Weather app to gain severe weather alerts, next-hour precipitation tracking

Weather app on iPhone 5s
Weather app on iPhone 5s (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • The Weather app is getting some much-needed updates in iOS 14.
  • Apple is adding severe weather alerts, next hour precipitation tracking, and more.
  • The new features are most likely related to Apple's acquisition of the Dark Sky weather app.

One of the apps that did not get much love during the keynote of WWDC was the Weather app, but it appears that Apple is quietly bringing some major new features to the app.

According to the features section of the iOS 14 preview, Apple is adding four new features to the app.

The first is what Apple calls "Next Hour Precipitation", which will show the intensity of precipitation over the next hour in your local area. It appears that the feature will be limited to the United States at launch.

"View a minute‑by‑minute chart that shows the intensity of rain or snow over the coming hour. Available for the U.S."

Apple is also adding severe weather alerts for the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada, and Australia.

"The Weather app and widgets display government alerts about certain severe weather events including tornados, winter storms, flash floods, and more. Available for the U.S., Europe, Japan, Canada, and Australia."

"Significant Shifts" will show users when the weather is planning on changing drastically in the next 24 hours.

"The Weather widget indicates when the weather will be much warmer, colder, or wetter in the next day."

Apple is also now including the chance of precipitation in the multi-day forecast.

"The multi-day weather forecast now includes the chance of precipitation for each day."

These new features are most likely related to Apple's recent acquisition of the Dark Sky weather app. As Apple continues to integrate Dark Sky's technology, we should continue to see even more features come to the app.

Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.