On the Mac, Forecast Bar lives in your menu bar: a compact readout — an icon, the temperature, or any weather value you choose — that's always visible at the top of your screen. Click it and the full weather panel drops down with current conditions, hourly and daily forecasts, radar, and alerts.
Note: Forecast Bar needs an active subscription to display weather — every plan starts with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers. On the Mac, tiers are named Pro (called Gold on other platforms) and Plus (Silver). See Plans & Subscriptions.
What it runs on
From 11.6, Forecast Bar for Mac runs on macOS 13.3 Ventura and later (previously 14.6), so Macs that can't go past Ventura — 2017 models and earlier — can use the current app instead of the old 5.x version. Nothing changes on Sonoma and later. On Ventura itself a few things are simpler: the Compare Sources and Compare Locations windows have no title-bar buttons, widget buttons are static, keyboard focus rings stay visible, and arrow-key navigation in the expanded day view works through a fallback.
The menu bar item
By default you get one menu bar item showing the current condition icon and temperature. You can add up to five items, each showing a different weather value in your choice of seven display styles — or combine them all into a single item. Everything about it is configurable: fonts, icon sets, colors, and more. See Menu Bar Display.
- Click the item to open or close the weather panel.
- Right-click the item for a quick menu: Refresh Weather, Settings..., and Quit Forecast Bar.
The weather panel
The panel is the Mac app's main screen. Its toolbar holds the alerts button, a location switcher, and buttons for radar and the forecast discussion; its footer holds the Settings gear, the last-updated time, a share button, and refresh. A bar at the foot of the forecast carries Time Machine and Compare Sources, and the severe weather cards — Storm Tracker, alerts, Storm Report and Severe Risk — lead the panel, with the tracker directly above the precipitation chart. You can resize it, and even drag it off the menu bar to keep it open as a floating window. See The Weather Panel.
Dock mode
Prefer a regular app window instead of a menu bar extra? Switch Settings → General → App Mode to Dock and Forecast Bar becomes a standard window with a Dock icon that badges the current temperature. See Dock Mode.
Where Settings lives
Open Settings any of three ways:
- Click the gear in the panel's footer.
- Right-click the menu bar item and choose Settings...
- Press ⌘, while a Forecast Bar window is open.
The Settings window has ten tabs — General, Theme & Visual Style, Data & Layout, Forecasts, Radar, Compare & Home, Notifications, Smart Weather Stories, Subscription, and About & More. See Settings for the full tour, and Keyboard Shortcuts for everything you can do without the mouse.
Tip: Press ⇧⌘W from any app to open or close the weather panel — it's a global shortcut that works even when Forecast Bar isn't the active app.
