Mini meme: The best weather apps
Arm yourself with these forecasting apps and never get caught short without a brolly (or shades) again
Ah, the weather. The classic British fall-back whenever small-talk dries up. No, you’re right it’s not very nice out there today! Ha! Yes, we agree we really should have brought a brolly today!
And so on, and so forth.
But boring though the subject itself might be, knowing what the sky’s going to point in your direction can be useful. Below you’ll find a selection of varied weather apps guaranteed to help you dress wisely and leave home well prepared. And they’ll even give you something to talk about with that guy whose name you can never remember at the water cooler.
Carrot Weather
If you’re bored with sensible, practical forecasts, install Carrot for added snark.
A tetchy, malevolent AI dishes out twisted animations along with rainfall and temperature predictions. You can store multiple locations (past, present and future) and discover secret places, but take care to never poke Carrot’s ocular sensor!
Stuff says ★★★★✩
Dark Sky
The app that kicked off hyper-local forecasting, Dark Sky remains a must-have download.
Swipe between a rainfall radar, today’s forecast and predictions for the week ahead. If the app errs, submit a forecast. And there are custom notifications, so your iPhone will bug you when it’s about to chuck it down.
Stuff says ★★★★★
Gismeteo
On Android devices, there’s a tendency towards clutter in many weather apps. Gismeteo is a simpler affair, displaying forecast details above imagery illustrating current conditions.
If you’re a bit nosey (and who isn’t?), nearby weather stations and towns are automatically listed, and you can see what’s going on at those locations.
Stuff says ★★★★✩
Forecast
A sort of Dark Sky online, forecast.io is a website you save to your device’s home screen as a web app.
It’s less swish than a native app, and we found map access finicky on some Android devices, but it’s otherwise the best bet for mobile cheapskates, what with it being smart, accurate and of course free.
Stuff says ★★★★✩
Visit Forecast.io (£free) (and then save it to your home screen obviously)
The Weather Channel
From an app standpoint, The Weather Channel is best described as adequate — and ad-infested. But if you’re only properly fulfilled when an actual human delivers a weather forecast, this app is packed with videos. Just don’t blame us when you soon end up feeling a strange urge to buy a new Subaru.
Stuff says ★★★✩✩
Download The Weather Channel for Android (£free)
Weather Underground
The best app for weather fanatics who aren’t satisfied until stuffed full of data, Weather Underground is info-packed but also configurable.
Its sections can be reordered, there are some great and varied widgets for Android, and Apple Watch owners get actually worthwhile forecasts on their wrists.
Stuff says ★★★★✩
Download Weather Underground for Android (from £free)
Download Weather Underground for iPhone and iPad (from £free)
Craig Grannell
Contributor 
