Farewell to Dark Sky, which didn't keep us dry, but forever changed the way we get our forecasts:
At the end of this year, Dark Sky—the popular, sleek, sometimes accurate weather app—will go dark, its various components ambiguously incorporated into Apple's revamped weather forecasting tool. The app was created in 2011 by developers Jack Turner and Adam Grossman, and was funded through a Kickstarter campaign that raised just under $40,000. During its run, it built up a loyal following of people who used it to keep ahead of the weather day to day, hour to hour, and even minute to minute. Now, with the Android version already dead, the beloved iOS app will stop working altogether on Jan. 1.
[...] Was it perfect? God, no. The other thing that stood out about Dark Sky was that it wasn't very good. Dark Sky's forecasts failed me on hikes, bike trips, park days, beach days, birthdays, and more. You name it, and I've had it ruined by the siren song of that neon map. [...]
Still, the allure was real. I kept the app on my phone over the years and continued to consult its forecasts. [...] It was the easiest way I knew of to find out what its shape was and infer how long a coming downpour would last. The real-time radar feature let me know in seconds whether a front was spread out across multiple state lines or a thin band of rain that would pass over quickly.
Meteorologists, it's worth noting, do not and have never shared my enthusiasm.
"It was processing the images," said Andrew Blum, author of The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside the Forecast, "rather than forecasting the weather using physics." The Weather Machine explores, in deep detail, the science and history of the complex systems, processes, and technological innovations that undergird global weather forecasting. Blum's book excavates the forecast, layer by layer, to put together a picture of how the various components come together to do something seemingly impossible.
[...] Indeed, Dark Sky's big innovation wasn't simply that its map was gorgeous and user-friendly: The radar map was the forecast. Instead of pulling information about air pressure and humidity and temperature and calculating all of the messy variables that contribute to the weather—a multi-hundred-billion-dollars-a-year international enterprise of satellites, weather stations, balloons, buoys, and an army of scientists working in tandem around the world (see Blum's book)—Dark Sky simply monitored changes to the shape, size, speed, and direction of shapes on a radar map and fast-forwarded those images. "It wasn't meteorology," Blum said. "It was just graphics practice."
[...] But Dark Sky will always be, to some loyal users, more than these scrap parts. Many will remember it as a cultural event. The app (and, I suppose, its peers) heralded a sea change in how the people around me consumed weather forecasts. It's easy to forget what things were like in 2010 [...]. Precise, minute-by-minute forecasts were the tools of mountain climbers and maritime workers—people whose lives and livelihoods depended on knowing exactly what the sky would do and when. People like me got along fine without so much detail, until we didn't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @06:36AM (2 children)
NWS radar was great until a few years ago when they totally borked the UI
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @07:00AM (1 child)
I don't usually bother with radar anymore unless there is a bad storm. Just the 7-day forecast and then the hourly.
https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=37.7771&lon=-122.4197 [weather.gov]
https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=37.7771&lon=-122.4197&unit=0&lg=english&FcstType=graphical [weather.gov]
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday January 02, @11:36AM
The hourly forecast has time-indexed data but not physical location based.
* If you are moving around, you need a map.
* A map gives a better understanding of the "rain risk" - e.g. it's useful to know if there a few heavy showers moving through or a risk that high humidity tips over into a bit of drizzle - both can be represented by a similar "rain risk" but have different outcomes if the risk is realised.
* It's also important to see nearby weather if, for example, you are in the mountains (where the weather is usually affected by altitude and nearby terrain).
So all in all, a map is a very useful tool.
Unfortunately it sounds like this app was a pile of junk. Strange when here in the UK at least, accurate weather forecasts are published for free by the met office based on a reasonable model and up to date measurements. Form over function.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday January 02, @08:46AM (1 child)
This is just flat earth science. Specifically, when humans get frustrated with how much complex knowledge is needed to understand things at the level we have achieved and seek simpler, wronger explanations. This is what you get when you hide from any data points that shake your world view.
If someone brings up something and you shut it down as misinformation or an outlier, this is what you're doing. Stay incredulous and inquisitive.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02, @03:19PM
It amazes me how strong this appeal to non-experts is these days. It is basically saying, "the best part about us is that we don't know what we're doing." I can somewhat understand the outsider appeal with things like alternative medicines or energy devices where you can point to a shadowy "Big" something that is purposely suppressing useful things, but who is the boogeyman here supposed to be, Big Weather? The companies who build supercomputers don't want you to know that you can accurately predict weather on your phone because they want to sell more supercomputers?
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 02, @06:41PM (1 child)
Some cultural event - I never heard of it until this article was published on SN.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday January 03, @02:59AM
LOL, I had exactly the same thought. Never heard of it til it came up here!
Then again, since I use SN as a misc. news service, that's to be expected...
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Monday January 02, @07:28PM
So another toy smart phone "app" bites the dust. Who would have thought? Not enough advertising revenue? Not enough tracking monetization? Not enough dark patterns? Story even suggest it didn't do anything unique. A thousand more to replace it....
Don't forget to download to download our all new FREE weather/news/spyware/addware app, and buy a new cell phone to run it, bi-atches!