The best weather app is already on your computer and you don’t know it: it’s the most accurate

Finding the best weather app can be harder than it seems. Not only is meteorology not an exact science, but depending on our needs, some services are more precise than others. Ultimately, many users either settle for the default app on their phone, like Google’s Weather app, or install an app that may not completely cover their needs.

What many people may not know is that you don’t need to install anything to get the best weather forecast; And we don’t say it, this is an independent study by ForecastWatch, which compares different weather applications each year to find the best. And this year, like the previous one, had a clear winner: Microsoft.

Indeed, Microsoft not only has a weather application, it is also the best according to experts. This is something you might not know, but If you are using Windows 11, you already have this app

These Microsoft weather forecasts are also available in its other applications and services. For example, the Microsoft Start app for Android also uses these weather forecasts. we can have it on our mobile instead of the one we usually use. And it is also available on the Microsoft home page, accessible from the browser and which Microsoft Edge offers as an option in its new tabs.

The difficulty in winning the ForecastWatch study is that it does not rely on a single factor to decide which service is best, but in 13 different metrics which are important to users. Among the forecasts the apps had to make were minimum and maximum temperatures, cloud forecast, and forecast between 1 and 5 days. Also included are metrics that may be niche, but are important to many users, such as wind speed. The final score depended on factors such as the margin of error regarding the actual weather.

Based on this, the weather app Microsoft managed to win in 7 of 13 metrics that they were measured, and that they did so with great advantage; In the rest of the categories it held high positions, many in second place, but no other service came close. This isn’t really a big surprise, since Microsoft’s service also won last year; but this year the situation was 11% better and the gap to second place increased by 4%.

Microsoft’s secret, of course, lies in artificial intelligence, although that is not the only factor. The company replaced the traditionally used prediction method, based on complex simulations run on supercomputers, with one based on a large amount of data processed by a machine learning model. The data includes large-scale computer models, topographical information and even real-time reporting.

Based on this, Microsoft’s weather app is able to offer up-to-the-minute rain forecasts, enhanced cloud forecasts, and highly accurate forecasts for up to a month. The application is also extremely complete, offering a large amount of information on all types of parameters. One of the most interesting functions is the map, which displays information about temperature, weather, precipitation and air quality, and we can see it in 3D. It is also possible to specifically choose the point at which you want to obtain the weather forecast so that it is as accurate as possible.