In Weather Atlas, I May Have Found My Perfect iOS Weather App

Ever since iOS gained an App Store in 2008, allowing developers to write their own applications for iPhone, I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect weather app. Nine. Years. In all that time I’ve experimented with many weather apps from many developers. None of them quite hit the mark. Some of them wildly missed it. I can think of no other category of app in which perfection has been so elusive. I think one of the big challenges to creating a great weather app is that weather is a data-heavy category. Organizing that data in a way that is pleasant for the layman to interact with is an enormous task. But after almost a decade of searching and waiting, I think my search may be at an end.

Created by David Barnard’s Contrast, Weather Atlas debuted on the App Store earlier today. I began seeing articles about it and decided, despite years worth of weather app skepticism, to give it a try. You can download Weather Atlas for free, but there are in-app purchases available to remove ads and unlock a few additional features. But if you can stand the ads, the free version still gives you a highly functional weather app.

One of the things that really jumps out when you fire up Weather Atlas is that it’s taking advantage of some of the latest iOS features. The interface is built around the sliding card interface, of which Apple’s passbook was an early showcase. That design has since expanded into several other aspects of Apple’s own iOS apps, most notably in Music and Podcasts. A weather map forms the background of the app, on top of which a card can be expanded or retracted to show current weather conditions, and hourly or ten-day forecast, or weather alerts. Another cutting-edge iOS feature is the ability to choose from among a few different choices for the app’s Home Screen icon. It also takes advantage of the relatively new ability for developers to charge subscription pricing for iOS apps. You can unlock all the features for a monthly recurring charge, or you can choose to pay $4.99/year.

I think Barnard has struck the right balance between attractive design, user-friendly app interaction, and tasteful layout of just the right amount of weather data. The design is a little constricted on my iPhone SE’s 4-inch screen, but that’s to be expected. The only real flaw I saw is that I’m not able to scroll all the way to the bottom of the Tropical Depression Harvey-related flash flood watch that my location is currently under. Weather warnings are often verbose, and that likely wouldn’t be a problem on an iPhone with a larger screen. But that small issue aside, I’m loving Weather Atlas! After spending only a few minutes with it I went ahead and happily paid the $5 to unlock the full app and deleted all but one other third-party weather apps from my iPhone. I moved Apple’s built-in weather app to a folder and moved Weather Atlas to the first page of my Home screen. I’m a big fan of this new app, and I can’t encourage you strongly enough to give it a try!