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Ask HN: DarkSky Alternatives?

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Re: Ask HN: DarkSky Alternatives?

#41

Post by petodo »

Terretta wrote: post #34
jnthn wrote: post #27

https://www.rainviewer.com/ Has been mostly good, where DarkSky never really worked in Europe.

Strange comment. As it was originally mostly ECMWF and a few other EU centric models that supported near term precip better than US models, it seemed better in EU to me. It got worse after it took off in US though, I'd agree. Meanwhile climacell worked better in US. Consider checking out windy.app to compare models easily for one or a mix of several that work best where you are: https://windy.app/support/windy-app-we…

TIL Climacell rebranded to Tomorrow.io

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.climacell.c...

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1443325509

edit: what a horrible app, can't delete unwanted cards from Feed and 14 days forecast show tempratures only for tomorrow with no data shown for other days plus let's ignore the fact it's iOS design just ported on Android

Re: Ask HN: DarkSky Alternatives?

#42

Post by toss1 »

I used to use DarkSky on Android

I've since put together a kit of much better alternatives:

Foreca [0] is most similar with at-a-glance daily or hourly (with drill-down) weather calendar display.

FlowX [1] is an amazing current visualization of any of numerous weather models in great detail as well as graphs of key values, hi-low, etc.. The visualization is spectacular and just swiping advances/reverses the point in time, so you can really see the motion of the weather systems, and show any of a dozen or so parameters (everything from temp. precip rate, clouds, wind speed, humidity, gasses, etc.). It is a spectacular tour-de-force of usabele visualization of quantitative data — I can't speak highly enough about it, and on the few times I've contacted the developer I found him friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful.

Rainy Days Radar [2] is a good visualization of current radar data. Very helpful in seeing the motion of current nearby precipitation and timing it's arrival.

All are very easy to switch to a different city/locale if you need info for somewhere else. I've got no relationship with any of these other than being a satisfied customer.

[0] www.foreca.com

[1] https://www.flowx.io/

[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neenbedank...

Re: Ask HN: DarkSky Alternatives?

#43

Post by toss1 »

duanem wrote: post #9

I'm in the process of porting Flowx, an Android weather app, to iOS. It is currently released for beta testing. I've added most global and European data and am planning to add NOAA's NAM and HRRR data in the next week or two. I still have to add waves, radar and wind streamlines. If you're interested in testing, email me or contact me via the flowx forum.

Readers should note that this is a fantastic app, a tour-de-force in useful visualization of quantitative data — live weather models in great detail — and one of the apps that would keeps me firmly in the Android world (although evidently now being ported to Apple).

No relationship other than satisfied (and impressed ) customer for many years. You've gotta try this!

Re: Ask HN: DarkSky Alternatives?

#44

Post by drcongo »

jghn wrote: post #37
clnq wrote: post #16

I always wondered why DarkSky was so popular. Was it the design? It was known to be generally inaccurate among meteorologists, while other apps (METAR+TAF especially) would be remarkably accurate. I don't intend this to be a jab at anyone's app preferences, but I'm very interested in the value proposition that hooked people.

I always found that for very near term forecasts it was better than alternatives. But the further out my time horizon the less good it was. “What’s this weeks weather going to be” I’d use another source. “Will I get rained in if I leave the house now, or should I wait 30 mins?” I’d use dark sky I’ve switched to Apple Weather which has been a reasonable replacement but I don’t like it as much

Apple claimed to have integrated Dark Sky's technologies into their Weather app but clearly haven't. I've relied on Dark Sky's rain notifications for years and they've always been remarkably accurate (UK here), but the stock Weather app sends maybe one notification per 100 rains. So far this year, since Apple turned off Dark Sky, I haven't received a single rain notification and consequently I've been absolutely drenched on several dog walks.

Re: Ask HN: DarkSky Alternatives?

#45

Post by bfrog »

paulcole wrote: post #2

Apple Weather (iOS, iPadOS, MacOS) is excellent.

Apple weather is about as useful as one of those plastic bubble popping lawnmowers. As in darn near useless. They hid the hourly reports a few levels into the app and the darn thing never is right for me. Makes me really hate apple a little bit more every time I use it. “Sunny and clear” no apple, it’s snowing.

Re: Ask HN: DarkSky Alternatives?

#46

Post by headsupernova »

toss1 wrote: post #42

I used to use DarkSky on Android I've since put together a kit of much better alternatives: Foreca [0] is most similar with at-a-glance daily or hourly (with drill-down) weather calendar display. FlowX [1] is an amazing current visualization of any of numerous weather models in great detail as well as graphs of key values, hi-low, etc.. The visualization is spectacular and just swiping advances/reverses the point in…

So glad to see the FlowX mention. I've been obsessed with that app since back when it was called WeatherBomb. The premium data is well worth the cost imo, and the customizable widgets are so useful once you dial them in for what you're interested in!

Re: Ask HN: DarkSky Alternatives?

#47

Post by jghn »

drcongo wrote: post #44
jghn wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always found that for very near term forecasts it was better than alternatives. But the further out my time horizon the less good it was. “What’s this weeks weather going to be” I’d use another source. “Will I get rained in if I leave the house now, or should I wait 30 mins?” I’d use dark sky I’ve switched to Apple Weather which has been a reasonable replacement but I don’t like it as much

Apple claimed to have integrated Dark Sky's technologies into their Weather app but clearly haven't. I've relied on Dark Sky's rain notifications for years and they've always been remarkably accurate (UK here), but the stock Weather app sends maybe one notification per 100 rains. So far this year, since Apple turned off Dark Sky, I haven't received a single rain notification and consequently I've been absolutely dren…

I ran both in parallel for a while. Local to me they were pretty close but not quite the same. Dark Sky was always more accurate when they differed.

Re: Ask HN: DarkSky Alternatives?

#48

Post by toss1 »

headsupernova wrote: post #46
toss1 wrote: post #42

I used to use DarkSky on Android I've since put together a kit of much better alternatives: Foreca [0] is most similar with at-a-glance daily or hourly (with drill-down) weather calendar display. FlowX [1] is an amazing current visualization of any of numerous weather models in great detail as well as graphs of key values, hi-low, etc.. The visualization is spectacular and just swiping advances/reverses the point in…

So glad to see the FlowX mention. I've been obsessed with that app since back when it was called WeatherBomb. The premium data is well worth the cost imo, and the customizable widgets are so useful once you dial them in for what you're interested in!

Yes, it was impressive even back int he WeatherBomb days, indeed!

Agree the premium data plans are totally worth it; tried it on a freebie period and signed right up. Didn't know what I was missing

Re: Ask HN: DarkSky Alternatives?

#49

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

kyoob wrote: post #32

I use Weather Strip, which has a unique and slick interface for the upcoming week’s forecast. I’ve never seen another weather app quite like it.

Wow, this may be the one of the best designed weather apps I've ever used. I can see so much at once and don't need to think to process what I'm seeing.

Re: Ask HN: DarkSky Alternatives?

#50

Post by commoner »

Geometric Weather (for Android) is free, open source, and nicely designed. Data sources include AccuWeather (default), OpenWeatherMap, Météo-France, and Caiyun (China).

- F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/wangdaye.com.geometricweather/

- Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=wangdaye.com.g...

- Source: https://github.com/WangDaYeeeeee/GeometricWeather

A beta version of Geometric Weather is available for testing on iOS: https://github.com/WangDaYeeeeee/GeometricWeather-iOS

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