you can still do this, although the link changed with the stupid "upgrade." I made a bookmark while on the 10-day forecast. I also requested this be bookmarkable on the last upgrade, and was pleased to see it incorporated.

I'm also bailing on iOS wunderground -- terrible shame, as it was a marvel of information presentation.
posted by theredpen at 8:27 AM on January 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

I use wttr.in to quickly glance the weather. It has all your requirements but the sunrise/sunset, but you can customize it to add a lot more info.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:38 AM on January 3, 2020

I used to have Wunderground on my Android phone, and liked it. I even was even paying the massive fee of $2/year so I wouldn't have to see ads. But then, about a year ago, after an app update, it simply stopped working. If it opened at all, it would just crash immediately. I sent them messages asking for help, but of course you know I never received an answer. RIP.

I haven't found a replacement since. I'll try some of y'all's suggestions.
posted by Weftage at 9:22 AM on January 3, 2020

FYI I was looking at this myself recently for the same reasons that wunderground stopped supporting their widgets and wouldn't remove a clearly inaccurate weather station. I tried dark sky but didn't like the UI near as much and it wasn't as accurate in my area. Im trying Geometric weather right now so maybe check that out, but so far nothing has been close for me personally.
posted by Carillon at 10:06 AM on January 3, 2020

I’m greatly disappointed in the new Wunderground app as well, and probably won’t be resubscribing (especially since, so far as I can tell, the new subscription fee is $20/year rather than $2/year. No way am I paying ten times as much for a worse app.)

That said, the NOAA’s Probabilistic Precipitation Guidance provides a lot more information about incoming winter storms than the Wunderground app ever did. Even before the new app, it was my go-to for information on winter weather; it allows you to answer questions like “what is the probability that we’ll get more that two inches of snow in the 24-hour period ending on Monday evening?” Unfortunately for you, it’s web-based and I’m not sure that it covers Alaska; but I figured I’d throw it out there for others who might find it useful.
posted by Johnny Assay at 11:02 AM on January 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

So as a old school nerd, I had to try the WU telnet interface. It's totally broken for me so even that hasn't remained the same. Seems like a pattern. I also used to use the app on android and agree it got way worse a while back. No good alternatives from me.
posted by jclarkin at 6:11 PM on January 3, 2020

FWIW you can still see the predicted precipitation levels two ways, although not without clicking or scrolling. If you tap on the "precip" percentage, you'll see the old bar view for the next few hours. If you scroll down to the hourly view, you'll also see both the percentage and, if the amount of precipitation is small, an estimate of how much. (It looks like if it's expected to be over 0.01", they don't show it.)
posted by asterix at 7:21 PM on January 3, 2020

My day has come! Be weather 4 for iOS iPhone. It shows you the predicted precipitation levels right there on the screen with no clicking. It uses dark sky data but the presentation works way better for me. Plus it’s mega customizable.

I also strongly suggest Crisp. It’s a widget for iOS that is incredible for weather and UX reasons. Seriously spend the buck on it.

If you want REAL data with a nice presentation, your only choice is Windy.

eWeather has the best watch complication despite the app being UI garbage.

Dark sky itself is ok but I find the UX irritating and you have to click to see predicted precipitation totals. Weather line is irritating.

Today weather has a nice look. Seasonality Go is cool and different. My Radar for Radar. Storm shield has the best alerts. Carrot sucks on UI. Accuweather is ok but doesn’t solve your problem. Cloudy is ok. Hello weather is ok. Weatherbug has been toxic for 15 years. My favorite true weather app, MyCast was sadly discontinued. Be Weather is pretty much the best. I’ve tried them all.
posted by misery loves company at 9:04 PM on January 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

BeWeather 3 is the app I meant. It ticks all 3 of your boxes. And you can customize everything. It shows the amount of precip, the temp hourly and daily, and sunrise/set and other stuff *without* clicking, just a nice easy scroll down.

Other apps that I liked:
Windy - Awesome, very deep info. Great radar.
Crisp - This guy should write more apps. A true gem.
WeatherMate - This app has the BEST Apple watch complication. Very customizable. Shows graphics with lines on the large complication. No other apple watch complication comes close. (Sorry I confused it with eWeatherHD in the last post. I meant this app).
Storm Radar - Owned by TWC, so I avoid it out of principle.
WeatherLine is *almost* good but they just missed on a few things.

Wunderground did this on purpose. It's a money grab by TWC. They knew their new design is terrible, but they obviously went ahead for money. Look at the precipitous drop in rankings. So sad to see bad business interests win again.
posted by misery loves company at 9:47 PM on January 3, 2020 [5 favorites]

I just downloaded Be Weather 3 and I think it’s really nice and I will probably be using that one BUT before you spend the $4.99 be aware that it doesn’t have your sunrise/sunset requirement.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:44 AM on January 4, 2020

It shows sunrise sunset but not as a separate box. Swipe across the 24 hr forecast. You will see hourly forecast and the exact time for sunrise sunset in the next 24 hrs.
posted by misery loves company at 12:25 PM on January 4, 2020

Try Arcus. It isn't as good as the old wunderground, but it does let you make custom widgets.
posted by troytroy at 10:10 AM on January 6, 2020

I just got a Wunderground update (to 6.2) on my iPhone and I believe that all of the things you missed are back!
posted by 2 cats in the yard at 2:53 PM on February 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Coming to this party late, but I wanted to share Fresh Air for iOS. It does a great job of showing you the temperature and precipitation trends over the coming day and week. I use Dark Sky also, but where Dark Sky is better for details, I prefer Fresh Air to get an overview. The interface is simple and beautiful.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:40 AM on April 9, 2020

Something that's probably going to affect things in the future is that Apple has bought Dark Sky. The iOS app is currently unaffected, but Android is no longer available for download, and the Dark Sky API (which is used by several recommendations above) only promises it will continue to function until the end of 2021.
posted by zamboni at 11:04 AM on April 9, 2020