Dark Sky acquired by Apple

[Anonymous]

I just saw the announcement that Dark Sky was acquired by Apple. The API access looks like it’s good until the end of next year. Then it will be cut off.

Have you guys had a chance to think about an alternative weather provider yet? I know you just set Dark Sky up, and that was after Weather Underground, but it looks like you’ve got to look at another API.

[Ray]

Yes, we are aware of this. It seems reliable and relatively low-cost weather services don’t stick around very long. They get acquired by big companies left and right. Yes we will probably have to look into another weather service. Prior to adopting DarkSky we have used OpenWeatherMap for a while — it was ok but people have complained about the data accuracy. We will have a year to figure this out and find an alternative.

[bensweet]

Has any progress been made in the weather service space since DarkSky could (and probably will) be turned off at the end of the year?
I took another look at OpenWeatherMap and their API data but for me it was still very inaccurate compared the DarkSky or other weather services – for Australian weather.
Interested to see that OWM now have a free plan similar to what WU used to have, from memory they were missing historical data previously with their free plan?
There are a few others – Climacell, Visualcrossing?

[Michael]

Since I’m thinking about re-activating my opensprinkler, I thought I’d chime in.
I’ve been comparing my own weather data to OWM and Climacell for quite a while now and must say that both are equally bad. Big jumps in temperature (and especially humidity), mostly. Not comparable in quality to DarkSky by a mile (yes, I’m also sad that will go away).

Rain is difficult to say as it’s usually thunderstorms around here, and those tend to be rather localized.

-Mike

[Ray]

A quick update that DarkSky seems to have extended their API support by another year to the end of 2022:
https://blog.darksky.net/

[James Martion]

its australia specific, but what about the public funded BOM api? well maybe not an API so much as an FTP data source.

for example, getting evapotranspiration figures, you go here — ftp://ftp.bom.gov.au/anon/gen/clim_data/IDCKWCDEA0/tables/wa/perth_airport/perth_airport-202108.csv

the IDK… defines the product.. the clim_data defines the category as per http://reg.bom.gov.au/catalogue/anon-ftp.shtml

could this be used as a post-dark sky thing in the years to come?

[Author]

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