It’s rather amazing how your mood can change entirely just because you didn’t know that it was supposed to rain, storm, or snow. Over the years, we’ve relied on third-party weather apps to provide us with the most up-to-date information, but following Apple’s purchase of Dark Sky, things have changed. That’s not to say that there aren’t any good weather apps available on the App Store, but the Weather app installed on your iPhone has gotten a much-needed facelift.
Shortly after Apple acquired Dark Sky, the company immediately started work on implementing some of the best features from Dark Sky into its own Weather app. You might notice how there are animations in the app based on the current weather conditions, but there’s another extremely handy feature that makes life a bit easier.
One of the key reasons why Dark Sky was (and still is) one of the best weather apps for iPhone is because of the precipitation notifications. These give you a heads up whenever there’s rain in the area, and can send you a notification so you don’t leave the house without an umbrella.
But before you can get weather notifications on iPhone, you’ll first need to enable the proper access to Location Services. Without doing so, the notifications will never arrive, even if you tried to enable them from just the Weather app itself.
Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Scroll down and select Privacy.
Tap Location Services.
Scroll down and tap Weather.
Under Allow Location Access, select Always.
Now that Location Services have been enabled for Weather, you are able to get Weather notifications on iPhone. Before everything is up and running, however, you’ll first need to jump into the Weather app to enable everything.
Open Apple’s Weather app on your iPhone.
Tap the three stacked lines in the bottom right corner.
In the top right corner, tap the circle with three dots in the middle.
From the drop-down menu, tap Notifications.
Tap the Continue button to Allow Notifications.
When prompted, tap Allow.
Toggle the switches to allow notifications for the locations that are listed.
As you can from the screenshots above, if you have multiple locations listed in the Weather app, you can enable notifications for each location. Of course, the most common option is to just enable notifications for your current location. But if you really want to be notified of the potential precipitation for other areas, you can do just that.
Best Weather Apps for iPhone
Earlier in this piece, we mentioned that while Apple’s own Weather app has vastly improved in recent years, it still may not scratch the itch for you. There are some features still missing, such as a lack of personality, or maybe you just don’t like the UI overall. Fear not, as there are a few apps that you might want to try out instead.
Carrot Weather
Without a doubt, Carrot Weather is our favorite weather app for iPhone. The app comes from an indie developer and is constantly maintained and updated with new and useful features. Carrot also has a bit more of a personality than you might expect from just a weather app. There’s even a “game” built into Carrot, that will reward you with achievements if you find different locations using the maps integration.
Along with providing “to the minute” push notifications, MyRadar Weather Radar takes things up a notch compared to others. This one is definitely better for those who enjoy looking at the weather radar, as you get hyper-local information while being able to see many more details than you might expect. The app has been around in the App Store for quite a while but still ranks amongst the top five weather applications in the App Store.
We’ve all checked the AccuWeather website at one point or another, but there are also apps available across all of Apple’s devices, including the Mac and even the Apple TV. AccuWeather also provides hyper-local weather forecasts, along with severe weather alerts and built-in live weather radar. You can even keep an eye on the local air quality, while being provided with more in-depth information than you’ll find elsewhere.
Andrew Myrick is a freelance writer based on the East Coast of the US. He enjoys everything to do with technology, including tablets, smartphones, and everything in between. Perhaps his favorite past-time is having a never-ending supply of different keyboards and gaming handhelds that end up collecting more dust than the consoles that are being emulated.
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