The short answers to how Weather for Dads works, why it sometimes disagrees with your usual app, and what all the buttons do.
Most weather apps show you one forecast and never tell you whether it was right. We do the opposite. Every few hours we record what each of our five sources predicted, and every hour we record what the weather actually did. Comparing the two gives us a real, running measure of how accurate each source has been, rather than a guess.
That scoring is the whole point of the app. It lets us lean on whichever source has genuinely been most reliable for your part of the country, instead of trusting one provider out of habit. The scores are still building up over the early weeks, and you can follow them on the accuracy page.
Because most apps show a single source. The BBC uses one provider, your iPhone uses Apple, and so on. Weather for Dads blends five, so when they disagree you get the honest middle rather than one confident guess. If four sources say dry and one says rain, we will tell you that, instead of hiding it.
Small differences are normal and usually come down to which exact spot the forecast is for. We use your precise location and show you the area and postcode we resolved it to, so you can check we have got the right place.
Each forecast has a blind spot. National models like the Met Office are excellent for the next few hours. Others, like YR, are stronger several days out. Apple is the only one with true minute-by-minute rain radar. Stack them together and the gaps mostly cover for each other, which is more reliable than betting on any single one.
A few reasons. It has no free tier for a public app like this, so adding it would mean paying commercial rates from day one. More importantly, it would not add a genuinely different view: AccuWeather mostly re-processes the same underlying models our five sources already draw on, so it would be a fifth voice that is not really a separate voice. It is also best known for very long-range forecasts, which have a shaky track record. We would rather have five genuinely independent methods than six that mostly agree by default.
Instead of making you read numbers, we turn the forecast into a plain answer for the things a dad actually wants to do. Each one gets a yes-now, a later-today, or a not-today, based on temperature, rain, and wind across the day. The garden beer never shows before midday, on principle.
It is the fifth signal that no model has: actual people standing in their actual gardens. Tap to report what it is really doing, and dads nearby get a heads-up, especially if rain is heading their way. We also use those reports to score the forecasts, so a source that says dry while everyone is getting rained on gets a black mark. Reports are anonymous and approximate; see the privacy page.
With your permission, the app uses your device location to fetch the forecast, then shows you the neighbourhood and postcode district it resolved, for example "New Malden Village, KT3", so you can confirm it is right. You can also type a postcode or place name instead. We never keep a history of where you have been. The full detail is on the privacy page.
Free, with no account, no sign-up, and no name or email required. There is nothing to log into.
Open the site in your phone's browser and add it to your home screen. On an iPhone, tap the Share button and then "Add to Home Screen". On Android, use the browser menu and tap "Add to Home screen" or "Install". It then opens like a normal app, straight to the forecast.
One a day, because a wet forecast goes down easier with a groan. You can vote on it, and on Sunday evening the week's winner is revealed.