Precipitation Alerts tell you when rain or snow is about to start — and when it's about to stop — at your location, using minute-by-minute precipitation data. They require a Gold subscription (see Alerts & Notifications Overview for the sign-in and permission requirements).
Precipitation Alerts
Go to Settings → Notifications and turn on Precipitation Alerts (off by default). You'll get a notification shortly before precipitation begins at your location, and another when it's ending — enough warning to grab an umbrella or wait out the last few minutes.
Live Activity
Below the alerts toggle is Live Activity — "Track precipitation on Lock Screen & Dynamic Island". When enabled, an incoming shower starts a Live Activity that shows a live minute-by-minute precipitation chart on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, updating as the rain moves through.
The toggle requires:
- iOS 17.2 or later
- Notification permission granted
- A registered push token — status badges next to the toggle show a checkmark when everything is ready, or a clock while registration is still pending
For what the Live Activity looks like and how it behaves, see Live Activities.
Note: The Live Activity is an iPhone feature — the Mac app receives regular precipitation notifications instead.
Alert on Start
Alert on Start controls whether a regular notification also fires when precipitation begins. Whenever Live Activity is enabled, Alert on Start is kept on automatically — the notification is what wakes the Live Activity up.