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Apple’s Dark Sky Weather App Is Going Away After Tonight; this is how you can still access the same data

1 month ago
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by Pierre S. Delgado

Back in 2020, Apple acquired the hyperlocal weather app Dark Sky, which led it to shut down the Android version of the app. Dark Sky became famous for its forecasts that gave the precise time that users should expect precipitation in local areas. These forecasts were made using crowdsourced data and the accuracy of his calls helped him amass over 1 million Android users (all of whom lost access to the app unless they switched to iOS).

Many of Dark Sky’s hyper-local features will be integrated into the native iOS weather app.

It also explains how the native iOS weather app now displays minute-by-minute and hourly precipitation forecasts for the next ten days, including temperature, amount of precipitation, humidity, dew point, wind speed, barometric pressure and the temperature it feels like. and visibility. The Dark Sky features built into the native weather app are only available in certain countries (more on that below) and only to those using a device running iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or macOS Ventura.

The 10-day forecast is available for most countries and regions. If you’re using iOS 15.2 or earlier, this information comes from The Weather Channel. Severe weather information is available from the national weather services of Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, the United States, and most countries and regions in Europe. For those who live in mainland China, the severe weather comes from QWeather.

Next hour precipitation forecasts and precipitation notifications are available for Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The data is provided by the national meteorological service. Apple says that air quality information is available to users in Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The data comes from BreezoMeter. QWeather provides information on the air quality in mainland China.

Apple will offer its WeatherKit API to third-party weather apps

Temperature maps and 12-hour precipitation maps are available for most countries and regions. Those in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States can receive precipitation maps for the next hour. Apple Weather provides temperature and precipitation map data, while those running iOS 15.2 or earlier will see data sourced from The Weather Channel.

Third-party weather apps that used Dark Sky data will no longer be able to do this starting March 23 of next year. Instead, Apple will offer its WeatherKit API as a replacement. An API is an application programming interface and essentially allows two applications to communicate and share data. In this context, the Dark Sky API shared weather data with third-party applications. With the closure of the Dark Sky API on March 23, 2023, these third-party weather apps will be able to use Apple’s new WeatherKit API for data instead.

If you’re looking for a replacement for Dark Sky, you can use the native iOS weather app, which, as we said, will have some of Dark Sky’s features built-in. Or you can go to the App Store and search for “Hyperlocal Weather Apps”. There are quite a few to choose from, though we suggest checking the comments section on the App Store for red flags. Some of these apps ask for in-app payments, so you might be better off with iOS 16’s native weather app.

There are also the big name weather apps you can install and while not necessarily “hyperlocal” you can trust the forecasts it offers The Weather Channel or the AccuWeather Apps.

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