1Weather Forecasts & Radar

Review by eFreeware

If your phone is the first thing you check before leaving the house, and you want more from it than a single temperature reading, 1Weather is worth a look. It is a free Android weather app from OneLouder Apps that has been on the Play Store since January 2012 and has passed 100 million installs, with a 4.3 average across more than a million ratings.

What you get is a forecast that works at several scales at once: minute-by-minute precipitation, hourly detail, daily and weekly outlooks, and longer-range projections. Around that core sit an interactive radar with multiple map layers, alerts tied to locations you choose, an air quality and pollen section, a sun and moon tracker, and home screen widgets in a wide range of sizes. The app is free and supported by ads, and there are in-app purchases alongside them, so the main question is whether the depth on offer justifies living with that arrangement.

My sense is that it suits people who plan their days around the weather rather than glancing at it. If you hike, camp, run, garden, or simply want to know whether the afternoon will hold, the combination of short-range precision and a ten-day view covers most of what you would ask. It is a broad app rather than a specialist one, and the breadth is the point.

Forecasts that go from the next hour to the next ten days

The forecasting engine is the part most people will live in. The developer promises precipitation forecasts down to the minute and up to 48 hours ahead, which is the sort of detail that matters when you are deciding whether to start a walk now or wait twenty minutes. Below that sits the more conventional structure: hourly conditions, a daily summary, a weekly view, and extended long-range projections for people who like to see further out.

The ten-day forecast is presented as a planning tool for outdoor trips, and the app covers a long list of conditions: snow days, ice storms, arctic air, hail, snowfall, rain, thunderstorms, freezing rain and drizzle. That is a lot of named weather, and it reflects the app's ambition to be a general-purpose forecaster rather than a rain-or-shine indicator. For camping, hiking or trekking trips, a ten-day view with that much condition detail is genuinely useful for deciding what to pack and when to go.

The recent update mentions an enhanced Minutely Rain and Snow feature with real-time updates, along with simplified navigation and bug fixes. Taken together with the original feature set, the picture is of an app that has kept its short-range forecasting at the center while tidying the way you reach it. For anyone whose day hinges on whether the next hour is wet, that emphasis makes sense.

Radar layers and alerts for rough weather

The radar map is the second pillar. It is interactive, and it supports multiple layers, so you can look at rain intensity, surface temperature, humidity, wind and UV levels on the same map. That is a more analytical view than a simple precipitation loop, and it rewards a bit of curiosity: layering humidity over rain, for instance, tells you something a single radar sweep does not.

Future Radar extends this forward, tracking hazardous conditions such as blizzards, sleet, hail, thunderclouds, lake-effect snow and winter storms. The developer describes the radar coverage as spanning all regions, including both coasts. For anyone in an area prone to fast-moving severe weather, a forward-looking radar view is the feature worth keeping on the home screen.

Alerts are tied to custom locations and come from named sources: the National Weather Service, NOAA, the Storm Prediction Center, Dark Sky and WDT. You choose the places you care about, and notifications are meant to arrive when conditions change. The developer frames this around keeping you and your family safe, which is the standard pitch for alert systems, but the substance is straightforward: warnings issued for your chosen cities, delivered to your phone.

Air quality, pollen and the sun and moon

Beyond the forecast and radar, there is a Health Center with an air quality index and information on pollution levels, plus pollen counts for seasonal allergies. Alongside it you get wind chill, moisture and humidity readings. If you or someone in your household reacts badly to poor air or high pollen, having that data in the same app as the forecast saves a second lookup.

The sun and moon tracker covers sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset, and lets you explore moon phases including the new moon and full moon. The app is aimed at stargazers, photographers and the generally curious. It is a modest addition, but a sensible one for anyone planning an evening outdoors or a shoot around golden hour.

There is also a news section: breaking weather updates summarized in about 60 words, plus one-minute videos, tips and seasonal articles. These are short items and insights relevant to you, with seasonal advice for extreme weather. It is the kind of content that fills the gaps between forecasts rather than replacing them, and it gives the app something to show when the weather itself is unremarkable.

Widgets, themes and units

The home screen widgets are one of the more practical parts of the package. Sizes run from 1x1 through 2x1, 2x2, 2x3, 3x4, 4x1, 4x2, 4x3, 5x1 and 5x2, with formats including a large clock, a time widget and a forecast widget. That range means you can fit a glanceable forecast into almost any layout, from a single small square to a wide bar across the top of a screen.

Customization extends to units, so you can set the measurements you prefer, and the app offers multiple languages. Light and dark themes help cut glare in dim conditions. None of this is unusual in itself, but having the widget sizes and the theme options together makes the app easier to fold into an existing setup rather than working around it.

Navigation was simplified for faster access to forecasts, which is the sort of change that matters more than it sounds when an app carries this many sections. Whether the reorganization lands well is something each user will judge for themselves, but the direction is sensible for an app with this much surface area.

Getting it set up

Setup is a matter of installing the app and choosing the locations you want covered, since the alerts are tied to custom locations rather than a single default. From there you can add a widget at whatever size suits your home screen and adjust units, language and theme to taste. The app is free to download.

Two things are worth knowing before you install. The app contains ads, and it also offers in-app purchases. The developer's own note explains that information from your use of the app may be shared with partners for personalized advertising and service improvement, with choices modifiable at any time as set out in the privacy policy. That is a normal arrangement for a free weather app, but it is part of the deal, and the opt-out is there if you want it.

A support address is listed for queries, which is the route for anything the app itself does not resolve. Beyond that, it is aimed at the usual weather-app user: someone with a location they care about who wants the alerts to be useful.

Who gets the most from it

This is an app for people who treat weather as planning information rather than small talk. If you check conditions before committing to an outdoor plan, want a radar view you can layer and interrogate, or need air quality and pollen figures because of allergies, the breadth here covers all of it in one place. The ten-day forecast and the long list of tracked conditions suit trip planning in particular.

It also fits anyone who wants the forecast visible without opening anything. With widget sizes from 1x1 up to 5x2, you can keep conditions on the home screen in a form that matches how much space you are willing to give it. The dark and light themes and unit controls make it easier to live with day to day.

The trade-off is the advertising and the in-app purchases. If you would rather not have that arrangement on your phone, that is the main consideration to weigh before installing.

A capable daily forecast with ads attached

1Weather earns its install count by covering a lot of ground competently. Minute-by-minute precipitation, 48-hour detail, ten-day outlooks, a layered interactive radar, custom-location alerts from named meteorological sources, air quality and pollen data, sun and moon tracking, and widgets in nearly every size you could want.

I would point it at people who want one weather app that does the planning work: hikers, campers, runners, gardeners, photographers chasing light, and anyone with seasonal allergies who wants air quality alongside the forecast. If you want the conditions on your home screen at a glance, the widget range is a real advantage.

The caveats are the ones that come with the model. It is ad-supported and offers in-app purchases, and the developer's note about sharing usage information with advertising partners applies. That is the price of admission for a free app with this much in it, and the opt-out is available. On balance, if you can accept that arrangement, this is a well-established choice for detailed, location-specific weather on Android.

What's new in version 12.9.3

We've improved 1Weather for you! Now, enjoy a smoother and smarter weather experience! ❄️ Real-time updates with the enhanced Minutely Rain & Snow feature. ❄️ Simplified navigation for faster access to forecasts. ❄️ Enjoy smoother performance with essential bug fixes.