WeatherBug – Weather Forecast Reviews

by BusterBrat

Weather bug will completely lock up your devices screen. When you try to open WeatherBug you’ll get a pop up giving you two choices 1. Give them permission to track you or 2. Ask them not to track you. Seriously, do you really think they won’t track you or track you less because you clicked ASK NOT TO TRACK. You have to click a choice which I refused. I tried to get out of WeatherBug and it had frozen my screen. It would not let me out. Even when I got to my apps to try to uninstall, I had to keep hitting the Home button to get to settings and continue to hit it as I scrolled to WeatherBug to attempt to uninstall from there since it wouldn’t allow an uninstall on the main screen. I still couldn’t uninstall it. I had to shut down my device then start it back up, then I was able to uninstall it without opening it and starting the same problem all over again. I understand that these free apps use advertisements to earn money. My issue is that they don’t even offer at least a 10 day trail period in which you could try WeatherBug out to see if it’s worth allowing them to track you. I wish these apps would offer an affordable yearly no tracking, no advertising plan. I would be willing to pay $15 to $20 yearly to not be tracked or bothered by annoying advertising. I also don’t appreciate an app that kidnaps my device with no other option but to completely shut down my device to get out of it and delete it. Not Cool Folks!!!!

by The Mr's Mrs.

Downloaded this app app about 2 weeks ago and really liked it and then... the update. Initially, I was quite impressed and pleased with the push notification weather alerts for severe weather. I especially liked that the weather alerts would push to my phone at least 15 minutes before any of my other - even local - weather apps and that they even had a “dangerous storm warning” notification, which was correct each time I received it. The widget worked wonderfully as well and was probably my second favorite feature.

Enter the update. Dun dun DUUUNNNN! It completely killed everything I enjoyed and appreciated about WeatherBug . I’ve not received a single push notification since nor has the widget been functional despite deleting WeatherBug and all its data from both my phone and AppStore account. The widget simply asks that I open WeatherBug and agree to TOU and PP, which is not even an option. You agree to the TOU upon initial launch of WeatherBug but that does not give the widget functionality. I also dislike that I am unable to remove the township that WeatherBug has deemed my home/current location and set it to the correct area as it is mistakenly locating me in another town.

Sadly and disappointedly I am deleting WeatherBug permanently unless the next version, which seem to be released monthly, remedies these debilitating flaws and restores WeatherBug to its previous performance and reliability.

by Mutmadison

READ THE PRIVACY POLICY AND TOA. It’s lengthy, I know, it’s intentional to dissuade people from reading and understanding it. It’s worth the 5-7 minutes of your life, I promise.

Apparently, it’s too much to ask for a simple weather app in 2019 without subjecting yourself to risks known and unknown; all completely out of your control and all so a company can make a profit at the literal expense of its consumers who are the real product. If you have zero concerns with being tracked 24/7 and your precise location being shared; don’t care about your information being monetized and sold to third party sellers whose intentions you know nothing about; unfazed by the strong possibility of your information being leaked and misused; apathetic to your information being sold numerous times a day; or disinterested in the extensive and intrusive methods used in this economic model then, by all means, disregard this review and enjoy your weather app. Personally, I’ll be checking the weather manually from a browser since the weather app industry has proven themselves to be untrustworthy and not at all concerned with consumers (you know, actual human beings) or their privacy. All of this just so people can sell you crap. This truly is the darkest timeline.

All I wanted to do is check the weather...

by Beansy Baby

As many of you know, and clearly WeatherBug was aware, there was a hurricane that affected the Carolinas etc. Once upon a time I loved WeatherBug, but since this hurricane hit, I cannot believe how repetitive and unhelpful WeatherBug was. I got CONSTANT notifications about extended hurricane statements, flash flood statements, and tornado statements. Those are all well and good THE FIRST TIME THEY ARE ISSUED. I had 15+ notifications while trying to conserve phone battery, I eventually turned them off. They also arrived 10+ mins later than TWC (which could be service provider related but not the point of this rant).
What would have been most helpful this app, would have been actual storm updates. We had no power, no radio (our own fault) and couldn’t load a single app to see the radar, but thank god notifications came through.... giving us location/wind speed/ANYTHING useful would have been better.
Don’t get rid of the statement updates completely.. maybe just start them as indefinite when there is a hurricane present.
LASTLY, the notification that said: “Florence made landfall Friday in North Carolina! Watch the latest footage of the storm on this app.” FORGET YOU. I LIVED THROUGH IT, had a tree fall on the roof while I was trying to sleep I KNOW A HURRICANE CAME THROUGH THATS INSENSITIVE AND UNFREAKINGHELPFUL.
I have screen shots to prove all of this.

by Xlemnrty

Is it me, or are others experiencing the same issues of inaccurate, not up-to-date weather no matter what app? It seems they all use the same local stations that must be very delayed in their updates to the various apps. Seriously ALWAYS off several degrees, and as for precipitation percentages, they’re so useless, I have begun to laugh at my own gullibility. A couple of mornings ago was so typical ... I wanted to take a bike ride and began looking at the forecast the prior evening showing ZERO chance of rain the next morning. Re-checked the next morning, and same ZERO % chance so I got dressed for my ride, pumped my tires, raised the garage door, when it began to rain ALL DAY. I re-checked the forecast an hour or so later, and the entire hourly forecast had changed. THE KICKER is that this same app has the audacity to provide a TEN DAY forecast 🤣🤣🤣. And almost as bad ... my gullibility to keep checking 🤔🤔🤔. Anyway, I think I’ll go back to the “stick my head out the door” method ... it’s more predictable. I get a bit of a chuckle when folks compare the presentation of info in reviews ... who cares about presentation if the data is unusable. Again ... this doesn’t seem to be a this app only issue as I have had the same experience with all four of the apps I’ve tried. It seems that the OLD-fashioned TV weather reports are more accurate the night before than the purported “real-time” weather apps.

by Phaser6000

I have to say, I’ve tried this app and AccuWeather . I find the this app interface to work nicely, things are in places that make sense and the information is displayed in a sensible way . What I do not enjoy is the exclamation mark telling me about weather alerts constantly , only to tap and find out it’s just alerting me to the fact that “some roads will be wet” . Of course some roads may be wet, the weather predictions say it’s going to rain! That is not an alert and forces me to just ignore the alert symbol entirely . I would like to be able to disable the commuter alert entirely, it’s pointless. Second, the “daily precip” alert… also pointless. The whole point of WeatherBug is to see the weather prediction… I open, check todays prediction hourly or the 10 day … seeing the red exclamation mark again, I check only to see a so called “alert” that just tells me rain is expected and to check the forecast . That is not an alert and completely defeats the point of having an alert show up, it’s basically the boy who cried wolf because it’s almost always displaying one of these “alerts” .

Edit: Well, I look stupid. You can just turn the commuter and daily precip alerts off , but it’s per location and I have looked for this option before and either somehow missed it or they have changed it in an update somewhere along the line .

by Angelscry2o

I have pins down to watch the weather where I really need to know due to family locations and myself. Today I received a notification stating lightning within 10 miles of a pin. So I open WeatherBug to see what was going on. I then send a text to my daughter and asked her if she was enjoying the rain, cause the pin I’ve placed is within 500 ft of her exact location and because the map showed dead on she was getting rain. She replied back it hasn’t rained all day and sent me a pic of the sun shining and ground/pavement bone dry. I sent her a screenshot and she said I need a new weather app cause it’s not accurate to say the least. I’ve been using weather bug a couple years now and prefer it over others. But I really need a more accurate look at the weather in real time. On of my pins is where I have a storage unit that has high tornado possibilities. I need that so I’ll know when and if my belongings get damaged to file a claim with insurance. But my main concerns are my children, grandchildren and other family members. If their internet goes down I’ll never know until after the fact. Please fix this issue ASAP! Thanks

by Brad34785

When I first downloaded WeatherBug several years ago it used to load information much faster, and more consistently. Now, many years and updates later, it rarely even loads any information when i am connected to wifi. WeatherBug will open and load the temperature on the home (default) screen when connected to wifi, but I have to turn off the wifi on my iphone, ensure I am connected to my cellular network, and switch between the “now”, “hourly”, and “10 Day” tabs in order to get WeatherBug to load information. It started doing this over a year ago. Initially I thought my Wi-Fi connection at home was just poor, but it turns out that I have the same problem connected to any Wi-Fi signal. I have also had this problem with 2 separate iphones. I occasionally delete WeatherBug and redownload it just to see if the problem may be a fluke, but I always end up with the same problem. This used to be my favorite weather app, but now I am exploring other apps because of my frustration with this issue. I still love the weather bug app, and in my opinion it has the very best radar maps of any app available. I just hate having to go through so many steps in order to get WeatherBug to function the way it is intended to. Please fix this!!!!!

by Laila Jenkins

i’ve been using weather bug for several years now and it definitely my favorite (i also have the NOAA Weather app and Dark Sky). however, i something i wish would go back to how it used to be is on the Alerts map layer. i live in the midwest so there are lots of severe thunderstorms and frequent tornado risk, so i really rely on that map layer. when i first got WeatherBug , the Alerts layer had a key for what the colors and lines meant (severe thunderstorm alert, flash flood watch, tornado watch, etc.) but for the last year or so it seems, that key disappeared and i don’t know what some of the colors mean. i can usually infer for flash flood or thunderstorm based on the radar, but that’s actually something that’s frustrating, since i don’t know what they all mean. pretty sure the key disappeared for other layers too, but those are less important to know specifically what they mean (id like to know when and where tornado watches are), and are easier to guess about.

idk if that’s just an issue on my end (don’t think i changed any settings tho), or if WeatherBug actually changed, but if that was fixed or changed back to having the key, this would absolutely be 5 stars, since it’s still my favorite weather app.

by Choirgirl1018

So I recently updated to IOS14, and ever since then, i can't find the this app widget anywhere. This is super disappointing because I'm a huge weather erd and like to stay up to date quickly with the features offered to me through that widget. I also use voiceover witch is a built in screenreader on my iPhone made for people with visual impairments, and your app and widget are fully accessible and i've been a long time user of your app. I'd just really like my widget back. I know that this might be an IOS14 thing, but could you guys please update so that all IOS14 users and I can use your widget again? Like i said, i find it super helpful, and now that IOS14 allows me to put widgets directly on the home screen, I was really looking foreword to being abled to see the weather at a glance on my home screen and using the widget more. If and when you guys bring it back, could you put a little thing in there for current conditions other than temperature (ex: sunny, cloudy, 50% chance of storms). That would also be really helpful. Thanks for making such a great app and I hope you can fix this.

by Evan.cooperman

this app is a decent app and I can’t decide whether to give it 3 or 4 stars. I guess I’ll go with 4 because I have only 1 major complaint, though it does bother the heck out of me.

I use this app for my weather most of the time, but one of the biggest complaints I have is that it does not update throughout the day. For example if the forecast is 75 degrees and sunny but it’s only 60 degrees and is raining, WeatherBug accurately displays the temperature and weather as of this moment, but the forecast doesn’t update to take the changes into account. If it’s 5:59pm and it’s 60 degrees and raining, obviously at 6:00pm it’s not going to be 75 degrees and sunny!

If WeatherBug would update with new data based on unforeseen weather patterns I would be much happier with it and would probably update to 5 stars. That, and if somehow they could figure out how to forecast more accurately! I know that is a bigger and more global problem to solve, and is not limited to WeatherBug, but here in Chicago the forecast is maybe correct (or close to correct) 50% of the time. I feel like it’s gotten worse over the years, but that’s probably just because our weather has gotten more erratic and is harder to predict now than it used to be.

by Lolly Baa

So years ago when my dad first got a new phone, he needed a weather app put on his phone. I downloaded this one because it was the first one I saw. Never thought about it again. Come to summer 2020, I start lifeguarding and therefore, we have to watch out for lightening and mile radius this and that. All my coworkers told me to download WeatherBug because it gives accurate readings on how far a storm/lightening is. It SURE did live up to the standard!! Every day during the summer, and during the winter as well, we would watch WeatherBug religiously to check for lightening to keep patrons safe. I eventually started using WeatherBug for personal use outside of work, because it gives accurate weekly forecast, a week in advance so you pretty much always know what’s coming. I have 4 stars only because sometimes it does take a minute to load. And is hard because it doesn’t even SHOW it’s loading (with a little wheel or percent or anything) it just sits there and blanks until it pulls up which can be frustrating. But other than that, WOULD RECOMMEND!

by TexGreenEyes

This has been my go-to weather app for years. It gets used multiple times a day, and has never given a hint of trouble. Scratch the glowing praises now because with this last update WeatherBug crashes on start-up. I followed the developer’s advice found in a response to someone else’s recent complaint and deleted/re-downloaded WeatherBug . Bad idea. WeatherBug started up once, and then promptly stopped working again, and I lost all my settings for no good reason. Come on, guys. Don’t let such a good app cause this much frustration. The second star I’m giving is based on my hope that you’ll get this fixed ASAP.

Update: Shortly after I posted my review WeatherBug started working as expected. Then this morning, just 3 days later, it’s back to crashing at startup. I do not want to uninstall/reinstall again, as I did that before you suggested it in response to my original review. It didn’t work then. I hope this usually excellent app is mended soon.

Update #2: It’s been about a week since my first update, and while WeatherBug is working better, it still occasionally crashes at startup. This happens about once every other day. I don’t know if it’s related, but the problem seems to occur when I first open WeatherBug and I’m not on wifi. Anyway, I’ve updated my stars accordingly.

by HomemadePancakes

I’ve been using WeatherBug for a few months and find it to be the best app for tracking air quality. I love that WeatherBug can track AQ in ANY part of the world no matter how small or unknown the town/city is. This is a distinctive feature that the other “top rated” AQ apps lack and this to me is a huge disadvantage for them. I’d been living in a very small town in Mexico recently for 4 months and unfortunately became very ill from the air quality. I discovered Weather Bug and began to track the AQ daily and take necessary precautions as this was my first time traveling to Mexico much less anywhere outside the US. The fact that no other app was able to locate where I was living was a MAJOR let down. Weather Bug is easy to use, and gives real time AQ indexes as well as any other weather alerts and things I look for in an AQ app. If the other AQ app developers decide to improve their global location capabilities then I’ll be willing to check them out. Until then I rely on Weather Bug every single day for important AQ information in ANY town or city in the world. 👌🏻

by Maddflower

on memorial day, ohio had a really scary tornado outbreak and i'm lucky enough to have survived through it without being hit by one. i came across WeatherBug with my anxiety getting the better of me due to an extreme fear of tornadoes, but i can confidently say i'm happy i found it! it is extremely useful and very interesting to look on the radar. i love the alerts that it provides and they are VERY helpful. thanks for this great app!

in light of these tornadoes in ohio, though, i really wish that i could be more reliable on WeatherBug with where the tornadoes are and if they have hit where i live. i'm on vacation without my family that lives there and last night when more hit was scary because i did not have a reliable source to where the tornadoes actually were and if my family was safe. i'm very happy with WeatherBug and i suppose it can't cover everything but it would have been really helpful to be able to track those tornadoes while it was happening!

thank you anyways for such an amazing app, it has been really helpful and fun to mess around with. :)

by A Wheels Weather

I used this app for the two years that I lived in South Florida, and for these past two years in North Carolina. When I first moved to Florida I did try some other apps and they just were not good enough. I am very reliant on having weather information and this app has been a really great help. I especially appreciate the Lightning tracker! It’s helped keep me safe for sure. It has a lot of other very useful information too. I can also keep track of weather, fires, etc., in other cities/regions where my family lives. It has a very user friendly interface and I can set up the home screen in the order I prefer. I also LOVE the short mostly weather-centric videos of people, animals, and landscapes that I probably would never otherwise see. I use it every single day and I’ve never had any issues with it. The past couple days it’s been loading a little slower than usual, but that happens from time to time with most apps. Not a big deal. I have recommended WeatherBug to family and friends because it’s a good one!

by TeriMelissa

I’ve been using the Bug since I got my very first iPhone. It zeroes in on my exact weather happening in the moment. There are many pinging spots near almost anywhere to give a good triangulation for my personal weather conditions within a few miles. The radar is easy to understand and accurate. The future casts are as accurate as I’ve ever seen ...and much better than even my 3 local meteorologists on tv. Even as far out as the 10 day forecast I know I can be ready for what may be coming. Where I live the weather is unpredictable moment to moment but this app stays on top of the quick changes. I love the storm tracker showing dangerous situations like nearby lighting and all severe weather threats. The UV rating, pollen counts and air quality reports are important to me as I am really fair, have severe allergies and asthma. The heads up to make sure I have the proper preventative meds/sunscreen make my outside time much more enjoyable. this app is an app I use daily; sometimes several times a day. I highly recommend it to everyone!

by App User From First User

I use this app to plan my days work and all my time relaxing and traveling and vacations. Basically I use this app for all my complete days!!!!
{On a personal note}
I have had this app since this app came out until today and your this app App.
And since that day was the best correct app. for anyone that uses WeatherBug. will be happy for planning there days. If your days have to be done safely and on time to complete your full days you will be a completely guaranteed and satisfied with your days work, relaxing, and your vacation’s will and your everyday commuting everywhere you go. I have tested this app since they began until today and the this app was correct time on all reports and was an accurate forecast every time you use WeatherBug. just like I have been every time and you will have the same as I have. Never been off no more than a hour before are an hour after which we are still working on without any problems because you planned your days with this app guarantee.

by MoppyDrunk.jr

this app is great! I feel like every possible weather related issue is addressed in this powerful little app. Information is easy to find, the home screen makes quick work of being able to check multiple weather related items.

Noteable features:
- Easy to check the weather in different locations. This is very useful if you are a frequent traveler. We add the location to which we are traveling and can easily keep an eye on the weather before we go.
- Lightning Information. We have a pool and we check this frequently. It is right there at the push of a button, very quick and easy.
- Detailed breakdown of the forecast. You are able to check the weather for the entire day, hourly, and even get a detailed rundown of the weather.
- Easy access to weather alerts. This information is also easily accessible at just the push of a button. We are able to quickly check for tornadoes, flash flooding, etc.
- Weather related videos. These are an interesting, fun little addition to WeatherBug . Videos showing cool weather related things that people have captured and videos of current weather related disasters around the country.
- Easy access to check fires around the globe. Thankfully this isn’t a feature we need to use, but it is worth noting how quickly you are able to check this information.

This is my family’s “go to” weather app. We’ve been using it for years and have never felt the need to look for something else.

by LMcPH

WeatherBug gives you tons of information especially for a free app. In some ways it’s better then the other weather apps out there. It even does one thing that I’ve not found any of the other apps can do. It will give you the heat index even in the hourly mode. Just click on hourly and then click on the time you are looking for. I’m sure they are estimated versions of heat index, but it certainly helps to plan what time if day you might want to do those outside things.

Only thing I could find as a negative is so small that it’s barely worth mentioning-it doesn’t move between cities as easily as other weather apps. Like I said barely worth mentioning.

I have found it to be more accurate then some of the other weather apps out there. I especially find that the heat index to be very accurate in the moment, and helpful in the estimated future times. I live in Texas and in the summer it’s very important to know the heat index. Bottomline: This weather app is worth your time to get. I’ve got the free version and it’s truly amazing.

by Reenee17

Sad to say, one year later, it's still not accurate for Loxahatchee, Florida. It is not reliable for folks who are attending sports events in our area, when alerts for lightening are necessary. Please fix this.

I used to love WeatherBug, especially for monitoring storms and proximity of lightening. Unfortunately, it no longer has a base location close to where I live. The closest area is 12 miles away, and only tells me how many miles away the lightening strikes are from THAT area instead of from where I'm standing. I do live in a rural, unincorporated area, but even on WiFi, my current pinned location is not accurate. This is not helpful in monitoring lightening while I'm standing on the soccer field or out riding my bike in MY neighborhood. What is going on 12 miles away anywhere in Florida can be drastically different where I am standing. We were in the middle of a bad electrical storm right over us, and WeatherBug was telling me closest strike from another location 12 miles away and showed no immediate alerts. Very bummed. Others should be aware that some areas really are not covered, but doppler can at least give you an idea if a storm is moving towards or away from you. But any news channel doppler can also show you that.

by QuestForAwesome

this app does everything well, especially getting you your notifications, except one thing: notifying and informing you about special weather statements. These are kind of like miscellaneous statements the weather offices put out that contain information they think you need to know, but don’t qualify as a watch or a warning. They’re valuable, but this app doesn’t notify me when one is issued and they don’t show up anywhere in WeatherBug at all. For example, we have a special weather statement informing us that there’s a hard frost coming our way for the first time this season, but this app seems oblivious. I have to find out things like this from other sources, and I’m really surprised this app doesn’t include it. I’m writing this review just to ask if you would please fix this, give alerts for all weather notifications, and show them on the map. It would easily be a 5-star app otherwise. The only other thing I’d like to see is an option for the 10-day forecast to be displayed as a continuous graph, with lines through the days going up/down for various things like rain chances, temperature, wind, etc.

by BionicRonda66

I love the this app app & have been using it as my “go-to” weather app for a few years now. I like the way it’s set up and very easy to navigate!! Whether you simply want to see the current temperature in your city, or look at the 10 day forecast for ANY OTHER CITY in the WORLD, it’s always
very fast, accurate and up-to-date.
this app also offers alot of other information that I find useful, such as pollen counts, alerts for any dangerous weather that might be headed your way and much more (including a few new video clips each day that mostly relate to strange weather, but there are also some amazing animal videos thrown in that are just fun to watch)!! I’ve always used WeatherBug on an iPhone, now on the iPhone XR, and can truthfully say that I’ve never had a single problem with its performance...it seems to run flawlessly, which, for me, is an extremely important feature for an app
that reports the weather. So, to sum this up, I would highly recommend that everyone gives it a try...it works great and it’s FREE so you have nothing to lose!!

by W0LF1E_B00M

First off I want to start by saying that WeatherBug is accurate. I live in a place that gets nasty snowstorms, and its nice to know in advance when I should be prepared to shovel the driveway or get out the snow gear. The radar is really good and I enjoy watching it while I watch the storm on my covered front porch. The one thing I'm not a huge fan of is the ads, but the makers of WeatherBug beed to make money somehow so it’s understandable. But my favorite part is how you can customize the page so whatever you want to show up towards the top, will show up towards the top. I must say, i have had three other apps and with this one, the alerts are on parr with what the national weather service applies to your location. Last thing ( I promise !) Is that when an alert is issued to one of the locations i have set, it sends me a notification even if its not the location i have pulled up on the home page. So i get a LOT of weather notifications, once again, its manageable though and interesting to see what the weather is doing at the other locations! That you for taking time to read this and happy holidays!

by Queen Be-ach

There are a lot of weather apps out there. I think I’ve tried them all. this app has always come out on top! I live in Florida where they say, “If you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes!” This is so true. I know I can count on WeatherBug to help me plan my day. It is easy to set use! I honestly cannot remember a time when this app has let me down. I’ve not experienced any glitches or freezing as I have on other apps. Its accuracy is greatly appreciated, but my favorite feature is being able to watch the lightning strikes in real time. Lightning has struck in our backyard twice in the last few years, once splitting my favorite magnolia tree (about 30 feet from the back porch) down the middle. Ever since, I keep my mobile phone on me so I know how close the lightning is. (I was on the back porch watching the storm when the lightning hit the tree. It was a “hair-raising experience. Now I move inside when this app tells me lightning is within 10 miles.) Get WeatherBug . You won’t be sorry.