Forecast Bar at a glance
- What it is
- A weather app for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and Apple TV, with alerts, radar, widgets and AI-written forecasts.
- Weather data
- The forecast comes from The Weather Company, augmented by Apple Weather, NOAA and other sources. On the top tier — Gold on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, Pro on the Mac — you can set it to Apple Weather instead and compare the two.
- Severe weather
- Official warnings at the moment of issue for the United States (NWS) and Canada (Environment and Climate Change Canada).
- Coverage varies
- Sunset quality scores and aurora scores work worldwide. Beautiful Sunset alerts, storm tracking and NOAA PM2.5 forecasts cover the contiguous US; rain Live Activities need Apple Weather next-hour coverage.
- Cost
- Free to download. Live weather requires a subscription. On iPhone and iPad, every plan starts with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers; Mac plans do not include one.
- Also on Setapp
- The Mac app is included with a Setapp membership.
Every feature, grouped by what you came for.
Alerts
Being told, instead of remembering to check.
Alerts by county and city
Live NWS warnings, watches and advisories for every US county and major city, with what each one means.
Alerts that matter
The whole alert lineup in one place — severe weather, nowcasts, and custom thresholds.
Earthquake alerts
USGS-sourced earthquake notifications with magnitude, distance, and predicted shaking at your location.
Earthquake explorer
Explore recent USGS earthquakes on a map, browse regions, and understand magnitude, depth and reported shaking.
Flash flood alerts
Official flood warnings, NOAA's excessive rainfall outlook, river gauges, and an alert when flood risk rises where you are.
Hurricane tracker app
The official forecast cone, strength along the track, coastal watches and warnings, and the odds a storm will form.
Rain alerts & precipitation nowcasts
Know before it starts, and watch it minute by minute on your Lock Screen once it does.
Severe weather alerts
NWS and Environment Canada warnings at the moment of issue, plus storm tracking that counts a storm down to your door.
Storm tracker app
Whether a storm is on track for you, when it arrives, its severe and tornado odds, and hail size, with a Lock Screen countdown.
Sky & light
The sky events worth walking outside for.
Astronomy calendar & night sky
Discover eclipses, meteor showers, Moon phases and planetary events, with viewing guides and a local night-sky outlook.
Aurora & northern lights alerts
A visibility score for your location, and a push at your chosen evening check if it meets your threshold.
Eclipse cloud forecast
The next total solar eclipse over Europe is August 2, 2027, across southern Spain and Gibraltar.
Eclipse, supermoon & solstice alerts
Lunar and solar eclipses visible from your location, supermoons, solstices and equinoxes — with warning.
Moon phase & moonrise
Today's phase, how much is lit, moonrise and moonset, the next four phases, and sky event alerts.
Stargazing forecast
Tonight's best dark window, rated from Excellent to Poor, with meteor shower and eclipse alerts.
Sunset & sunrise quality forecast
A 0–10 score for tonight's sunset, the golden-light window, and an alert when a good one is coming.
The app
What Forecast Bar does once you open it.
A weather app without ads
No ads, no ad SDKs, no third-party analytics — funded by subscriptions instead of by your attention.
AI weather forecasts
A forecast written for your day in a briefing style you choose — not a wall of raw numbers.
Accessibility
Built to be read aloud: every reading named, every chart described, no ads in the way. Plus an honest list of what still needs work.
Forecast maps
Temperature, feels like, dew point and wind maps that glide from hour to hour, on the best model for your region.
Historical weather & Time Machine
The weather on any date back to 1979, and a planning outlook about 18 months ahead.
Multiple locations & side-by-side compare
Unlimited saved places, all visible at a glance, and any two comparable side by side.
Road conditions & traffic cameras
Traffic cameras, reported road conditions, incidents and work zones on the radar map.
Satellite weather
Forecast Bar's own GOES imagery, with clouds that drift smoothly, visible light by day and a Storm Tops style.
Snow & winter weather
Rain, snow, ice and freezing rain on Smooth Radar, snow totals up to three days ahead, and road conditions in one tap.
Trip weather for iPhone & iPad
The forecast for trips on your calendar or added by hand, right on your main screen.
Visualize your day's weather
Pull down past refresh and the next 24 hours play as a full-screen animated flythrough — then share it as a video.
Weather Live Activity & Dynamic Island
A minute-by-minute rain chart that lives on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island while it rains.
Weather radar for iPhone & iPad
Animated radar with future radar, live lightning, satellite, and warning polygons on the map.
Wildfire smoke map
Smoke on the map hour by hour, reported fire perimeters and an hourly PM2.5 forecast for the contiguous US.
Wind forecast
Wind speed, gusts and direction by the hour, an animated wind map, gust alerts and a Wind screen on Apple Watch.
Your city as the weather background
City Packs put a photoreal scene of a real city behind your forecast, redrawn for every sky and time of day.
Data
The numbers behind the forecast, wherever you want them.
Air quality & pollen
AQI and pollen counts on your Home Screen, Lock Screen and watch face — plus an hourly PM2.5 forecast in the contiguous US.
Microclimate Explorer
A live map of your city's warm and cool neighborhoods, a 48-hour replay, and a card to share.
Personal weather stations
Your own station sets your current conditions and tunes your forecast. Follow nearby ones for reference.
Pollen count
Today's tree, grass and weed pollen, worst first, with the tree species behind it. US only.
Tides & tide alerts
Tide times as a first-class data point, plus alerts for king tides and exceptional low tides.
UV index
UV by the hour for any forecast day, a custom UV alert, and a tile that rises when the sun does.
Warmer or colder than yesterday
Forecast Bar tells you how today compares to yesterday — the number you actually use to pick a jacket.
Platforms
The same forecast, shaped for each screen.
Apple Watch complications
Build a watch face around your weather, across every complication family.
Mac menu bar weather
Up to five configurable menu bar items, a 48-hour timeline and 15-day outlook one click away.
Weather app for Apple Watch
A full forecast on your wrist: a sky that matches the weather, a week you can read at a glance, charts you scrub with the Digital Crown, and a layout you arrange yourself.
Weather app for iPad
The full forecast, charts and radar with room to breathe — plus widgets in every iPad size.
Weather app for iPhone Duo
Two columns when it's open, a gallery of your places, and a desk glance when it's closed.
Weather on Apple TV
Radar, forecasts, and Top Shelf weather on the biggest screen in the house.
Weather radar for Mac
A standalone radar window with future radar, live lightning, satellite, and warnings on the map.
iPhone weather widgets
17 Home and Lock Screen widgets, StandBy, and Live Activities that track rain minute by minute.
Compare
Honest comparisons and what each plan includes.
Compare plans
What Silver, Gold, Plus and Pro each include, side by side.
Forecast Bar on Setapp
Forecast Bar Pro is included with a Setapp membership, rated 94% from 729 ratings.
Forecast Bar vs. Apple Weather
A factual comparison — including when the built-in app is genuinely enough.
Frequently asked questions
Setup, subscriptions, coverage, and the questions people actually ask.
Learn
Two-minute explainers on the sky and the weather, with the lesson written out.
Did It Hail at My House?
Compare eyewitness reports and radar-estimated hail size, understand their blind spots, and learn what a storm record can establish.
How Live Radar Reaches Your Phone
Follow a national radar scan from millions of values through verified tiles, nearby caches and GPU motion into one smooth loop.
How Rain Nowcasting Works
Why a forecast can say rain starts in twelve minutes, why that countdown can jump, and how to use a next-hour forecast sensibly.
How to Read Weather Radar
Decode radar colours, beam height, storm motion and future frames so a weather map tells you more than where the brightest patch is.
How to See a Meteor Shower
A shower advertised at 150 meteors an hour may yield far fewer in your backyard. Learn how radiant height, light and cloud change the count.
How to predict a great sunset
Three clues decide whether tonight's sky catches fire, and one of them is 100 km away.
Learn: two-minute explainers
Short videos on the sky and the weather, each with the lesson written out.
Read the Sky
How to know, hours ahead, whether tonight's sky is worth going outside for: the clouds that make a sunset, what the aurora numbers really mean, and how darkness, the Moon and clouds decide a meteor shower.
Severe Weather Outlook Risk Levels Explained
Decode Marginal through High, understand probabilities within 25 miles, and separate an outlook from a watch or warning.
Storm Science
Storm cells and whether one will hit you, hail size and the storm report, and what Slight, Enhanced and Moderate risk mean on a severe weather outlook.
Weather Data, Decoded
The numbers and maps behind every forecast: reading radar like a meteorologist, how live radar reaches your phone, what AQI and PM2.5 mean, how apps predict rain to the minute, and why two weather apps can disagree.
What AQI and PM2.5 Mean
Understand fine particles, the uneven US AQI scale and why smoke overhead can tell a different story from the air near the ground.
Why Kp 5 Doesn't Mean You'll See the Aurora
Kp describes a planetary geomagnetic disturbance. Aurora viewing also depends on the oval, darkness and clouds where you are.
Why Weather Apps Disagree
Two rain chances can reveal uncertainty. Learn how imperfect starting data, forecast choices and probability definitions create the gap.
Will This Storm Hit Me?
The closest storm may be moving away. Learn to read direction, severe-weather probability and estimated arrival together.
Questions about Forecast Bar
What does Forecast Bar do?
Which platforms does Forecast Bar support?
What weather data does Forecast Bar use?
What kinds of alerts can Forecast Bar send?
How much does Forecast Bar cost?
Try the whole thing for a week.
On iPhone and iPad, every subscription starts with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers.
Free to download; live weather requires a subscription. On iPhone and iPad, every subscription includes a 7-day free trial for new subscribers; Mac plans do not. Mac and iOS plans are separate; Apple TV is included with Forecast Bar Gold on iOS.