Today Weather:Data by NOAA/NWS

Review by eFreeware

Most weather apps give you a number and a cloud icon and leave it at that. If you want to know which agency produced the forecast, how much rain is coming in the next hour, or whether the air outside is worth breathing during a run, a single generic source often is not enough. Today Weather, from developer todayweather.co, is built around the idea that you should be able to see more and choose more.

It has been on Google Play since March 2017 and now sits above a million installs with a 4.6 average from more than 104,000 ratings. The app is free, carries ads, and offers in-app purchases. Its pitch is straightforward: forecasts from national meteorological services, a customizable home screen, and the supporting data that turns a forecast into a decision.

What you get on opening the app

The core of Today Weather is a forecast for any location you search, anywhere in the world. The developer describes 24/7 forecast coverage with chance of rain, plus the readings that matter when you are planning a day: actual temperature, humidity, visibility, dew point, air pressure, and wind speed and direction. There are also sunrise and sunset times and full moon information for anyone who plans around daylight.

What separates it from a basic weather app is where the numbers come from. The developer lists a long catalog of global providers, including Apple WeatherKit, Accuweather, Dark Sky, Weatherbit, OpenWeatherMap, Foreca, Here, Open-Meteo, Visual Crossing and the Global Forecast System. Beyond that, it uses national and regional services for specific countries: the U.S. National Weather Service, the UK Met Office, ECMWF, Canada's Weather.gc.ca, Germany's Dwd.de, Spain's Aemet.es, Meteofrance, Australia's Bom.gov.au, Smhi.se, Dmi.dk, Yr.no, Met.ie, MeteoSwiss, Japan's JMA, China's CMA, Korea's KMA and the GEM model.

That list is the app's real argument. If you live somewhere with a strong national forecaster, you can lean on that agency's output rather than a blended global model. The developer calls it the world's most accurate local weather, which is a claim rather than a measurement, but the underlying idea, that local agencies often know their own terrain best, is a reasonable one. The trade-off is that the app asks you to care which source you are reading. Someone who just wants a temperature will find the choice irrelevant.

Widgets built for a customized home screen

Widgets are a major part of the package. The developer offers clock weather widgets, radar widgets, detailed weather charts, and an HTC-style clock weather widget, and says every detail can be adjusted, from background colors to text styles and icons. On a phone or tablet, that means the forecast can live on your home screen in a form that matches how you already organize it.

I like the emphasis on customization here, because weather widgets are personal. Some people want a large chart with hourly detail, others want a small clock with a single temperature. The developer's promise is that you can tune the appearance rather than accept one fixed design. Whether that level of control is worth the setup effort depends on how particular you are about your home screen.

The app also sends a daily weather forecast notification, which is the lower-effort alternative for anyone who would rather not build a widget at all.

Radar, alarms and severe weather alerts

The radar view is described as locating precipitation, calculating its motion, estimating whether it is rain, snow or hail, and forecasting where it will go and how intense it will become. That is more than a static image; it is meant to answer whether the band of rain is heading toward you or past you.

Related to that are the rain and snow alarms, which alert you when precipitation is approaching. The app also handles severe weather warnings, and the most recent update, version 2.5.2, added storm track maps showing forecast paths and track details while improving alert coverage and notification handling. For anyone in a region with storms, hail or heavy snow, those two features are the practical core of the app.

The value of an alert depends on it arriving in time and being trustworthy, and reliability appears to be a focus of the app. I would treat the storm track maps as the most interesting addition for people who follow weather closely rather than just check it.

Health data, photos and the Wear OS app

Beyond the forecast, Today Weather collects the readings that affect how a day feels outdoors: air quality, UV index and pollen count. If you run, cycle, garden or have allergies, those three numbers often matter more than the temperature itself. Having them alongside the forecast saves opening a separate app.

There is also a social side. You can take a photo with weather information attached and share it, and photos are tied to locations around the world in a shared pool. The idea is that you see pictures of the weather where you are or where you are going, contributed by other users, and that photos of places you have visited stay attached to those places. It is a pleasant extra for travelers, though it is clearly secondary to the forecasting tools.

For Wear OS, the developer provides a streamlined version with location search and a multi-day forecast, plus a weather tile and complication. It is described as containing only the most important features, so it is a companion rather than a full copy of the phone app.

What the app asks of you

The main cost of Today Weather is attention. With that many data sources, the app is at its best for someone willing to decide which provider to trust for their region, and to set up widgets and alerts rather than accept the defaults. Someone who wants one screen and one answer may find the breadth excessive.

The app is free and supported by ads, and it offers in-app purchases. The app is free with advertising and optional paid elements.

The photo-sharing feature also depends on other people using it. Its usefulness in any given city rests on whether travelers and locals there have contributed images, which is a function of the community rather than the app itself.

Who this fits

Today Weather suits people who treat weather as information rather than decoration. If you check the radar before a drive, watch the pollen count before a run, or want a widget that shows pressure and dew point alongside the temperature, the app's depth is the point. The range of national sources is especially appealing if you live outside the United States or travel between countries and want each location covered by a relevant agency.

It also fits anyone who likes to tinker with a home screen. The widget customization and the variety of widget styles are aimed at people who will actually use them.

For a casual check of tomorrow's temperature, the app offers more than that task requires. The features are there, but so is the choice, and the choice is the part you have to engage with.

A detailed forecast for people who want the detail

Today Weather stands out by being broad without being vague. Forecasts from a long list of global and national providers, radar with motion and precipitation type, rain and snow alarms, severe weather warnings with storm track maps in the latest version, air quality, UV and pollen readings, and a widget system you can shape to your own taste. That is a lot of weather app for a free download with ads and optional purchases.

The people who will get the most from it are those who want to choose a source, set up alerts for their area, and keep a detailed widget on their home screen. If that describes how you use weather information, this is a sensible install. If you want a single glanceable number, the app's strengths will mostly sit unused.

What's new

Version 2.5.2 (Build 2) – Added storm track maps with forecast paths and track details. – Improved severe weather alerts with better coverage, reliability, and notification handling. – Optimized overall app performance and stability. – Fixed minor bugs and improved the user experience.