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A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

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Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#201

Post by flkiwi »

_emacsomancer_ wrote: post #10
uneekname wrote: post #2

Oh man I miss Dark Sky. I have yet to find a weather app as good. briefsky[0] was recently posted on here and I think I'll try using it for a while. Also of note is Pirate Weather[1], a weather API in the same style as Dark Sky. [0] https://briefsky.app/ [1] https://pirateweather.net

Also Merry Sky[1], which uses the Pirate Weather API. Open-Meteo is also interesting. [1]: https://merrysky.net [2]: https://open-meteo.com

MerrySky is so good.

Geometric Weather is a fantastic app with the same look and feel. Carrot Weather also just (?) added what is effectively a "DarkSky mode". It's lovely.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#202

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

b555 wrote: post #143
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use the National Weather Service and added a shortcut to my home screen.

what's the page you are using to replicate dark sky's capabilities exactly?

forecast.weather.gov

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#203

Post by ethbr0 »

tshaddox wrote: post #188
ethbr0 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that the suns movements are pretty predictable, it seems suboptimal to define counter to something that happens almost every day.

But the most important weather changes to see forecasts for are the ones caused by weather systems moving in which are mostly independent of the time of day. Those are the ones that catch you by surprise wearing the wrong clothes.

Are they? Freeze warnings are pretty important in large parts of the country.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#204

Post by sizzle »

tyrfing wrote: post #72
jameshart wrote: post #40

Dark Sky was okay. As detailed here, it does a great job of centering on the actual user needs of weather app users. Unfortunately, it also demonstrated that which users you focus on matters a lot. Dark Sky is great at answering the weather questions of people who live in places where rain showers are short lasting; where temperatures range from ‘cool’ to ‘hot’; and where storms are infrequent, special events. Basica…

Disagree. Dark Sky was fantastic in the PNW, where the main concerns are just how rainy it will be that day, and the approximate high temperatures coming up. Nothing accurately forecasts (here) whether it will be freezing or whether precipitation will be snow/slush/hail/rain, but other apps like Apple's are absolutely horrific at forecasting precipitation even a few hours out. Stuff like showing 30% chance of rain in…

When does the temperature drop to freezing and negative windchill in PNW like OP mentioned were use cases not designed into the app as it is not of the target audience with areas of mild weather.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#205

Post by ethbr0 »

tshaddox wrote: post #186
ethbr0 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you live in Antarctica, it's winter, and you're out of scope.

Definitely not. It’s common in places where the weather actually changes due to things other than the time of day, i.e. where cold systems move in. For example, look at the forecasts in the Chicago area where tomorrow (March 23) it’s going to be a fair bit colder at noon than at 1am. This is not at all uncommon, and is in fact precisely why it’s important to check the weather forecast in the morning on normal days wh…

Okay, so Antarctica, Chicago, and Cleveland.

But the broader point is that the utility of an overnight temperature is that it happens while most people are sleeping, and thus unable to respond to it.

Fluctuations while one is awake can be coped with.

IMHO, the most reasonable intuitive measures would be: overnight low, rain during the midnight-to-midnight day

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#206

Post by sizzle »

reaperducer wrote: post #189
Spooky23 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies solve their own problems. Outlook is one of the classic examples of that - it was an app that was a cultural snapshot of Microsoft. In the case of Apple, Cupertino is a pretty boring weather locale. Sometimes you need to zipper your coat and once in awhile it rains.

In the case of Apple, Cupertino is a pretty boring weather locale. Sometimes you need to zipper your coat and once in awhile it rains. Which also explains why iPhone headphone wires get brittle in moderately cold weather, and iPhones go into thermal shutdown mode at temperatures that are common in places like Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and the non-Bay Area parts of California.

They get brittle in colder weather? Never heard of this, can you explain a bit more?

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#208

Post by sizzle »

nonethewiser wrote: post #187
brewdad wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It becomes useless when it was 32 degrees at midnight. But now, as I sit here on a Thursday morning, it shows the low for today as 28 degrees and tomorrow as 40 degrees. What will I need to wear Friday morning when I go out? Will it be closer to 40 or continue dropping and be closer to freezing? Is it safe to put my sensitive plants back outside? Perhaps it shows 28 again but is that for early Friday morning or late…

> What will I need to wear Friday morning when I go out? Can’t you just check Friday’s temps? I’m not sure why you’d expect this info out of Thursday.

Absolutely this, I think OP has an atypical mental model of the daily boundaries of temperature, we’ve been conditioned to think of daily highs and lows from radio and local news television forecasts. You can’t just look at the app in isolation of decades of social conditioning that predate the iPhone and weather apps.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#209

Post by ojkelly »

zer0x4d wrote: post #207

Anyone else notice how inaccurate the iOS weather app has gotten in iOS 16? It used to be very accurate in terms of rain/snow in California, but recently it's just completely wrong. I end up going to weather.com to get an accurate report.

Down in Melbourne, Australia it’s regularly 5-10 degrees wrong.

It’s like they got a 7 day forecast, and never updated it.

Something must have happened this year, because it used to be very accurate.

Now, if if you want accurate weather (down under) you need to use the pretty good BOM app. But, it doesn’t have a Home Screen widget, or watch complications.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#210

Post by skadamat »

nixpulvis wrote: post #62

I'm not sure I completely see the authors point about "Preserving temperature magnitudes in ranges", could someone help me understand? Specifically, I don't understand this: "all temperature ranges are rescaled to take up the same amount of space in the app.", since it seems like both the Dark Sky and Weather.app views use pills that don't cover the x axis, as expected.

Author here!

I think this image does the best job of showcasing the difference: https://i0.wp.com/nightingaledvs.com/wp-content/uploads/2023...

In Apple Watch, the min and max values (the numeric values left / right of the pills) are all aligned vertically on top of each other. In Dark Sky, they aren't aligned because the horizontal position is driven by the min and max values themselves. This is subtle but CRUCIAL for information graphics / software, where "glance-ability" is so so important.

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