If you used a smartphone in the 2010s and had an interest at all in weather alerts, you probably remember Dark Sky. The hyperlocal weather app earned a devoted following for its uncanny ability to predict rain down to the minute, right at your exact location — a genuinely useful trick that made it worth paying for, especially if you spent time outdoors or commuted on foot.
When Apple acquired it in 2020 and eventually shut it down on January 1, 2023, many of the app’s best features and qualities migrated into the standard iOS weather app most iPhone users have leaned on by default.
Now, after a stint working in-house at Apple, the same team that built Dark Sky is back — and this time, they’re taking a different swing at the forecast problem entirely.
From weather gods, to weather odds
Acme Weather, the new iOS app from the original Dark Sky team, takes a notably different philosophical approach to forecasting. Rather than presenting a single, confident prediction, the app shows users a spread of alternate possible futures alongside its primary forecast.
The thinking here is simple: weather is inherently uncertain, and pretending otherwise doesn’t serve the people relying on it.
In practice, this means the app surfaces what it calls “alternate possible futures.” Similar to the alternate routes Google Maps users are familiar with seeing, these additional forecast lines capture a range of plausible outcomes beyond the most likely one.
From an end-user’s POV, when those lines are tightly grouped, you can feel confident in the forecast. When they diverge significantly, the app is effectively telling you something is up, and conditions may shift in unexpected ways.
