Weather
Developer(s)Apple Inc.
Operating system
TypeWeather forecasting

Weather is a weather forecast app developed by Apple Inc., available on iOS since the release of the iPhone and iPhone OS 1 in 2007.[1][2] It allows users to see the conditions, forecast, temperature, and other related metrics of the device's current location, as well as a number of other cities. A version of Weather is also available for watchOS; however, it is limited in functionality.[3] Weather was made available on more devices across the Apple ecosystem with the releases of iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura, where weather data from Apple was previously only available as a widget or through Siri.

Earlier versions of Weather up through the release of iOS 7 sourced the app's forecast data from Yahoo! Weather; in March 2019, Yahoo! shut down the servers distributing data for the Weather app on devices supporting iOS 7 and earlier operating systems. From iOS 8 to iOS 15, The Weather Channel was used as the app's weather data source.[4] Since iOS 16, Apple has used their own internal forecast data.

Following the acquisition of weather app Dark Sky, many features have been rolled into Apple's own Weather app with the release of iOS 15.[5] Support for Dark Sky ceased on January 1, 2023, with users being urged to migrate to the Weather app.[6]

Functionality

Locations can be added or removed by pressing the list icon in the bottom right corner of the application, which allows the user to type in the city's name, ZIP Code or postal code or airport code.[1] For each city, the app will display the current, highest, and lowest temperatures, a 10-day forecast, UV index, time of sunrise and sunset, current wind direction and speed, rainfall measurements, current humidity, outdoor visibility range, and barometric pressure.[7] In some locations, the app will also display an air quality report and show next-hour precipitation when raining or snowing.[8]

iOS 14 introduced support for severe weather warnings, allowing a user to receive notifications for government-issued severe weather events such as tornadoes, flash flooding, strong winds, and snow storms. With iOS 15, a weather map can be accessed from the bottom left of the application which can display the temperature, air quality, and a multi-day precipitation forecast.

Issues

Inability to display 69°

In July 2021, some testers of the iOS 15 beta software noticed that the Weather app avoided displaying an accurate temperature when it was 69 °F (20.6 °C). Former Apple developer João Pavão speculated that the app uses whole numbers in Celsius for the temperature data, later converting it to Fahrenheit for the user interface and thus making it impossible for any number that was not the result of the conversion to be displayed.[9]

Service outages

Throughout early April 2023, Apple Weather experienced a number of outages which rendered the service unavailable to users for hours at a time.[10][11]

WeatherKit API

WeatherKit is an API integration which provides third-party developers with access to the Apple Weather service, replacing the former Dark Sky API. Developers can make a limited number of 500,000 API requests per month for free, with subscription options available to increase the request limit.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b Ritchie, Rene (December 4, 2016). "Weather app: The ultimate guide". iMore. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
  2. ^ Royal, Simon (January 13, 2017). "iPhone OS 1: The Beginning of an Era". Low End Mac. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
  3. ^ "Your Apple Watch is a tiny weather station — Here's how to use it". iMore. 2019-07-12. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  4. ^ Hughes, Neil (June 20, 2014). "Weather Channel providing Apple more detailed data for iOS 8 Weather app than Yahoo did". Apple Insider. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
  5. ^ Bursztynsky, Jessica (2020-03-31). "Apple buys popular weather app Dark Sky and plans to shut down Android versions". CNBC. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  6. ^ "Apple-Acquired Weather App Dark Sky Reminding Users That iOS App Shutting Down on January 1". MacRumors. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  7. ^ "Apple (finally) updates its weather app with dynamic backgrounds, maps and way more data". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  8. ^ Miller, Chance (2020-09-19). "iOS 14 Weather app includes real-time precipitation data, more". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  9. ^ Hilliard, Wesley. "This may be why Apple's Weather app doesn't show 69-degree temperatures". Apple Insider. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  10. ^ Warren, Tom (2023-04-04). "Apple's Weather app on iPhone was down this morning". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
  11. ^ Mayo, Benjamin (2023-04-06). "Apple Weather app is down again, company acknowledges outage". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
  12. ^ Espósito, Filipe (2022-09-13). "Developers can now subscribe to get more WeatherKit API requests". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
Categories