Eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece (2023)

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Enduring appeal of Dark Sky

  • Remembered as uniquely good at “weather as events, not trends”: “rain starting in X minutes, ending in Y minutes” that often matched reality to the minute for many users.
  • Especially valued by commuters, motorcyclists, dog owners, and others making time‑sensitive decisions.
  • Its main screen is praised for high information density and a single, glanceable graph combining temperature, precipitation, and timeline.

Apple Weather after the acquisition

  • Strong disagreement on accuracy:
    • Some say next‑hour precipitation and maps work about as well as Dark Sky and use the same short‑range algorithm.
    • Others report a clear decline, with over/under‑predictions (especially in Europe and the US Pacific Northwest), fewer or missing notifications, and incorrect “current conditions.”
  • Several distinguish between accuracy and UX: they find Apple Weather cluttered, less intuitive, and missing Dark Sky features such as long‑range history.
  • Confusion over how Apple integrates different data sources and why map vs textual forecast sometimes disagree.

Alternatives and clones

  • iOS suggestions: Carrot (with Dark Sky–style themes, multiple data sources), Weathergraph, Weatherstrip, MercuryWeather, MyRadar, RadarScope (for radar specialists), Hello Weather, Precip.
  • Android / web: Breezy Weather, Weather Master, Bura, Meteogram, Meteoswiss / DWD WarnWetter / Fluid Meteo, Ventusky, Windy.com, Windy.app, yr.no, Wunderground, and government sites like weather.gov graphs.
  • Dark Sky–inspired web apps: MerrySky (on top of PirateWeather), Weather‑sense, open‑sun; several authors in the thread actively iterate on DS‑style visualizations.

Forecast accuracy, models, and metrics

  • Many note that accuracy is highly location‑dependent and affected by terrain; some suspect Dark Sky intentionally over‑predicted rain.
  • Discussion of data providers: Open Meteo, ECMWF, local high‑resolution regional models, Wunderground’s neighborhood stations, and various commercial APIs.
  • Debate over probability-of-rain vs mm/hr; some regions rely on amounts, others probabilities; best apps show both, sometimes with confidence intervals.

Design and product lessons

  • Dark Sky’s unified timeline and carefully pruned detail are held up as exemplary information design.
  • Several criticize Apple Weather and others for inconsistent conventions (e.g., high/low ordering) and busy layouts.
  • Broader lament about great indie products being acquired, degraded, or shut down without refunds or continuity, with Wunderground cited as a parallel case.