[iPhone] ClearWeather shows the current temperature using color

There are a tremendous number of weather apps in the App Store, so a developer really needs to set theirs apart from the others in order to attract attention. ClearWeather does exactly this by using dynamic background colors to symbolize temperature ranges.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

ClearWeather houses all the typical weather information, but has a unique concept of symbolizing temperatures using background colors.

Pros

Colorful and user-friendly interface with excellent use of gestures
Different temperatures have different background colors
Current conditions
24-hour forecast in intervals of 3 hours
7-day forecast
Support for any location around the world
Provides local time for any weather location

Cons

No radar or maps of any kind
No notifications (i.e. severe weather)
No temperature badge
No detailed text forecast

Discussion

ClearWeather is a simple straightforward weather app with a lot of color. The app provides the typical current weather conditions in a nicely polished way, including the current time and date for any location around the world. It also includes a 24-hour forecast (in intervals of 3 hours) and a 7-day forecast, each on a different screen. If you like long detailed text forecasts, though, there aren’t any in ClearWeather as everything is short and sweet.

ClearWeather’s main allure, at least in terms of how the developer is trying to sell his app to users, is the dynamic color scheme used to symbolize the temperatures. Over the years, most weather stations have pretty much programmed our brains to recognize the color blue to mean cold and the orange/red to mean hot. That is exactly what direction the developer takes with ClearWeather, as the background color of the forecast data will change according to the temperature. It provides quite an interesting concept, because when I opened the app and saw the orange color, I immediately though that it would be warm. It has even more meaning when you look at the extended forecast screens and you can see temperature (and therefore color) changes by hour or day.

ClearWeather is all about gestures in terms of user control, as swiping up or down moves you to different forecast screens, as well as the app home screen. Swiping left or right will allow you to swap between weather in the different locations you added to the app. It provides a very smooth browsing experience that most users will enjoy.

In reality, this is the type of app that could be even more successful if it only had some other features. I am not looking to criticize ClearWeather, because the point of the app might very well be that is lightweight, but it is kind of difficult to put a weather app out there without at least some type of weather radar. Features like severe weather notifications and temperature badges are all very nice features, but not absolutely necessary to all users. Having to go to another app to see whether a storm is near your location is annoying to me, but maybe it isn’t to you.

Conclusion and download link

ClearWeather is a lightweight weather application with a splash of color. Even though the app lacks a weather radar and some other useful features, you will almost certainly enjoy the smooth gesture control and temperature color-coding that ClearWeather provides.

Price: $0.99

Version reviewed: 1.2