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Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

blog.darksky.net

21–30 of 55 posts

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#21
post #13

All and every weather data that ANY weather company uses is provided, for free, by the US Government [0] [0] https://www.weather.gov/

Perhaps in the US that is true, but "All" and "any" doesn't extend to other countries very well.

In the UK https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/ power a lot of apps, in Norway it is https://www.yr.no/nb . I'm sure most countries have their own weather providing service.

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#22
post #13

All and every weather data that ANY weather company uses is provided, for free, by the US Government [0] [0] https://www.weather.gov/

I don't believe this is true. DarkSky aggregated data from various sources. They also provided "hyper local" forecasts which were very accurate - I don't think NWS has anything like this. And I don't believe the NWS provides weather outside of the US - when I try to get the forecast for Mexico City, for example, I get "Data Unavailable For Requested Point" (https://api.weather.gov/points/19.4333,-99.1333)

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#23

It's interesting that they'll continue to offer API with the new WeatherKit API. I have an impression that Dark Sky API was very popular with developers and have been wondering what stood out for them among many other weather APIs on the market.

It was the best weather API I've ever used, for a few reason:

1. Pricing. It was affordable and straight-forward pricing. There wasn't a huge "tier bump" - I think it was like a flat fee per 1000 requests after the free alotment.

2.You always could expect the same response, regardless of location or date. You could get an hourly forecast 3 years into the future, or 20 years in the past. Most other weather API will give you hourly only from "now" into the next few days. Or you can get daily for the next ten days or something like that. So you had to build logic around into your app. With DarkSky I got the same response no matter the day, time, or location. So it was much simpler to deal with.

3. Accuracy. I was always amazed at how accurate it was.

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#25

I rely on a awesome android app[0] for my photography, it's just a big table of data like Low, Med, High cloud cover, which you can use to predict sunsets/rises. It uses the Dark Sky api. Will android apps be allowed continued access to this API? If not, I'm screwed. Unless anyone knows another source for this type of detailed weather data? [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.firstlight...

The developer documentation[1] says "REST APIs can be used for websites and other platforms" so it looks like you can use WeatherKit in your Android App, although the API has slightly changed from the Dark Sky API.

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/weatherkit/get-started/

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#26

I rely on a awesome android app[0] for my photography, it's just a big table of data like Low, Med, High cloud cover, which you can use to predict sunsets/rises. It uses the Dark Sky api. Will android apps be allowed continued access to this API? If not, I'm screwed. Unless anyone knows another source for this type of detailed weather data? [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.firstlight...

> Will android apps be allowed continued access to this API?

Yes, WeatherKit site mentions that "REST APIs can be used for websites and other platforms."

https://developer.apple.com/weatherkit/get-started/

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#27
post #9

It looks like just they extended the dates at which they are shutting things down. This is great news for me because I use their API for a small app and have been putting off updating it to something new, so now I have quite a bit more time. A developer has started an impressive and ambitious project called Pirate Weather, which I planning on using moving forward, for those looking for "drop-in" alternatives: https:/…

Another alternative is OpenWeatherMap: https://openweathermap.org/api/one-call-3

It's not quite a drop-in replacement, but it's pretty close. They have a free plan for 1,000 calls/day.

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#28
post #15

These days I use the "hourly graphical forecast" from the National Weather Service. I've found it to be at least as accurate as Dark Sky and easy enough to display 3 images side by side and refresh periodically to always have a 6-day forecast at hand. The display is more informative and compact than any other weather site or app I've tried. There's also a tabular version that's easy enough to scrape if you want to cu…

thanks for posting. This looks really good.

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#30
That's too bad - I really like what Dark Sky has done in terms of bringing all weather information to one spot and being able to see radar and then creating expectation of rain over the next hour.

Seems like I am about to lose all that functionality.

Well done Dark Sky team on building a great app - I hope that against all odds Apple decides to keep all the great work you've done and integrate it well!

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