How To: Find the most accurate weather data source for your area (and see which apps use it)
Not all weather sources are the same. When you look at the forecast, you hope that it is at least semi-accurate so that you can plan the week and days ahead, but many sources are unreliable. And with the closing of the famous Dark Sky API at the end of 2022, you will need an alternative source of weather information if you use an application that uses this API.
Finding an accurate weather app is not easy, as there are a lot of them in the App Store (iOS/iPadOS) and Play Store (Android). Many of them don’t even state which data source is used for weather forecasts, and the accuracy of data sources can vary widely across the United States.
Luckily, there is a valuable resource to help you find the best weather API for your location, which can help you choose the best mobile app to get more accurate weather forecasts. And if none of them are good enough, you always have the option to predict the weather yourself.
Use ForecastAdvisor to get the most accurate forecasts
ForecastAdvisor by ForecastWatch is a great website that can help you find out which weather API or app is the most accurate for your area. It collects weather forecasts from various weather services every day for locations across the US and compares them to what actually happened using data provided by the National Automated Weather Observing System (ASOS).
When viewing a location, ForecastAdvisor shows the accuracy percentage of each source for the last month and last year. While these are definitely not all of the native APIs available in the US, ForecastAdvisor provides a solid foundation to start using those that are publicly tracked.
The overall accuracy percentage is calculated from one to three day accuracy percentages for high temperature, low temperature, precipitation icons (both rain and snow), and textual precipitation forecast (both rain and snow). Temperature accuracy is the percentage of forecasts accurate to three degrees. Precipitation accuracy is the percentage of correct predictions. Forecasts are collected every day in the evening.
ForecastAdvisor uses 12 different source APIs to calculate each of its percentages, including AccuWeather, AerisWeather, Foreca, National Weather Service, OpenWeather, IBM’s The Weather Channel, and Weather Underground, Weatherbit , Weather News, Wetter, and World Weather Online, as well as Dark Sky, which will soon be closed.
While Accuweather and The Weather Channel use their own weather forecast data, many other sources collect weather data from the US National Weather Service. Some services augment the data with thousands of home weather stations, user reports, or other forecast services.
Just go to the advisor.com forecast website and enter your zip code or city and state. After you enter this, you will see a brief forecast, last month’s weather accuracy, previous year’s weather accuracy, and a summary of weather variability.
If you want to know how much the weather can change from day to day in an area, you can use the “Further analysis of variability”link at the bottom of the page.
Weather apps using the most accurate APIs
Part of the challenge is finding an app with a decent interface that uses some of the APIs monitored by ForecastAdvistor. We have listed a few popular apps below. This is not an exhaustive list, but it’s a good start if you’re using ForecastAdvisor to narrow down the most accurate APIs for your region.
If there is an official app, I have included it along with my personal favorites. You’ll notice that some apps allow you to choose which API service to use so they can be listed twice. Some services don’t have many applications that use the API. If you find it, please let us know in the comments below.
Many popular apps are not listed because they either use their own API not listed in ForecastAdvisor, or the Dark Sky API (which will be deprecated at the end of 2022), or an unidentified source. These apps include Dark Sky Weather (iOS), WeatherBug (iOS and Android), Weather by Impala Studios (iOS), Storm Tracker by Impala Studio (iOS), MySunset (iOS and Android) and others.
AccuWeather
- Official App: AccuWeather – iOS, Android (Free with ads, $0.99/month or $8.99/year)
- Favorite: CARROT Weather: Alerts & Radar – iOS, Android (Free, Premium $4.99/month or $19.99/year, Ultra $9.99/month or $39.99 per year, Ultra Family $14.99 per month or $59.99 per year)
- Hello Weather – iOS, Android (with $44.99 in-app purchase, $1.99/month, or $12.99/year)
- Today’s Weather – iOS, Android (Free with ads, $0.99 for 3 months or $1.99 for a year)
- Overdrop Weather – iOS, Android (with in-app purchase for $1.99/month, $2.99 for 3 months, or $10.49/year)
AccuWeather (left) and Today Weather (right).
Weather in Aeris
- Favorite: CARROT Weather: Alerts & Radar – iOS, Android (Free, Premium $4.99/month or $19.99/year, Ultra $9.99/month or $39.99 per year, Ultra Family $14.99 per month or $59.99 per year)
- Hello Weather – iOS, Android (with $44.99 in-app purchase, $1.99/month, or $12.99/year)
- What’s the prognosis?! – iOS, Android (Free with ads or $1.99)
CARROT Weather (left) and what’s the forecast?! (Right).
Foreca
- Official App: Foreca Weather – iOS, Android (Free with ads, $0.99 for 3 months or $2.99 for a year).
- Favorite: CARROT Weather: Alerts & Radar – iOS, Android (Free, Premium $4.99/month or $19.99/year, Ultra $9.99/month or $39.99 per year, Ultra Family $14.99 per month or $59.99 per year)
- Hello Weather – iOS, Android (with $44.99 in-app purchase, $1.99/month, or $12.99/year)
- Today’s Weather – iOS, Android (Free with ads, $0.99 for 3 months or $1.99 for a year)
- Weather Live – iOS, Android (Free with ads, $9.99/month or $19.99/year)
Foreca Weather (left) and Hello Weather (right).
National Weather Service
- Favorite: WillyWeather – iOS, Android (Free with ads or $3.99)
- Clime: NOAA Weather Radar Live – iOS, Android (Free, $9.99/month or $19.99/year)
- MyRadar – iOS, Android (Free with ads, $3.99/month or $14.99/year)
- Today’s Weather – iOS, Android (Free with ads, $0.99 for 3 months or $1.99 for a year)
WillyWeather (left) and Clime: NOAA Weather Radar Live (right).
open weather
- Official app: OpenWeather – iOS, Android (free)
- Today’s Weather – iOS, Android (Free with ads, $0.99 for 3 months or $1.99 for a year)
- Overdrop Weather – iOS, Android (Free with ads or $1.99 per month, $2.99 for 3 months or $10.49 per year)
OpenWeather (left) and Overdrop (right).
Weather Channel / Weather Underground
- Official App: The Weather Channel – iOS, Android (Free, $4.99/month or $29.99/year).
- Official App: Weather Underground – iOS, Android (Free with ads, $3.99/month or $19.99/year)
- Apple Weather App – iOS (Free)
- Samsung Weather App for Android (Free)
The Weather Channel (left) and Weather Underground (right).
weatherbeat
- Overdrop Weather – iOS, Android (Free with ads or $1.99 per month, $2.99 for 3 months or $10.49 per year)
- Today’s Weather – iOS, Android (Free with ads, $0.99 for 3 months or $1.99 for a year)
Today’s weather (left) and Overdrop weather (right).
Vetter
- Official App: Weather & Radar – Storm Alerts – iOS, Android (Free with ads, $0.99/month or $6.99/year)
Weather in the world online
Weather and Radar – Storm Alerts (left) and WorldWeatherOnline (right).
Create your own weather station to get more forecasts
Most weather API services use many different weather stations to get a data point to predict weather conditions across the country. As mentioned above, they combine data from the NWS and other sources to create better weather forecasts. One such source is private weather stations.
So if you had a personal weather station, you could make the various weather APIs better for everyone. In addition, you will be able to get your own weather report, which may be more accurate for your region, especially when it comes to temperature.
Of course, if you had your own weather station, you wouldn’t have to share it with everyone. You have the option to make it a public weather station, share data only with the API, or make it a private weather station for yourself.
Some of the apps listed above, like CARROT Weather (iOS, Android), allow you to add your own weather station if you pay for its premium version. However, many private weather stations have their own app that will allow you to monitor the weather in your area.
Good options for a personal weather station:
- Netatmo Indoor & Outdoor Weather Station with Wireless Sensor ($179.99)
- AcuRite Iris 5-in-1 Home Weather Station with Wi-Fi Connected to Weather Underground ($149.99)
- Ambient Weather WS-2000 Smart Weather Station with WiFi Monitoring and Alerts ($299.99)
- Bloomsky WeY2 Weather Station ($319.99)
(1) Netatmo Weather Station, (2) AcuRite Iris Home Weather Station
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