Dark Sky Founders Launch Acme Weather — The First App That Shows You How Wrong Your Forecast Might Be

The founders of Dark Sky — the beloved weather app that Apple acquired and eventually absorbed into its own Weather app — are back with a brand new weather application. Acme Weather launched this week for iPhone and Apple Watch, and it's already making waves with a feature most weather apps are afraid to show you: how uncertain your forecast actually is.

What Makes Acme Weather Different?

Most weather apps give you a single number — 72°F, 30% chance of rain — and expect you to treat it as gospel. But anyone who's been burned by a "partly cloudy" forecast that turned into a downpour knows that weather prediction is more art than science. Acme Weather's headline feature directly addresses this by displaying alternative forecast models alongside its own prediction as light gray lines on the same hourly graph.

When those gray lines cluster tightly around Acme's main forecast, you can walk out the door with confidence. When they diverge wildly, maybe grab that umbrella regardless of what the primary prediction says. It's a genuinely useful way to visualize something every meteorologist knows but most apps hide from consumers: forecast data is inherently imprecise.

The Full Feature Set

Beyond the uncertainty visualization, Acme Weather packs an impressive 1.0 feature set. The main view starts with current conditions that expand to reveal detailed stats for wind speed, visibility, humidity, and UV Index. Below that, horizontally scrolling weather stats let you repopulate the forecast graph with different metrics without changing views — a smart design choice that keeps everything accessible.

The app includes extensive weather maps, a detailed 10-day forecast with intuitive bar graphs showing daily temperature ranges, and minute-by-minute precipitation details when rain is approaching. It's clear the Dark Sky DNA runs deep — these were the same people who pioneered hyperlocal precipitation alerts.

Notifications Taken to the Extreme

Perhaps the boldest design decision is dedicating an entire tab to notifications. While most apps bury notification settings three menus deep, Acme puts them front and center with a fill-in-the-blank notification builder that lets you customize exactly what triggers an alert. Want to know when wind speeds exceed 20 mph at your location? Done. Temperature drops below freezing? Set it up in seconds.

There's even an experimental "Labs" section for fun alerts like potential rainbow sightings, aurora borealis visibility, and exceptional sunsets. It's the kind of delightful touch that makes a utility app feel personal.

Community Reports and What's Missing

Acme also includes community weather reports, letting users share real-time conditions at their location. It's sparse right now — the app just launched — but if the user base grows, this crowd-sourced data layer could become a genuinely valuable hyperlocal signal that no forecast model can match.

The app currently supports only the US and Canada, comes with widgets and basic Shortcuts support, and is limited to iPhone and Apple Watch. iPad and Mac users will have to wait, and the Shortcuts actions could use expansion.

The Price Question

Acme Weather is free to download with a two-week trial, after which it requires a $25 per year subscription. In a world where Apple's built-in Weather app is excellent (thanks partly to the Dark Sky acquisition), Mercury Weather, CARROT Weather, and Hello Weather all compete aggressively, that's a meaningful ask. But if forecast uncertainty visualization clicks with you the way it clicked with us, it might be the most honest $25 you spend on your phone this year.

Acme Weather is available on the App Store now.