Apple / weather / WEATHERBUG: WEATHER FORECAST
REVIEW
WeatherBug still wins on lightning, even after the screen got noisier.
Spark proximity alerts and a 16-layer interactive map remain the reasons to install. The ad load and the tracking prompt on launch are the reasons people uninstall.
BY THE APP COMRADE DESK · MAY 10, 2026 · 4 MIN READ
WeatherBug: Weather Forecast
WEATHERBUG
OUR SCORE
7.2
APPLE
★ 4.8
PRICE
Free
Most weather apps fight over the same NOAA feed and lose on the wrapping. WeatherBug took a different bet a long time ago: build a proprietary lightning-detection network, then make the app it feeds the only place you can read it on your phone. Two decades and one Earth Networks era later, that bet is still the reason to install it.
The rest of the app has gotten louder along the way. The ad inventory is heavy, the tracking prompt fires on first launch, and the App Store reviews are dotted with users flagging scam creatives that the network should be catching. None of that has dented the core: Spark proximity alerts, a fast 16-layer radar, and a free tier that doesn’t wall off the map. For a specific kind of user — anyone who’d rather know a strike landed two miles away than wait for a generic storm warning — that tradeoff is still worth making.
Spark turns the phone into a personal lightning detector — minute-by-minute, mile-by-mile — and almost nothing else in the App Store touches it.
FEATURES
The current build leads with a hyperlocal current-conditions card, a 10-day forecast, an hourly strip, and the full menu of NOAA watches and warnings piped through as push alerts. The forecast rolls up data from the company's lineage with Earth Networks, which still operates the Total Lightning Network behind the scenes.
Spark is the headline feature and the reason most long-time users stay. It reports the distance to the nearest lightning strike in real time and pushes a proximity alert when one lands inside a radius you set. The interactive map carries 16-plus layers — Doppler, Future Radar, lightning, pollen, severe-storm risk, precipitation type, satellite, traffic — and the layer toggles are quick enough to actually flip between on a moving storm.
The app is free and ad-supported. WeatherBug Elite, sold separately on the App Store, is the ad-free paid sibling for users who want the same data without the inventory.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Spark is genuinely good. Apple's stock Weather app surfaces "Possible thunderstorm" half an hour out; WeatherBug tells you a strike just hit 4.2 miles away, then 2.8 miles, then 1.1 miles. For anyone who runs, sails, coaches outdoor sports, or works on a roof, that gap is the entire point of installing a third-party weather app.
The map performance is the quiet second win. Animated radar loads quickly, layer switches don't stall, and the severe-weather overlays are legible at the zoom level you actually use. The free tier surfaces all of it without a paywall on the radar itself, which is no longer the norm in this category.
ROOM TO IMPROVE
The ad experience is the friction. The launch tracking prompt is mandatory, the in-app banners are constant, and the App Store reviews are full of users flagging fake-prize and scam interstitials slipping through the network — the kind of inventory you'd hope a weather app would screen harder. Crashes after recent updates are a recurring complaint too, with reinstalls wiping saved locations.
The forecast itself is competent rather than distinctive. Carrot Weather wraps the same NWS feed in a better UI, Weather Underground's PWS network gives more granular hyperlocal accuracy, and AccuWeather's MinuteCast is a tighter near-term experience. WeatherBug wins on lightning and loses, mildly, on everything else.
CONCLUSION
Install WeatherBug if you need lightning proximity alerts and don't want to pay — there is no real alternative at the price. If the ads bother you, jump straight to Elite rather than tolerate the free tier. If you don't care about lightning specifically, Carrot Weather or the stock Apple app will give you a calmer screen for the same forecast.