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Acme Weather

acmeweather.com

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Re: Acme Weather

#141

Post by JumpCrisscross »

counters wrote: post #123
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> strongly doubt that this company runs their own weather stations or meteorological models. Their only recurring cost is API access to the companies that provide weather data No. But I'd suspect a tabula rasa approach to weather–particularly given it hasn't been rolled out globally in one go–incorporates satellite data, local measurements, et cetera . Again, that may not take constant subscriprtion. But it does take…

> No. But I'd suspect a tabula rasa approach to weather–particularly given it hasn't been rolled out globally in one go–incorporates satellite data, local measurements, et cetera. There most likely won't ever be such an effort - even in companies that are targeting verticalization of the "weather supply chain" (proprietary observations + models + decision support tools) - if only because it would be utterly foolish t…

> it would be utterly foolish to exclude the vast amounts of data collected by government agencies

Never suggested this. You use the government data. And you supplement with specialist sources. If you’re near any avalanche areas, for example, your snow forecasts typically have an additional layer of resolution available if you know where to look.

Re: Acme Weather

#142

Post by imiric »

counters wrote: post #124
imiric wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I believe there are opportunities to improve short term forecast accuracy using data collected from phones. Alright, fair point. That could be a reasonable use case. But judging by their advertised "Community reports" feature, Acme doesn't seem to be doing this. And even if they did, this feature should be opt-in, and their privacy policy should only apply for those users. > Also, pretty much every day, all the app…

> Weather forecasts have always been an inexact science Weather forecasting is anything but "an inexact science." It's extremely exact up to the limitations and assumptions you impose on your model due to resource constraints. And yes - I assume that this is what you mean by "an inexact science." But still in 2026 I regularly meet people who think that weather forecasting is the same as astrology, completely ignorant…

> Weather forecasting is anything but "an inexact science." It's extremely exact up to the limitations and assumptions you impose on your model due to resource constraints.

It's "extremely exact" but our models are not good enough. So... inexact?

The reality is that we don't have the technology to model the physical world with extreme accuracy. If we did, we would be able to predict the future, and not just weather events. The world's most powerful supercomputers can model atmospheric conditions pretty well, and they've certainly improved over time, but there are still a lot of variables unaccounted for.

This is why I think that ~90% accuracy for a few days in advance[1] is good enough for most people. A smartphone app won't miraculously make this better, no matter how pretty or "fun" it is.

[1]: https://ourworldindata.org/weather-forecasts

Re: Acme Weather

#145

Post by elAhmo »

No one should be using apps made by these guys after their sellout to Apple. Leaving Apple now to start another weather app is quite disingenuous.

Re: Acme Weather

#146

Post by _bypa »

hypercube33 wrote: post #108
marbletiles wrote: post #20

This team really have been thinking about weather a lot , and it makes me very curious about what they’ve created this time. It’s that depth of thought and expertise that feels missing from most of the vibe-coded launches we’ve seen recently. I actually wouldn’t mind if Acme had vibe coded parts, but I bet they didn’t.

I'm almost shocked we don't have a large weather model instead of a language model. Seems right up the alley. Also I don't get what happened but I think it was AccuWeather or weather underground in the early 2000s where it was to the minute accurate and it seems like it's gotten worse since everywhere.

Google, Microsoft, Huawei, NVIDIA all have AI weather forecast models:

https://deepmind.google/science/weathernext/

https://microsoft.github.io/aurora/intro.html

https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2023/8/pangu-weather-forcast

https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-earth-2-open-models/

A Swiss startup named Jua does this for energy markets. Disclosure: I used to work there.

Re: Acme Weather

#147

Post by _bypa »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #116

> $25/year subscription I don't get it, is there even a market ? People get free and quite accurate weather information from Google and others. I don't think that a few radar view and probability prediction are worth that amount of money. But then, how much was dark sky ? And did it succeed ? Getting bought by apple is a kind of success but I mean success as in profitability.

The free (and paid) apps for weather are seriously terrible in LatAm. You can really see the focus and high data quality are all in the northern hemisphere. All the apps available rely on a handful of models: GFS, IFS, ICON, ...

Re: Acme Weather

#148

Post by scoot »

RebeccaTheDev wrote: post #98
qkc3p3Jbf4 wrote: post #6

Looks lovely. I was keen to try this but US and Canada only unfortunately. Also: subscription fatigue is real. Of course I understand that fetching weather data isn’t free etc. (even though I’m intrigued by their homegrown forecast model) but I’ve already got 10+ subscriptions on iOS and I’m not sure if I’ve got the stomach for another. Apple’s weather app is finally good though since the Dark Sky acquisition.

> Also: subscription fatigue is real. This. I just went and cancelled a bunch of vampire subscriptions that had accrued in my life (both in and out of the Apple ecosystem) and ended up saving somewhere in the range of $60 a month. I get that people have bills to pay and building and maintaining software costs money, but when everyone wants money from me for every little thing, eventually I have to decide who gets wha…

Going even further off topic, one of the things I love with Apple is having all your subscriptions in one place, and being able to cancel them easily.

The few zombie subscriptions I've had have all existed outside of the App store, one that I didn't even sign up for (looking at you Masterclass). I bought a one year gift subscription for someone else, and because it came with a "free" subscription for me (that I didn't use), I git hit with annual renewals until I noticed it on my credit card statement and cancelled.

Yes, I should check those more frequently, but who has time for that?

It rankles that you can can cancel a free trial before it's over with every app exept Apple's. I like the feature, but the double standard grates.

Re: Acme Weather

#149

Post by counters »

imiric wrote: post #142
counters wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Weather forecasts have always been an inexact science Weather forecasting is anything but "an inexact science." It's extremely exact up to the limitations and assumptions you impose on your model due to resource constraints. And yes - I assume that this is what you mean by "an inexact science." But still in 2026 I regularly meet people who think that weather forecasting is the same as astrology, completely ignorant…

> Weather forecasting is anything but "an inexact science." It's extremely exact up to the limitations and assumptions you impose on your model due to resource constraints. It's "extremely exact" but our models are not good enough. So... inexact? The reality is that we don't have the technology to model the physical world with extreme accuracy. If we did, we would be able to predict the future, and not just weather e…

> It's "extremely exact" but our models are not good enough. So... inexact?

That's not the common way that the phrase "inexact science" is used. All modeling involves approximations at some levels, but you wouldn't turn around and call it "inexact science."

> ... but there are still a lot of variables unaccounted for.

Such as... ?

This is the problem with throwing away colloquialisms like "inexact science." What, specifically, is a "variable" that is unaccounted for that would unlock improved forecast accuracy or to push thresholds closer to the predictability limits?

> This is why I think that ~90% accuracy for a few days in advance[1] is good enough for most people. A smartphone app won't miraculously make this better, no matter how pretty or "fun" it is.

I agree, which is why the other portions of your comment come off poorly.

Re: Acme Weather

#150

Post by esoltys »

basicoperation wrote: post #5

The site doesn’t make it clear, but it’s not available worldwide. The App Store doesn’t tell you where exactly it is available, but it’s not in the UK. This surprised me seeing as one of the example images shows Europe, including the south coast of Britain.

In Canada it's $35/yr and I don't see any indication of the 2-week trial that's mentioned on their website. Probably can still cancel within two weeks, but it simply has a Subscribe button before you can do anything.
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