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by guillohm 1264 days ago
Apple never integrated the hourly precipitation timelines which I relied on day to day. I was scared I was gonna miss it so I recently worked on a replacement called merrysky. It's backed by the awesome pirateweather.net API

check it out https://merrysky.net/forecast/riverside%20oh/us

It's responsive and no need to install an app but you can add it as an home icon on your device, instructions in the FAQ

8 comments

Merry Sky looks great. You've really captured that nice line between detail and 'at-a-glance' that made Dark Sky a pleasure to use. Thanks!

On my Desktop, I use accuweather and occasionally https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/ - among so many others. None really gave me a UI that I felt comfortable using. Always clicking to get additional data or overloaded with non-vital information.

On Android - after the Dark Sky fiasco - I settled on Yr[0] eventually.

Merry Sky looks poised to replace my Desktop weather links already (I use my own local custom home page). On Android, the (home icon) link leads to a really nice looking "Android App". Yr will be harder to replace but Merry Sky has already found a home here (just need time to verify its accuracy).

[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=no.nrk.yr&gl=U...

Thanks, I'm really shooting for that sweet spot on information density. I think it's in a good shape to be shared now but I'll be iterating on it based on feedback and my own ideas going forward.

Yr looks really nice too but I don't carry a droid day to day.

I'd like to keep merrysky as a lightweight alternative on the web and have the same experience regardless of the platform/OS

Yes they did, I'm looking at it right now.
They didn’t bring over all the functionality.

Dark sky has hour by hour by percent probability as well as projected precipitation.

Apple has a rounded percent in two hour blocks. And its numbers are different. For example, Apple shows the moon and stars icon for 6pm; DS shows 28% and .01 inch/hour.

Apple consistently has less information and I’ll miss DarkSky. I paid $5 and don’t usually buy apps.

I think Apple’s purchase is a negative for users.

buy apps. labor isn't free
I don’t understand your point. I did buy the app.
You buy an app.

Apple buys out the app developer Apple kills the app

You don't have your app now

We did buy the app :)
How accurate is PirateWeather? I see it uses NOAA data.

I've been relying on AccuWeather as of late, and it's been pretty reliable.

If you're interested in learning more about the pirateweather data sources and process, you can check out this article which goes into great detail.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicsector/making-weather-for...

I'm relying on it in Canada now so I can certainly vouch for it in my area. We had a snowstorm and power outages during holidays and it was great to follow the graphs with regards to wind/gust and precipitations.

I switched to Accuweather after IBM ruined WeatherUnderground App. Still not as good as the old Wunderground app but it is 90-95% what I liked about the WU
accuweather sells geolocation data

third party weather sites/apps seem to be pretty scammy in general

unless i'm missing something I've been able to see the precipitation timelines for some time now in their weather app and widget, at least an hour out. (e.g. "Light rain is expected to stop in 17 min")

this was one of my favorite features too but afaict they integrated it (i'm on ios 16.3)

I'm on 16.2, unless they revamped it all in that minor update, it's not cutting it for me. I know that there's a precipitation bar chart but it's a lot of toggling back and forth. I want to see a few days of precipitation and their accumulation/intensity in the same screen for planning out activities. Also, with this new website I will be able to keep browsing that data on desktop as well.
You mean the clear/rainy/cloudy linear viz?

There is a hourly precipitation graph available since iOS16 but that may not be what you're looking for.

Just logged in to say thank you for the replacement. I'll be using it every day
Cheers!
MerrySky is 30-50 degrees in error at 44.9603383,-93.350066 but https://weather.pirateweather.net/ gets it right.
Hi, it's possible you were looking at it in Celcius? It currently defaults to to the SI unit preset (displayed at the top right of the page) if you had not selected a preference yet. I will be changing that soon to be smarter and default to the unit based on location. This link should be good for you in the meantime: https://merrysky.net/forecast/44.9603383,-93.350066/us

If you're still seeing a discrepancy, feel free to email me with the debugging information so we can clear that up. feedback@merrysky.net

You nailed it; that was my oversight. Love the site!
Thanks! Probably time to stop using a native app for weather anyway.