There are so many weather apps. They tend to fall into two groups. Way too much information for me, or fluffy little icons that are pretty and just don’t have enough of the information I want.
A friend suggested I take a peek at Forecast, a free web app from the people who make a very serious weather app called Dark Sky. Just hit the “Forecast” hyperlink above and you are there.
Forecast is simple on the surface. It grabs your location, and presents a simple screen with the weather info you’re most likely to want. It gives you forecast information conversationally, like “Partly cloudy for the hour” or “Sprinkling off-and-on until next Tuesday.” As you explore the screen, you’ll find even more, such as animated weather maps that not only show you the past, but also future weather predictions.
You can get a local map, a regional map or a global picture. If you click on a day, you’ll get hourly temperature predictions along with sky cover. Of course there is wind speed, humidity, sunset and sunrise times, but it is all presented in an uncluttered fashion. You can swipe to go forward and back, and new data appears with a downward finger swipe. So even though it is a web app, it interacts with the user just like any dedicated app.
Gallery: Forecast
If you want to give it a permanent space on your iOS device you can add it to the home screen and it creates a pretty icon. If you want it on a Mac, just save the URL in your browser. Forecast displayed a small ad when I tested it, but it was unobtrusive and not a distraction.
I have seen and used a lot of weather apps. The Forecast web app is getting a prominent place on my iPhone and iPad. I think if you try it you will like it. You can read a bit more about the app and its creation on the Dark Sky blog.
Forecast is a great little weather web app originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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