January 10, 2026
Cloudy with a chance of rage
A Eulogy for Dark Sky, a Data Visualization Masterpiece (2023)
Fans mourn Dark Sky as Apple’s Weather gets roasted
TLDR: Apple shut down Dark Sky and merged its features into Apple Weather, but fans say the magic and precision are gone. The comments erupt with love letters to Dark Sky, praise for MeteoSwiss and Weathergraph, and frustration that Apple didn’t just ship Dark Sky as-is.
Apple pulled the plug on the beloved Dark Sky app on January 1, 2023, folding its smarts into Apple Weather with the iPhone’s iOS 16 update. But the crowd isn’t buying it. Commenters are treating Dark Sky like a lost love, praising its instant, hyperlocal “rain starts in 2–3 minutes” vibe and its gorgeous, super-clear design that made weather feel like a story you could read at a glance. One fan even wrote, “Dark Sky, my love <3,” which sums up the mood. The drama? Many claim Apple’s version lost precision and personality, with whispers that Apple’s privacy stance may have blunted the magic (support page).
Then the app wars erupted. A contrarian crowns MeteoSwiss the GOAT, while another swears by Weathergraph, saying it actually understands your day and when you’ll be coming back hours later. Meanwhile, the roasting is real: “Apple should have just used that app,” fumes one commenter, basically calling Apple’s Weather a downgrade. The thread turns into a wake with weather puns (“sunsetted app,” anyone?), people posting “press F to pay respects,” and heated debates over what matters most—precision at your exact spot vs city-level vibes, and design that shows what’s relevant now vs burying you in numbers. Dark Sky didn’t just forecast; it felt human—and that’s the storm the community can’t get over.
Key Points
- •Apple sunset the Dark Sky iOS app on January 1, 2023, following its 2020 acquisition of the company.
- •Apple shut down Dark Sky on Android and web prior to iOS and announced integration of its forecast technology into Apple Weather with iOS 16.
- •The article emphasizes Dark Sky’s mobile app as a benchmark in information design, focusing on context-sensitive graphics tailored to user needs.
- •Dark Sky’s default view shows the next 12 hours at the user’s precise location, starting from “now,” highlighting the most relevant conditions.
- •Dark Sky provided hyperlocal weather visualization and a Time Machine view for exploring past weather data.