Windy.com

tl/dr high quality weather model outputs with a great UI, and a great variety of data layers. Simp,y the best tool of its kind for iOS. Also awesome on the desktop. I spent over 30 years of my career using met data and weather models on a daily basis. You can imagine how primitive and time consuming it was in the 90’s. From plugging inputs into command line programs on a server through to modern graphic tools, I’ve seen a lot. The newer tools became part of my daily personal weather tracking, but even those required a lot of computing power. I found Windy early in its development and have not looked back. For activity planning, drone flying, hiking, and just every day weather forecasting it is superb. It lacks an amazing amount of features into an iOS app with a great UI. One thing to be aware of is the granularity of these models, not just in Windy but the models in general. The way the data is displayed could lead a user to think they are getting exact conditions or forecasts for their exact location. In reality there is a learning curve. I live near the ocean and I know the real temperature and wind will have large local impacts. But the big picture of temp trends, pressure, wind direction and system structure are highly accurate. The models show not only the current and forecasted conditions, but let you dive deep into “why”. 10/10. Must have for those concerned with more than text based area forecasts.

Most apps will give you radar and a basic sun, clouds and precipitation forecast. Very few tell you where that forecast came from or offer you 4 forecasts in one app. Also, the configurability of Windy is great, you want wind vectors, great, you want isobars, great, you want temperature colors, awesome and there are many more options you can put on or take off the map. Also, you can “play” out the forecast of each model all the way to the end, which is helpful in finding out the differences between the forecasts and why wind speed or precipitation differs from one to the other. There are many positives to this app, but the last point I’ll mention is that it includes the European model that reportedly costs money and is not available in many other weather apps for that reason. It’s also considered to be one of the most accurate forecasts available. My criticism is mostly about bugs. One is that when dragging the time bar forward, it sometimes gets detached from the forecast, which makes it impossible to forward or reverse to the end. The only way to fix it is completely reset or switch to another forecast and then back to the one you are trying to track. Another issue is that on the phone version, when you zoom out to see the wider map, ie from WA state to see the whole pacific, where our weather comes from, it frequently automatically resets the view. It does this for example when switching forecasts, but it also happens other times and is annoying. That said, it’s faults don’t detract significantly from the fact that it’s the best weather app out there.

This is by far my favorite weather app! It is packed full of features and the weather data is about as real time as you can find. The developers constantly improve upon the existing features but, most importantly, they frequently introduce new features. This is one of the few apps that I have where I am always excited to read the details about new features contained in each app update!! All of the major weather models are on this app and they are updated just as soon as the newest model runs are completed. I rarely pay subscriptions on apps but this is one app that I have paid for the subscription upgrade and i feel like I get every penny and then some out of that subscription. I can’t say enough about windy!!! Just wanted to add a quick update. The developers respond to reviews that are posted on here. That is much appreciated! Even if it is to say thank you for a 5-star rating, I’m confident that a lower rating and/or any complaints or suggestions would be taken into consideration by the development team. That is excellent customer service and a developer team that cares about what their customers want. This is simply an all-around exceptional app! I can’t wait to see what features are in the works for the future!!