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Comment by learnstats2 | Hacker News Reader

They are radically better at very-short-term forecasting: I use forecast.io frequently for knowing when to take the dog for a walk etc.

I don't find them an improvement for medium-term or longer-term forecasting, and I continue to use other sources for these cases.

Good luck Dark Sky, keep improving :)

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For long-term (at least, how they did last month) is not in the top 5 (for 3 locations I checked, at least).

No problem with that; nice interface. This site compares various "weather providers" and compares how they did: http://forecastadvisor.com/

"Past Performance is Not Necessarily Indicative of Future Results"

I find SkyMotion's 2 hour precipitation forecast to be superior for the purpose of determining whether I should go out for an walk right now or not.

http://skymotion.com/

Very much so. I would use it to time to the minute when to leave on my motorcycle to avoid rain, but it's less accurate a couple days out. But it seems it usually fails pessimistic, which is just what I want to be prepared. (And frankly, with a name like Dark Sky, it's just what I would expect!)

I thought it was well-known that consumer weather forecasting is almost always pessimistic.

Forecasting sun when it rains generates complaints; the other way around, not so much.

Personally, I prefer it when they give percentages (which I assume are still pessimistic). The Met Office appears to forecast "rain" on a "30%" chance of precipitation.

Consider me one of the 10k learning that today :) It certainly makes sense to do so, but I had doubted it simply because of the many times people would argue with me about how "it wouldn't be that bad/cold/rainy". I assumed one should plan for the worst, but many liked to be reminded of bright days ahead.

YMMV and different strokes and all that.

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