You probably look at Apple’s Weather app on your iPhone regularly, but that app can’t be trusted – we’ll tell you why.
Apple’s Weather app
The weather is one of the most popular topics of conversation in the Netherlands, so it’s very handy that you can view the forecasts via Apple’s Weather app on your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch. This way you can immediately see whether it is better to take an umbrella with you when you go out. At least that’s the intention of Apple’s Weather app.
It is not a good idea to blindly rely on the Weather app on your iPhone. In the short term, Apple’s Weather app is usually correct, but in the longer term the app is often wrong. Precipitation and cloud cover in particular are often incorrectly indicated, and that naturally causes annoyance for users.
Not to be trusted
The fact that the Weather app is so often wrong and therefore cannot be trusted has to do with the data that Apple uses in the app. In 2020, Apple Dark Sky taken overand all functions of this weather service have now been added to the app. The service has in the meantime been renamed Apple WeatherKit API.
For weather forecasts, the map of the Netherlands (and the rest of the world) is divided into grids by the Apple WeatherKit API. These are relatively large, which is disadvantageous for a small country like the Netherlands. In weather forecasts for a larger area, small local differences are therefore not taken into account in detail. As a result, the predicted temperature in the Weather app on the iPhone and iPad regularly does not correspond to reality.
These local differences are caused, for example, by a forest, a city, or the sea. A local climate that differs from the climate in a larger area is also called a microclimate. Apple’s Weather app on the iPhone and iPad takes this into account to a (much) lesser extent, resulting in incorrect weather forecasts. Additionally, the data in the Weather app isn’t continuously updated, so the data you see is almost always out of date.
Rain alarm and rain radar
Do you want to be sure if it will rain? Then it is better to use an app such as Buienalarm or Buienradar. These apps have more accurate data for the Netherlands and Belgium, so you see correct predictions more often. Do you want to continue using Apple’s Weather app? Then look at the expectations for the next two days, after which the weather becomes increasingly difficult to predict.
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