User Guide / Mac / Forecast Bar on the Mac

💻 Forecast Bar on the Mac

A quick tour of the Mac app — the menu bar item, the weather panel, dock mode, and where everything lives.

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 feature is unlocked free for your first 24 hours, and after that a plan is required. On the Mac, tiers are named Pro (called Gold on other platforms) and Plus (Silver). See Plans & Subscriptions.

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. 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:

  1. Click the gear in the panel's footer.
  2. Right-click the menu bar item and choose Settings...
  3. Press ⌘, while a Forecast Bar window is open.

The Settings window has seven tabs — General, Theme & Visual Style, Data & Layout, Notifications, Forecast Bar AI, 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.