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Apparently DarkSky does use the NOAA data, whereas Apple was pulling data from The Weather Company, now part of IBM. "IBM purchased the Weather Co. in 2016 and

Apparently DarkSky does use the NOAA data, whereas Apple was pulling data from The Weather Company, now part of IBM. "IBM purchased the Weather Co. in 2016 and sells weather data to, among others, Apple, for its weather app. The purchase could signal that Apple will develop its own weather model rather than continue to use IBM-derived data, or it may indicate that Apple, too, liked the design of the app." https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/03/31/apple-buys-popular-weather-app-darksky/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/03/31/apple-buys... per https://twitter.com/ajblum/status/1245045062112813059 https://twitter.com/ajblum/status/1245045062112813059

cosmie 7y ago
> whereas Apple was pulling data from The Weather Company, now part of IBM. It's turtles all the way down[1]. The Weather Company also leverages NOAA data and is listed as such as a weather service provider on NOAA's site[2]. Although they ostensibly augment it with other sources and apply their own forecasting models to the data, they're still basically repackaging NOAA data in one form or another. [1] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down [2] https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/success/weather-service-providers https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/success/weather-service-providers
- dingaling 7y ago
  > The Weather Company also leverages NOAA data ... in the USA. But one of its great advantages is the data it receives from tens of thousands of amateur weather reporting stations globally. The Wunderground forecast for our locality is hyper-localised and very accurate for that reason, particularly compared to the national Met Office forecast which applies to an airport 35 miles away, beside a lake and on the other side of mountains.
  - lstamour 7y ago
    I had no idea Weather Channel had bought Weather Underground in 2012. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground_(weather_service) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground_(weather... I remember fondly using their Wunder Radio app in the early iPhone years.
  - coldcode 7y ago
    I was an early supporter (and payer) for Wunderground, but now they have turned into another IBM money grab and I refuse to have anything to do with them now.
- wakeless 7y ago
  There is a great episode of 99 percent invisible about this. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-weather-machine/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-weather-machine/

cosmie 7y ago

> whereas Apple was pulling data from The Weather Company, now part of IBM. It's turtles all the way down[1]. The Weather Company also leverages NOAA data and is listed as such as a weather service provider on NOAA's site[2]. Although they ostensibly augment it with other sources and apply their own forecasting models to the data, they're still basically repackaging NOAA data in one form or another. [1] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down [2] https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/success/weather-service-providers https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/success/weather-service-providers

dingaling 7y ago
> The Weather Company also leverages NOAA data ... in the USA. But one of its great advantages is the data it receives from tens of thousands of amateur weather reporting stations globally. The Wunderground forecast for our locality is hyper-localised and very accurate for that reason, particularly compared to the national Met Office forecast which applies to an airport 35 miles away, beside a lake and on the other side of mountains.
- lstamour 7y ago
  I had no idea Weather Channel had bought Weather Underground in 2012. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground_(weather_service) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground_(weather... I remember fondly using their Wunder Radio app in the early iPhone years.
- coldcode 7y ago
  I was an early supporter (and payer) for Wunderground, but now they have turned into another IBM money grab and I refuse to have anything to do with them now.
wakeless 7y ago
There is a great episode of 99 percent invisible about this. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-weather-machine/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-weather-machine/