Local Weather Forecast

Review by eFreeware

Most weather apps stop at a weekly outlook, so the detail that makes Local Weather Forecast stand out is how far it looks ahead: forecasts for cities around the world stretching up to 14 days, with hour-by-hour figures underneath. That longer view is the reason to consider it, and the rest of the app is built around the same idea of giving you more to work with than a single temperature.

It is a free, ad-supported Android app from Tools Dev, with no in-app purchases offered. The install numbers back up its reach, with more than 5 million installs and a 4.6 average across 39,591 ratings. That is a strong signal for a free weather tool, though ratings only tell you how a crowd felt, not what your own forecast will look like.

Who this forecast setup suits

I'd expect this to work best for people who plan around weather rather than just glance at it. If you are deciding whether to move a Saturday hike, book a flight, or schedule outdoor work, the combination of a two-week outlook and hourly detail gives you something to reason with. The daily life panel, which covers things like air quality, jacket and umbrella advice, and flight delay information, points at the same audience: someone who wants the forecast translated into a few practical cues.

The weather map feature, which holds up to 10 cities, suggests it also fits households with family in different places or anyone who travels between a handful of regular locations. Being able to keep several cities in view is a small thing, but it removes the chore of re-adding a place every time you check on it.

Someone who only wants tomorrow's high and low, with no interest in radar, widgets or air quality, will find more here than they need. The app is built for people who like having the extra layers available, even if they don't open all of them every day.

Forecast depth, hour by hour

The core of the app is the forecast itself. You can pull up conditions for cities worldwide going out as far as 14 days, and each day opens into hourly detail. The developer lists temperature, precipitation, air pressure, wind speed and humidity among the figures available at that hourly level, which is a broader set than many free apps put in front of you.

The current conditions screen is similarly detailed. Alongside the real-time temperature it covers what the temperature feels like, air quality, rainfall rate, humidity, dew point, sunrise, sunset, wind speed, UV index, visibility and barometric pressure. That is a lot of numbers in one place, and for anyone who likes to interpret conditions themselves rather than accept a summary, it is the most useful part of the package.

There is also a status bar element that shows the temperature for your current location right on the home screen, so you can check the basics without opening anything. Sunrise and sunset tracking sits alongside the forecast data for people who plan around daylight.

Radar, maps and the daily life panel

The live rain cloud radar is the feature I would reach for first on a doubtful afternoon. It shows the state of rain clouds, how much rain is falling and which way the wind is moving, which is the kind of information that answers "is this about to pass over me" better than a percentage chance does. The developer also says the app can notify you about approaching typhoons and rain clouds, which matters most in regions where those systems are a real seasonal concern.

The weather map lets you assemble a view of up to 10 cities, so you can watch a region rather than a single point. Combined with the radar, that turns the app into something closer to a small monitoring tool than a one-city forecast.

The daily life section is customizable, with air quality including PM2.5 readings, jacket and umbrella guidance, and flight delay information among the items the developer lists. Widgets in various styles round things out for people who prefer the forecast on their home screen instead of behind an app icon.

What you pay, and what comes with it

Local Weather Forecast is free to install, and the developer makes a point of saying the weather details are available at no cost. The trade is advertising: the app is ad-supported.

There are no in-app purchases offered, which keeps things simple. Nothing in the app is gated behind a purchase, and there is no subscription to weigh against a one-time cost.

The app has been on Google Play since December 2016, and the recent update suggests it is still being tended to.

How it compares with the alternatives

The obvious comparison is with the weather app that came with your phone. Those tend to be tidy and fast, and they cover the basics well, but they rarely go as deep as hourly figures across a 14-day span or offer a rain cloud radar with rainfall amounts and wind direction. If the built-in app already answers your questions, Local Weather Forecast is more machinery than you need.

Which is better depends on how much the advertising bothers you and whether the extra data layers are ones you would actually use.

Against dedicated radar or aviation-style weather tools, this one is broader and less specialized. It bundles radar, maps, air quality, sun and moon times and widgets into a single app rather than doing one job exhaustively. For most people who want one place to check the sky, that breadth is the point.

A dependable free pick for planners

Local Weather Forecast makes sense for anyone who wants more than a weekly outlook without paying for it. The 14-day forecasts, hourly detail, rain cloud radar, multi-city map and daily life panel add up to a genuinely broad free package, and the install and rating figures suggest a lot of people have found it useful.

I would suggest it to people who plan outdoor work, travel between a few regular cities, or simply like reading the numbers for themselves. If a simple daily high and low is all you ever look at, your phone's built-in app will do the job with less on screen.

What's new in version 4.27.8

* Fixed bugs in weather data