Apple’s Weather app is working again for now, but has the issue been fixed?

If you’re like us, one of the first things you do every morning is check the weather app on your iPhone. If it returned a blank screen this morning, it’s not a problem with your Wi-Fi — Apple’s systems have been having serious problems all day. But after more than half a day of intermittent outages, service has been restored. However, it remains to be seen whether the Weather app itself requires a larger overhaul to prevent this from happening again.

According to Apple’s System Status page earlier Tuesday, the Weather app had “ongoing” problems as of 11 p.m. ET Monday, and the service “may be slow or unreliable.” Apple notes that “some users have been affected,” but based on anecdotal evidence — including Macworld’s own experience — the issue appeared to be fairly widespread. It also seemed to affect the weather widget, which displayed “No weather data” even when the weather was displayed correctly in the app.

Apple responded to questions on Twitter with a message saying they are “currently working on a solution for the Weather app outage and will post an update online.” Later in the afternoon, Apple’s status page was green and the warning indicator had been removed.

Thank you for your patience. We are currently working on a fix for the Weather app crashing and will post an update online here: https://t.co/waNYZdXpJm

Please send us a Direct Message if you have any additional questions. https://t.co/GDrqU22YpT

— Apple Support (@AppleSupport) April 4, 2023

Several Macworld employees have experienced problems with the Weather app over the past few weeks. Sometimes, the app is slow to load or doesn’t load at all. Quitting the app and re-opening has been a quick fix, but even that doesn’t always work. So while Apple has given us the green light (literally, it’s no longer yellow on Apple’s status page), it’s not clear if a bigger overhaul of the app isn’t needed. Several reports suggested that an iOS 16.4.1 update may be imminent to fix the underlying problem which has reportedly been around for weeks. Apple doesn’t update its apps independently of the system, so any fixes will have to arrive as part of an iOS update.

Of course, it’s not the end of the world as there are multiple ways to get weather conditions and forecasts on your phone. However, after Apple shut down the popular Dark Sky app on January 1, the stock iOS Weather app — which picked up many of the Dark Sky features — is likely to be the primary source for weather information for many more users. So while it’s working now, we’ll be on the lookout for potential storms on the horizon.