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Comment by bilsbie | Hacker News Reader

Where can I use this? I’ve been trying to find hyperlocal forecasts like darksky used to be.

> We're now taking our research out of the lab and putting it into the hands of users. WeatherNext 2's forecast data is now available in Earth Engine and BigQuery. We’re also launching an early access program on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform for custom model inference.

> By incorporating WeatherNext technology, we’ve now upgraded weather forecasts in Search, Gemini, Pixel Weather and Google Maps Platform’s Weather API. In the coming weeks, it will also help power weather information in Google Maps.

Google Maps has... weather predictions?

if you search for a city usually it shows the current weather, but I've seen in some cities there is also a 7 day forecast

If you want to accurately predict times for future trips, you need weather predictions.

Windy is my favorite weather app. The forecast is usually very good and I can switch underlying models to see how much they disagree (an indication that the weather might be erratic). Plus the wind vector animation is mesmerizing and it's fun to look at all the satellite overlays and webcam feeds.

Heh I envy your weather if variation between models implies the weather may be erratic. The models all differ pretty materially here and only Windy's proprietary METEOBLUE model actually tracks weather from weather stations well (ish.)

The HRRR is VERY good in my opinion. It updates hourly with a 15-minute resolution 18 hours out and hourly 48 hours out.

https://rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/hrrr/

HRRR only works for the US though. Windy.com is great for comparing different models. (switcher is in the bottom right hand corner)

https://www.windy.com/?hrrrConus

Also checkout HRDPS model if you're in Canada/northern US

https://www.windy.com/?canHrdps

https://www.ventusky.com/ has a ton of different models too.

It often depends on where you live. HRRR is one of the worst models on the Californian coast and frequently underestimates highs by 5+ degF and underestimates wind speeds.

Apple integrated the hyperlocal darksky stuff into their native Weather app. It had a few growing pains, but it's as good as it ever was, imho.

Agreed.

The one thing I’d like them to improve are the precipitation maps though. They just feel awkward and unreliable.

I've been burned by Apple's rain forecast many times causing me to time my bike ride home at the worst possible time

I don't think DarkSky was any better though to be fair. It's just a hard problem

Alas, that's just the nature of precipitation maps. When radar is the only true source of what's coming down where, you're a the mercy of the laws of physics, and we don't have a large enough array of stations to give hyperlocal-quality coverage to every locality.

Making it vague-ish was a design choice to help curtail complaints of inaccuracy while still giving near-enough-to-accurate information to be useful generally speaking.

Weather Underground used to include large numbers of personal weather stations - you could connect yours to their network - and might have provided forcasts based on them (?). IBM bought them and things changed, but maybe that project is still alive.

They link to the API: https://mapsplatform.google.com/maps-products/weather/

I never understood the acclaim for dark sky. It never seemed very accurate, and the forecasts changed so rapidly that they weren't of much use. "Rain for next 2 hours" would become "Intermittent rain for the next 30 minutes" 10 minutes later.

Look out the window? Works as well as anything else for me.

Precip.ai or go grab the MRMS data yourself

Darksky was only ever good marketing.

The UX was great but predictions were terrible. I swear the only people who liked it did so out of confirmation bias, which can affect anyone. Just a week ago here on HN, there were users here claiming Farmer's Almanac was accurate.

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