Group test
BEST WEATHER APPS FOR iPAD AND iPHONE
Whatever the weather out there, make sure you’re ready for it with these brilliant apps
Reviewed by CRAIG GRANNELL
ON TEST…
> CARROT Weather
> Dark Sky
> Hello Weather
> (Not Boring) Weather
> Weather by Tomorrow.io
> Weather Underground: Local Map
Image credits (left to right,top to bottom): Electric Dream Machine Inc, Weather Underground LLC, Andy Works LLC, Grailr LLC
T here’s a line of thinking that weather forecasts are redundant. Just look out of the window! But that only works for about 10 minutes into the future. As everyone who’s marched out of the door wearing a T-shirt and subsequently been drenched will attest, longer-term forecasts are handy things.
These days, you needn’t rely on newspapers or the TV to help you plan: you can put a meteorologist in your pocket. Not literally, obviously… we’re referring to weather apps. Apple provides one in the form of the imaginatively named Weather, but search the App Store and you’ll find a range of third-party alternatives.
This round-up explores why you might look further afield. The apps on test provide rich feature sets, customisation and unique interfaces that might gel with you a little more than Apple’s app does. Also, there’s nothing stopping you installing several weather apps. Use each one for a specific function, even if you stick with Apple’s for an at-a-glance indication of whether you need to head out with a bottle of suntan lotion, a jumper, or an umbrella (in other words, ready for The Typical British Summer™).
How we tested
> Counter-intuitively, we didn’t get hung up on weather forecasting accuracy. Doing so would have been scientifically illiterate, because you can only test accuracy for a single location at specific points in time. Instead, we concentrated on usability and clarity, along with each app’s wider feature set and options. Our primary test device was an iPhone, but we also used each app on an iPad to see which developers are optimising their output for Apple’s tablet.