Weather apps are a solved problem that nobody has solved. The forecast is the forecast — the difference between apps is presentation, data sources, and how much you're willing to pay for a nicer way to be told it might rain.
That said, the data actually matters, and the landscape shifted when Apple bought Dark Sky in 2020 and then shut the standalone app down at the start of 2023, folding its hyperlocal nowcasting into Apple Weather. If you were a devotee, the question is whether it landed somewhere good.
Three apps cover the range. The free one that ships with your phone, the one with a personality and a subscription, and the one built for widgets and Android crossovers. The honest recommendation depends on how much you care about rain arriving in twelve minutes versus an hour.
Apple Weather: free, and better than it gets credit for
Apple Weather is the default, and after absorbing Dark Sky's technology it's a genuinely strong one. The minute-by-minute precipitation forecast works in a good number of countries now, the radar map is smooth, and the interface is a dense, readable wall of numbers that answers most questions without a tap.
It also has the things you'd want from a system app: severe weather alerts, location-aware widgets, a watch complication, and Siri integration that actually works. No ads, no account, no subscription. On privacy, Apple's stated position is that weather data is tied to your approximate location rather than a profile, which is more than most ad-supported weather apps offer.
The trade-offs are about sources and voice. Apple blends a couple of upstream sources under its own model, but you can't see or switch them, so there's no second opinion in the app. The layout is information-dense but not customizable, and the app has no personality whatsoever.
Carrot Weather: the one with a personality
Carrot Weather is the app people recommend when they want weather to be fun, and it delivers: forecasts narrated by a sarcastic AI character whose hostility is adjustable from "friendly" to "overlord." The gimmick is real, but it's not the reason to use it.
The reason is customization and data. Carrot pulls from multiple forecast sources and lets you switch between them per-location, which is genuinely useful when one model consistently does better where you live. The layout is fully configurable, the widgets are excellent, and there are radar, lightning, and storm-tracking views that are more legible than Apple's.
Free tier available; subscription for the customization, extra sources, and the advanced radar layers. That's the first trade-off: a meaningful chunk of the good stuff is behind the paywall, and Carrot is not shy about showing you what you're missing.
The second trade-off is that Carrot's personality is either the point or an irritant. You can turn it off, at which point you're paying a subscription for a well-built weather app with a plain interface — still good, less distinctive.
Third: location handling. Carrot can use precise location for hyperlocal alerts, which means a third party knows where you are; the app offers coarser options in settings.
Overdrop: widgets first
Overdrop is built around the home screen in a way the others aren't. The weather widgets are the best in this group — clocks that show conditions, animated radar widgets, multiple sizes and layouts that don't look like a template. If your home screen is arranged like a dashboard, Overdrop is designed for you.
It's also exceptionally readable. The main view packs current conditions, hourly, daily, and a precipitation chart into one or two screens, with a clean visual language that makes "should I bring a jacket" a one-second question.
Free with ads; subscription or one-time purchase to remove them and unlock the widget options. That's the honest trade-off: the free version is ad-supported, and weather apps with ads have an obvious incentive to keep you looking at them.
The other trade-offs: it leans on multiple data providers, which is good for cross-checking but means accuracy varies by region more than with a single-source app. Severe weather alerts exist but aren't as aggressive as the system-level ones. And the app's design flourishes occasionally get in the way of the answer.
What the Dark Sky thing actually means
Worth saying plainly, because it's the most common question about weather apps. Apple bought Dark Sky in 2020, kept the API running for developers for a while, and shut the consumer app down in early 2023. Its short-term precipitation predictions were folded into Apple Weather.
What survived: the nowcasting, which is the part people actually loved. What didn't: the minimalist design and the sense that a small team was making it for you. If you've been chasing that, Apple Weather's precipitation view is the closest thing left.
Which one fits
- Free, no ads, no account: Apple Weather. The sane default.
- Custom layout, multiple sources, personality: Carrot Weather.
- Home screen widgets that don't look generic: Overdrop.
One last honest note: none of these apps generate weather. They render forecasts from the same handful of models. When the forecast is wrong, switching apps won't help — the model was wrong, and every app was reading it.
No comments yet