A new wave of AI-powered weather apps has flooded the market, transforming the traditional way people view forecasts and weather maps. The Weather Company has released a revamped version of its Storm Radar app, featuring an AI-powered Weather Assistant that allows users to customize their experience. The app can sync with other apps, send text notifications, and provide weather summaries that tie into daily plans. Users can also choose to have a voiceover, reminiscent of old-timey radio weathermen.
The revamped Storm Radar app gets its data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS), and costs $4 per month. It is currently available on iOS but an Android version is expected.
"We wanted to build an experience that would be a weather level-up for anybody, really, from a casual observer to a seasoned storm chaser," says Joe Koval, a senior meteorologist at the Weather Company. "If you're looking for advice on when the weather will be good to walk your dog tomorrow, you no longer have to look at a bunch of different disparate weather data elements and try to figure out the answer to that question yourself."
Other weather apps are also incorporating AI features, such as Carrot Weather, Rain Viewer, and Acme Weather, an app from the former Dark Sky app creators. New weather apps like Rainbow Weather aim to be AI-first.
"How do you build a single weather app that works for everybody?" asks Adam Grossman, a founder of the DarkSky app. "No matter how good your forecast is, you're going to be wrong," Grossman says. "That's something that weather apps traditionally haven't done a great job of doing. Our approach is trying to figure out how to add those pieces of context back in."
When Adam Grossman says that weather apps traditionally haven't done a great job of conveying uncertainty, that means users are often left with a false sense of confidence in their forecasts. By acknowledging and addressing this issue, Acme Weather and other AI-powered apps are taking a crucial step towards providing more accurate and reliable weather information. This shift in approach has significant implications for the future of weather forecasting and the role of AI in improving its accuracy.
