But if you thought that the Weather app for iPhone is only designed to tell you the current temperature and weather conditions in your area, you might want to think again. It’s actually a treasure trove of weather information, offering much more than just standard details. In fact, it includes at least 10 different data points, such as air quality, wind speed, UV index, humidity, and even visibility.
Under the hood, it has several other cool features you might not even have realized existed. We’ll show you four of these hidden features to help you get the most out of the Weather app for iPhone.
Monitor the lunar phases.
For added convenience, the iPhone Weather app also comes with a moon phase calendar. Here you will see what the phase of the moon is for certain days and on which days the new and full moons fall. This allows you to plan your coastal or skywatching activity more effectively. You can also select any day from the calendar to check the moon details for that day. If you need to refer to the previous month or plan for the next month, the Weather app for iPhone also offers a moon phase calendar for those months.
To view all this information, go to the Weather app home screen and scroll down until you see an image of the moon. This image represents the current phase of the moon. Tap the thumbnail to see lunar details and the calendar.
Check the weather conditions from your home screen and lock screen.
- Go to your lock screen.
- Touch and hold a space.
- Tap Customize.
- Tap Add Widgets.
- Go to Weather.
- Choose which widget to put on your lock screen. Options include temperature, conditions, UV index, sunrise and sunset, moon phase, precipitation, wind, and air quality. Depending on the widgets you have chosen, you can add up to three or four.
- Tap outside the widgets panel.
- Tap Done in the upper right corner.
You should then see the widgets every time you wake up your screen. If Always On Display is enabled, widgets will also appear there. To pin Weather widgets to your home screen, simply long-press on the home screen, tap Edit, and select Add widget. Open Weather from the menu to view all available widgets. However, compared to lock screen widgets, the Weather app’s home screen widgets are more limited. You only have current forecasts, current weather details (UV index, wind, precipitation, temperature), hourly forecasts, daily forecasts, detailed multi-day forecasts, and sunrise and sunset times.
Receive rain alerts for the next hour.
- On the Weather app home page, tap the list icon in the lower right corner.
- Select the plus icon (three dots) at the top right.
- Go to Notifications.
- When prompted, tap Continue to grant the Weather app the necessary permissions.
- Tap your location.
- Enable precipitation for the next hour.
- Tap the checkmark to return to the list of locations.
If you don’t see your location or the Precipitation in the Next Hour option, your location probably doesn’t support it. As of May 2026, this feature is only available in select countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, and Ireland. In some locations, you can ask your iPhone to warn you about bad weather. Besides notifications, the Weather app also shows you minute-by-minute rain forecasts for the next hour for a specific location. For example, you might receive a message saying: “Rain is expected to stop in 3 minutes and start again 11 minutes later” or “Chance of light rain in the next hour.”
Interact with a global weather map
To open this map, go to the Weather app home screen and tap the map icon in the lower left corner. You will then see an interactive world map with the specific forecast data overlaid. To read the map, refer to the color legend on the left of the screen. It shows you which color corresponds to a specific value. For example, on the temperature map, -40 degrees Fahrenheit appears purple, 30 degrees Fahrenheit appears blue, 90 degrees Fahrenheit appears red-orange, and 130 degrees Fahrenheit appears dark red. Keep in mind that some data, such as air quality, is not available everywhere, so some locations will appear colorless.
You can easily switch between weather data types by tapping the layers icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and selecting an option from the menu. For precipitation and wind maps, a forecast timeline will appear at the bottom. You can navigate the timeline manually or let it run automatically.
