The best free weather apps for Android and iPhone

Sunny days and annual vacations are for many an opportunity to plan vacations with family or friends, or to plan outdoor activities and outings.

If summer in principle rhymes with good weather, it is not impossible that the sky will make its own and thus come to jeopardize the activities you have planned during your vacation. To help you make the right decision and to plan a back-up plan in the event of greyness or rain, the weather applications available on mobile phones are invaluable allies in supporting your projects.

The editorial team has selected for you five free weather apps for Android and iPhone, which will make it rain or shine.

1. Meteociel

Very complete, the Meteociel application makes a strong impression with an interface that is generally quite simple to use. The home page groups the trends of cities added to favorites and offers to pin live temperature maps, as well as observation maps (thunderstorms, rains, etc.) of France and other countries of the world on a hour and over six hours.

The forecasts and weather reports are accessible from the side menu and display the main information in a very visual way. The weather forecast, at time T, is readable immediately and you can consult the forecast for the following days by activating the Summary or by consulting one by one the forecast bulletins offered over ten days. Entering the details of a bulletin, Meteociel displays atmospheric pressure, cloudiness, humidity, as well as average speed, gusts and wind direction.

Meteociel also provides access to valuable information that even the most demanding users will certainly appreciate. It is thus possible to consult various maps live, to access the official readings carried out in the various weather stations in France and elsewhere, to view the GEFS diagrams or to access all the maps of the forecast models. weather forecast (Arome, Arpège, GFS, etc.

• Meteociel for Android
• Meteociel for iPhone

2. Yahoo Weather

Despite an interface that is at first glance ultra minimalist, Yahoo Weather is not deadlocked and offers fairly comprehensive 10-day weather reports. The application geolocates you and instantly displays the weather according to your geographical position, but of course allows the addition of new cities. The first time you use it, however, you will need to go to the settings to define the units to be used by default.

Ultra simple to use, Yahoo Weather revolves around two reading axes. A horizontal sweep is used to scroll through the recorded cities, while a vertical sweep is used to scroll through the information contained in the forecast bulletin. The care taken by Yahoo Météo in the presentation of forecasts offers a very aesthetic result, photos of tourist places or monuments being automatically displayed in the background of major city bulletins.

The application displays an hour-by-hour summary of the day’s weather and offers a 5 or 10 day forecast. It includes the global trends of the day, minimum and maximum temperatures, perceived temperature, humidity, visibility and even the UV index. Yahoo Weather also indicates air quality and displays a map which, once deployed in full screen, allows you to view satellite maps on which cloud masses, temperatures or even wind speed are visible.

To top it all off, Yahoo Weather shows the forecast for precipitation, wind speed, air pressure, as well as the time of sunrise and sunset as well as the phase of the moon.

• Yahoo Weather for Android
• Yahoo Weather for iPhone

3. The Weather Channel

The official application of The Weather Channel is based on an interface made up of different tiles. At the top of the screen, you will find a global weather map for the whole of France with, by tapping on it, some additional details depending on the time of day. Below, two tiles group together weather information related to your geographical position: an ephemeris and a mini weather report which, when activated, both refer to a more detailed forecast report.

The application which can provide forecasts over a fortnight also details the forecasts according to the time of day. To obtain even more precise information, the application also offers an hour-by-hour bulletin with a live map of potential precipitation.

The Weather Channel, in its free version, displays a few advertisements, not very intrusive, which integrate well overall since they take the model of the tiles. The application also offers to view the video weather forecast broadcast on the channel and to access video bulletins on demand for overseas territories, regions or the rest of the world.

• The weather channel for Android
• The weather channel for iPhone

4. WeatherPro Free

Powered by MeteoGroup, WeatherPro Free provides immediate detailed reading of the weather forecast for your location. The application, after having geolocated you, displays the name of your city, locates it on a map that can be enlarged to take advantage of satellite images, and offers live forecasts, but also trends at four times keys of the day (8 a.m., 2 p.m., 8 p.m., and 2 a.m.).

WeatherPro Free gathers all the forecasts on the first page of the application which offers a vertical reading. By scrolling up the forecast for the day, you will access the forecast for one week, with for each day, the global trend, the minimum and maximum temperatures, humidity as well as the speed and direction of the winds. It is possible to access the details of these forecasts over five days, with more detailed information on three-hour periods. Thus, in addition to knowing the appearance of the sky, the detailed information of these forecasts allows you to obtain an estimate of any precipitation, as well as the duration of sunshine over each three-hour period.

Each new city saved in WeatherPro Free can be accessed from the home page, by scrolling the page to the left. Adding a new location is done directly from the Search tab. If the information produced by the application is exhaustive, WeatherPro Free suggests that you rate the reliability of the forecasts compared to what you can see in reality. Note in passing that if webcams are available near the place for which you wish to consult the weather forecast, WeatherPro Free offers you to view them to have a real overview of the weather on the spot.

• WeatherPro Free for Android
• WeatherPro Free for iPhone

5. Météo France

The benchmark application for weather forecasts obviously remains that of Météo France. From the opening of the home page, you will access a complete weather forecast for the day with additional details for each period of the day. If by default the application is launched on the Today tab, it is still possible to consult the forecasts at time T or hour by hour, but also to access the forecast bulletins for the next two weeks.

Météo France offers a simple and direct reading of the weather forecast. A glance is enough to know the current temperature, but also the mini, maxi and the temperature felt, the speed of the wind and the precipitations. In the event of a weather alert, the bulletin bears a badge bearing the color of the vigilance in progress in your department.

If the application offers the weather forecast for your geographical location by default, it is obviously possible to search for forecasts for other cities from the field provided for this purpose. You can also save your favorite cities and view their bulletins by tapping on the star icon at the top right of the screen.

Finally, Météo France also offers the possibility of watching a video weather report and integrates radar and satellite animations making it easier to visualize the rains and cloud masses crossing the country.

• Météo France for Android
• Météo France for iPhone