breezy weather is great (and very aesthetically close to google’s weather app); a couple of providers you have to get a free api key for but it’s pretty straightforward. https://github.com/breezy-weather/breezy-weather

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.weawow

It’s the best weather app I’ve ever used as I can choose details to see but above all you can choose the weather provider that gives you the most correct weather forecast for your location.

That’s because, under the hood, almost all apps access a generic weather prediction model spit out by a supercomputer, and these models have “ruts” and gaps where their prediction is bad.

There are a few popular ones, like:

• GFS, an American prediction model. It’s notoriously hit-or-miss, with a meme being “GFS is like a box of chocolates,” but free, long-horizon, and predicts the whole globe, so it’s the default of many apps.
• ECWMF, the “Euro” model. Higher resolution, long horizon, tends to be better (sometimes), but requires a subscription for access.
• Meteoblue, a newer machine-learning based one.
• Regional ones, like a Canadian one, Japan, higher-resolution Atlantic hurricane models, and so on.

It gets complicated. But if you see two weather apps with identical predictions, this is why.

Hence, the ideal situation is picking access to multiple models, and seeing what they predict and how they agree for yourself. Maybe the ECWMF has a bad season, so you switch to GFS, or maybe the Canadian model is better in your area; whatever the case, it actually lets you see the underlying source of the predictions.

This is what the Windy app does. It has mobile apps, but it’s also a generic web app:

https://www.windy.com/

One caveat: if you’re just looking for “what’s it like right now, or in the next hour?” in a well populated area, sometimes Weather Underground or Weatherbug will outperform other apps because of the sheer locality of crowdsourced stations. Nothing beats two weather stations half a mile from you.

But this isn’t so great for looking hours or days ahead. You want wide access to a supercomputer model for that, ideally interpreted by a real meteorologist who specializes in your area and overlays their tuned predictions on top.

In fact, I tend to look at my local news apps when a prediction is really important, as they know what they are talking about.

Source: when I moved to Florida and experienced hurricanes up close, I got really into DIY weather.

Model picking + local meteorologists is the way. Use data sources professional meteorologists use.

There are also more “raw” sources of these models (like TropicalTidbits), but Windy is an excellent and accessible one.

Can’t relate, the default weather app on my Pixel is great, and consistently accurate

There’s some good apps on F-Droid, like Breezy Weather or WeatherMaster. They mimic Google’s weather app.

A lot of the incorrect weather data often comes from Open-Meteo. While it’s a great free service and gets the job mostly done, if super accurate weather is important, then you are better off using a local weather service with their API. Apps like Breezy Weather, support this.

The most annoying thing about the default weather app on my Zenfone is whenever there is ANYTHING out of the typical, it says “health warning” instead of the temperature. I have to tap on the widget to open the app to see the actual temperature. I live somewhere where the air quality fluctuates a lotso I am often annoyed at the first world problem.

Looks like this thread will be how I finally replace my default.

Seems pretty good from my use. Is this the same as trashing the TV weather man because they’re always wrong? Try another channel.

Been using Overmorrow for a little while now, and I really like the aesthetics of the UI. Pulls data by default from open-meteo.