Replacement for Dark Sky app?

November 11, 2022 6:50 AM

The weather app Dark Sky is going away soon and I can't find a good replacement

I'm looking for an iPhone app that gives an hour-by-hour chance of rain for the next day or so, and also works from my current location. Any recommendations?

posted by john m to Technology (11 answers total)

Best answer: Here's a recent Ask on the same question. Might be a good place to start, though, I am not sure if they arrived at a consensus/best answer kind of thing.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:53 AM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Dang I searched but missed that. Thank you!
posted by john m at 7:17 AM on November 11, 2022

The Apple iOS weather app meets your stated requirements. They bought Dark Sky and rolled much of its functionality into it.
posted by rodlymight at 8:04 AM on November 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

At this point I'm only using the Apple Weather app on my watch (still Dark Sky on my phone), but it is actually really nice. I thought I read somewhere that they're about 80% integrated at this point but there was still some remaining Dark Sky functionality they'll be bringing over before the end of the year.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:23 AM on November 11, 2022

Coincidentally but also not really, I removed the Dark Sky app from my phone this week. Apple Weather does everything I used in Dark Sky.

When Apple bought Dark Sky, I was skeptical at first, but I probably shouldn't have been. Buying smaller companies' superior products, and then incorporating their features into their own, is one of the ways that big tech companies become bigger tech companies.
posted by box at 8:43 AM on November 11, 2022

Honestly, the built in Apple weather app meets all of my needs. You have to dig deeper but almost all of the Dark Sky functionality was moved over; my favorite being the humidity and estimated rain modules. You can tap on the "rainfall" module to see hourly rain estimates, if that helps.

I believe the only Dark Sky functionality not moved over was historical data, which was super convenient on Dark Sky. Hopefully Apple incorporates that eventually.
posted by dubious_dude at 10:31 AM on November 11, 2022

A huge missing data point in the other answers here: unless I’m missing something, these features have only been brought to the Weather app in iOS 16. If you are using an older device that is not supported by the latest update this is of no use to you, even though every 3rd-party app I’m aware is still supported on iOS 15.
posted by brightghost at 11:42 AM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I was a loyal CARROT Weather (with Dark Skies as a data source) user for a long time, but have moved to Apple Weather as well. I’ve found it works very well though I do miss CARROT’s timely quips and insults. CARROT will still be theee, but I don’t know what the best choice for data source would be.
posted by lhauser at 2:11 PM on November 11, 2022

Response by poster: So turns out I was NOT on iOS 16. Upgrading turned the built in weather app into what I need.
posted by john m at 7:20 PM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I use Hello Weather. It gives you a choice of multiple weather forecast sources right in the app, so if you disagree with one, you just tap over to another. : )

eg all these are baked in -

Accuweather
Aerisweather
Apple Weather
Dark Sky
Foreca
OpenWeather
The Weather Company
Tomorrow.io

Do I realllly need all those options? Probably not, I just like that they port the data in there so I can choose my fave. Note that like many things these days, it is a yearly subscription, but it is only $5, so I think it is worth it. They periodically update it and have a couple widgets.
posted by bitterkitten at 7:46 AM on November 12, 2022

Response by poster: Just found this: https://merrysky.net
posted by john m at 6:19 PM on January 9, 2023