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In a world of 10,000 weather apps, and that's an actual estimate, not just an exaggeration
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how do you pick which one you use? Maybe you just want to know when it's going to rain so you don't get wet
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Maybe you want as many maps and data as possible. Well, I'm going to show you the five best in each category, and for each, I'll give
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you two alternatives. Let's dive in. Let's start with number one. The best overall weather app is Apple Weather, the one you already have on your iPhone, iPad
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Mac, and Apple Watch. Coming from Apple, it's beautifully designed, really easy to look at all the information
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you need at a glance, and it supports all the features like widgets, Apple Watch complications
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even lock screen widgets and more. And because Apple acquired Dark Sky, which was a previously beloved weather app a few
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years ago, they've rolled in a lot of more advanced features as well
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So you get down to the minute notifications when rain is about to happen in your area
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if you have that turned on. And you have these wonderful full screen radar maps that you can tap into as well
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Actually, everywhere in the app, you can tap on any of these widgets to see full screen
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modal information boxes with detailed graphs on things like barometric pressure, UV index
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feels like temperature, the wind speed. You can scroll ahead to the next 10 days or look at yesterday's data for any of these
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You can even see down to the hour, the exact visibility and phase of the moon for some reason
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The other benefit is that coming from Apple, it's entirely free to use. Some alternatives you might consider are Fox Weather, which also has advanced 3D radar
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maps of your area and built in links to weather news. It's also the only third party app on this list that is entirely free with no premium
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version, no ads or anything. AccuWeather also has minute by minute precipitation projected ahead to the next four hours
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And they have an advanced real feel and real feel shade temperature, which is a special
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feature. It's available both as free and in a premium version. For the best hyperlocal weather, you can use Weather Underground, which is built out of
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a network of 250,000 weather stations and is powered by IBM. So you get their exclusive forecasting model with air quality reports and even flu outbreak alerts
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They say they have the most interactive weather maps on a mobile device
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The ability to choose a specific weather station is really useful if you live in an area with
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a lot of microclimates, like if you're by a coast or if you're in a mountainous area
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where town to town readings can be wildly different. One caveat is that a lot of these weather stations are owned privately, so they might
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not all be properly set up. For example, you might have a weather station that doesn't have accurate wind readings at
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all because somebody set it up next to a giant wall. Weather Underground is on the App Store with both free and premium versions
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Some other apps with awesome local features include Weatherbug, which shows you during
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a rainstorm where nearby lightning strikes were in the last 30 minutes
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And it also has an Outdoor Sports Index rating, so you can see how good a day is going to
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be for playing outside. Windy.com's app packs in 50 layers of data and other tools, available in both free and
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premium versions. Easily the best weather app with some fun personality is Carrot Weather
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This app has five different personality modes, from the straight-laced professional to the
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profanity-laden overkill. But it's also an award-winning app with a great design and great features, with accurate data
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It's a great citizen of Apple platforms with this wonderful Apple Watch app, widgets that
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you can use in standby on your iPhone or on the lock screen on your iPad
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It leverages personal voice if you have that accessibility feature enabled. And I give it high marks for its App Privacy Report, which doesn't share any personal data
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Some fun alternatives that also come with both free and premium versions are What The
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Forecast, which gets even zanier than Carrot Weather at times, and Not Boring Weather
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which provides all the most essential information in a beautifully designed minimalist app
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The best weather app for widgets is OneWeather. It's a jack-of-all-trades app with all the most common features, like 10-day forecasts
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minute-by-minute forecasts, severe weather alerts, live radars, and more. But it's really known for presenting all this data in a plethora of widgets that you can
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use on your lock screen, on your home screen, or in standby. On the iPhone and iPad, you have a temperature forecast, an hourly temperature forecast
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daily temperatures, hourly precipitation forecast, hourly wind forecast, hourly and daily wind forecast
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You have all of these options. And you can tap on them for even more data inside the app
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It's available for free and with a premium version on the App Store. The Weather Channel also offers lock screen widgets with a 24-hour radar available in
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free, premium, and pro versions. And Widgetsmith, which isn't explicitly a weather app, but has a lot of highly customizable
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widgets that you can put anywhere on your iPhone. The weather app with the best visuals is easily Ventusky, which has these advanced 3D radar
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maps that show animated wind views in streamlines that you can overlay on top of other data
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in your weather app for a truly awesome visual experience. It combines data from a whole bunch of leading weather providers so you get not just a view
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of your local area, but around the entire globe, all collected in one place
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It has two forecast widgets and two radar widgets as well. And you can find it on the App Store with the aforementioned free and premium versions
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There's also Climb, run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which gives
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you a bunch of radar maps and lock screen widgets available with both free and premium
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versions, and Radarscope, which has storm tracking and these hyper-detailed radar views
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powered by something that's apparently called NexRad Level 3, whatever that is
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It's a premium though, at $9.99 per month to start. So those are the top weather apps
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Remember to like and subscribe. Links to everything I talked about are in the video description
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I'm D. Griffin Jones with Cult of Mac
