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Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

blog.darksky.net

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Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#31

Post by barkerja »

mrkwse wrote: post #10
ghost_ wrote: post #7

Dark Sky has been incredibly accurate for me in the UK (I've tested this daily as I need minute-level accuracy for weather daily over a large area). I really hope they integrate it into default weather well, in a way that it remains unchanged to current forecasts from Dark Sky.

They already have integrated it in a pretty reasonable way. The only thing that's missing is some of the alternative views for the hourly forecast, it's possibly a feature that wasn't as widely used (or as accurate as temp/conditions/precipitation) but as someone who burns easily, I do miss having e.g. hourly UVI forecasts.

This is available in the updated weather app in iOS 16. Each tile of information is clickable with nice hourly graphs. For example, clicking on the UV Index tile will now show an hourly graph of the UV Index, and lets you cycle across each day through the week.

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#32

Post by davidy123 »

spqr0a1 wrote: 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…

I think (?) the audience for this site is global, so you can't really say "National" weather service. Darksky works around the world (though I presume not truly everywhere). Glad to hear they are extending non proprietary access to their Weather Kit, that's an encouraging move.

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#33

Post by chris_overseas »

For those of you looking for an alternative, I'd recommend Windy[0][1][2]. It's UI can be slightly quirky but the weather models, features and visualisations are superb. If you're specifically after marine and wind forecasts, PredictWind[3] is about as good as it gets.

[0] Browser: https://www.windy.com/

[1] Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.windyty.an...

[2] iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/windy-com/id1161387262

[3] https://www.predictwind.com/ https://www.predictwind.com/apps/

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#35

Post by throwaway290 »

mdrzn wrote: 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/

If what you claim was true, apps would at least be consistent with each other. This couldn't be further from reality.

What I see in Dark Sky or Weather app is very different from what I see e.g. in Windy. Where I am now Dark Sky is almost completely wrong (neither real-time conditions nor predictions), while Windy manages to at least show accurate radar data and lets me make a short-term forecast myself.

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#36

Post by chrisweekly »

chris_overseas wrote: post #33

For those of you looking for an alternative, I'd recommend Windy[0][1][2]. It's UI can be slightly quirky but the weather models, features and visualisations are superb. If you're specifically after marine and wind forecasts, PredictWind[3] is about as good as it gets. [0] Browser: https://www.windy.com/ [1] Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.windyty.an... [2] iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/ap…

I came to suggest the same; windy.app is fantastic.

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#37

Post by wfhordie »

chris_overseas wrote: post #33

For those of you looking for an alternative, I'd recommend Windy[0][1][2]. It's UI can be slightly quirky but the weather models, features and visualisations are superb. If you're specifically after marine and wind forecasts, PredictWind[3] is about as good as it gets. [0] Browser: https://www.windy.com/ [1] Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.windyty.an... [2] iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/ap…

I’d recommend Carrot Weather because the commentary is hilarious, especially if you set the personality to “overkill.”

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#39

Post by NelsonMinar »

The specific Dark Sky feature no one has cloned adequately is the microforecast that says "it will rain on you in 8 minutes". There's a zillion apps that do a decent job of hourly and daily weather forecasts. But the particular rain warning was something Dark Sky was uniquely good at.

Rain Alarm on Android comes close, and even uses Dark Sky data (for now). But the UI isn't as good and the predictions aren't as accurate.

PS: understand that if you join Apple your work will be consumed and digested by the company in a way that renders your personal identity invisible. This is true both for companies like Dark Sky and for individuals.

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#40

Post by vageli »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #39

The specific Dark Sky feature no one has cloned adequately is the microforecast that says "it will rain on you in 8 minutes". There's a zillion apps that do a decent job of hourly and daily weather forecasts. But the particular rain warning was something Dark Sky was uniquely good at. Rain Alarm on Android comes close, and even uses Dark Sky data (for now). But the UI isn't as good and the predictions aren't as accur…

There is an app for Garmin watches called "Minutecast" which has been pretty accurate at predicting rain periods when it can get my location correct (does not work as well in remote areas that may have few weather stations, based on my personal experience).
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