GrayCloud vs Apple Weather
The short version
Apple Weather is the default weather app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Since the Dark Sky acquisition, it has inherited Dark Sky's minute-by-minute precipitation block and the underlying forecast pipeline now exposed as Apple's WeatherKit. For a lot of people, it is genuinely good - sharp UI, fast, integrated with the system.
GrayCloud differs on three axes that matter if you are a former Dark Sky devotee: it tells you which weather model is driving the forecast hour-by-hour, it publishes a forecast accuracy scoreboard so you can audit the calibration, and it has no Apple ID requirement, no analytics, no ads. If you want a weather app that treats forecasting as an engineering problem to show its work on, GrayCloud is built for you.
Feature-by-feature
| Feature | Apple Weather | GrayCloud |
|---|---|---|
| Minute-by-minute precipitation | Yes (Dark Sky lineage) | Yes (proprietary nowcast, higher radar resolution) |
| Accuracy transparency | No published accuracy | Yes - public scoreboard, scored nightly |
| Public accuracy scoreboard | No | Yes (scored nightly) |
| Daily forecast | 10 days | 10 days |
| Radar | In-app radar layer | Full-screen globe, MapLibre, station overlays |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch | iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac, web |
| Web app | No | Yes - free, in any browser |
| Apple Watch | Yes | Yes |
| Apple ID required | For sync and notifications | None |
| Third-party analytics / ads | Apple analytics framework | None |
| Replaces default on iPhone | Yes (it is the default) | No - installs alongside |
| Public API | WeatherKit (paid, Apple Developer account) | Dark Sky-shaped JSON API on roadmap |
What Apple kept from Dark Sky
The minute-by-minute precipitation block - Dark Sky's signature feature - survives in Apple Weather, generated against the same lineage of nowcasting that Dark Sky pioneered. The hourly bar of precipitation probability lives on. The 10-day outlook is competitive. For a default app, it is a genuinely strong product.
What Apple didn't keep
- The open API. Dark Sky's API was a fixed-price, no-account REST endpoint. Apple replaced it with WeatherKit, which requires an Apple Developer account and an MapKit JS / Swift integration model. For a side project or a non-Apple platform, that is a much higher bar to clear.
- Model commentary. Dark Sky used to surface "this forecast is uncertain because the models disagree." Apple Weather smooths that uncertainty into a single number.
- Cross-platform reach. Dark Sky had Android (until 2020) and a web app. Apple Weather is Apple-only.
- The indie feel. Subjective, but Dark Sky had a particular weather-nerd aesthetic that Apple Weather rounded the corners off.
Where GrayCloud goes further
Accuracy transparency. Apple has never published a forecast accuracy number you can audit. GrayCloud scores every forecast against observed truth nightly and publishes the rolling error on a public scoreboard. The forecast engine itself is proprietary; the accountability is not.
Sharper minute-by-minute precipitation. Apple Weather inherited Dark Sky's nowcasting approach. GrayCloud's nowcasting engine runs against a higher-resolution national radar feed than Dark Sky used and refreshes more often - so the next 60 minutes resolve to a finer time grain than the iOS default.
Privacy story baked in. Apple Weather is privacy-aware in the Apple sense - it lives behind Apple's frameworks, which means location is handled correctly but is also linked to your Apple ID. GrayCloud has no account at all. Saved places sync between your devices through iCloud Key-Value Store, but the data never touches a GrayCloud server.
Where Apple Weather wins
- It is the default. Zero install friction, lock-screen integration, Siri integration. Nothing to install.
- Coverage outside the US. Apple Weather has stronger international minute-by-minute coverage today than GrayCloud, which is US-only for minutely precip until ICON-EU and HRDPS support lands.
Why install a second weather app?
The honest pitch: if Apple Weather is good enough, leave it on the home screen. GrayCloud is for the people who used Dark Sky specifically - who cared about which model was driving the forecast, who liked seeing the data instead of a smoothed summary, who want a weather page that does not require an Apple ID and does not share data with the rest of an analytics framework. If that is you, the App Store link is below.
Try GrayCloud
Or open the web app - type an address at /forecast for the same forecast in any browser, with nothing to install.
See also: the Dark Sky alternative overview ยท vs Dark Sky.