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New iPhone owner - best/most accurate weather app?

A

Aggedor

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 10, 2020
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I'm a bit of a weather nut, and have just shifted from Android (Samsung phone and Galaxy watch) back to the iPhone and Apple Watch (14 Pro Max and series 8 watch).

Can somebody recommend me a weather app for my iPhone and watch? I'm currently using the default Apple weather, but despite showing the correct location, it's extremely inaccurate.

On my old Android phone, the default weather app was accurate. I have Google Home devices around my house, and when I ask for the weather, they report the same accurate weather as the Android phone.

I use my watch to check the weather a lot, so I'd like something with more accuracy, that offers good watch face complications. Does anybody have any suggestions? I don't mind paying for an app or service.
 
Okay... I've installed: Carrot, Accuweather, Hello Weather, and The Weather Channel.

The only one that appears to show accurate weather for my location is Accuweather. The other three show the same weather as the default Apple weather, which is inaccurate.

Admittedly, they are not THAT far off - Accuweather says 8 degrees, the others all say 7. But it's brilliantly sunny today, and Accuweather says sunny. The others, including Apple, say partly cloudy.

This is a bit of a mystery...
 
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Understand that unless you are next door to the weather station that the source for your app is using, the temperature being reflected in the app could be 20 miles away. Use the one most accurate for you.
 
fatTribble said:
Others can correct me, but I remember Weather Channel getting caught years ago collecting a lot of user data. So I’ve not used them since. That was years ago so that could have all changed.
Click to expand...

This is accurate. But I haven’t used TWC app in years.

For me, Carrot Weather is pretty accurate, but I like Hello Weather also.
 
teeshot44 said:
Understand that unless you are next door to the weather station that the source for your app is using, the temperature being reflected in the app could be 20 miles away. Use the one most accurate for you.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I understand that. I'm just curious as to where the weather data is coming from, given I haven't moved and I'm getting two different reports, depending on the app. There must be two different weather stations, and each app has a particular preference for which service they get the data from.
 
Aggedor said:
Yeah, I understand that. I'm just curious as to where the weather data is coming from, given I haven't moved and I'm getting two different reports, depending on the app. There must be two different weather stations, and each app has a particular preference for which service they get the data from.
Click to expand...
Each weather app has their own source for data. Some apps let you select the source. Sources do their best to analyze the data for a more specific area. All sources generally, in the US at least, use NWS sites, but then put their own spin and analysis on it. Some apps let you see weather data from amateur weather stations, many may be near you.
 
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You can also change the source in Carrot so if you find Accuweather more accurate you can get the features of Carrot with Accuweather data. Thats what I use since Dark Sky went away.
 
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fatTribble said:
Others can correct me, but I remember Weather Channel getting caught years ago collecting a lot of user data. So I’ve not used them since. That was years ago so that could have all changed.
Click to expand...
They collected the location data, I rarely have location turned on for all apps on my phone.
 
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I use Carrot, with Foreca as the source. Seems pretty accurate for my location (after the last time I went down the rabbit hole of granular comparisons).

No app or source seems to have total superiority over others, on all fronts (temp, precipitation start time, etc)… you just have to sort of choose one and stick with it, or you’ll drive yourself nuts 🙂
 
fatTribble said:
I’m a big fan of Hello Weather. It’s a very well done app with multiple choices for weather data.
Click to expand...
Hello Weather is fine, but if you want or need notifications, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

I also use Carrot. It can be a bit expensive (If $30 a year or so seems expensive to you). I pay for the full family version so my wife and kids can use it too. $50/yr is less than a dollar a week. It’s value increases, IMO, if you have multiple devices I use the same subscription on my phone, iPad, and Mac, and when I used an Apple Watch, it was great there too.

MyRadar Pro might be of interest to you too.
 
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I use Apple Weather, Carrot, AccuWeather, plus data from my own personal weather station. I have always found Carrot to be on the "dramatic" side for snow/rain forecasts, and sometimes blatantly false. Yesterday, we had clear blue skies all day long, and the hour-by-hour forecast showed as much, but the app was showing 1.7" of rain forecast. I'm not sure which source it's using at this point since I don't pay for premium and, previously, all it could grab was Dark Sky.
 
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