Outdoor plans
Check whether rain or snow is likely to start, stop, or change intensity around a specific location.
Independent tool overview
Rainbow Weather at a glance
Rainbow Weather is a hyperlocal weather app and API platform focused on minute-by-minute precipitation nowcasts, radar, alerts, and global weather data.
Visit the official Rainbow Weather site ↗
- Product type
- Consumer weather app and developer API
- Core specialty
- Minute-by-minute precipitation nowcasting
- Platforms
- iOS, Android, web map, and API
- Nowcast window
- Up to 4 hours through the developer API
- API model
- Monthly free tiers plus pay-as-you-go
- Reviewed
- August 29, 2026
Overview
What Rainbow Weather is
Rainbow Weather combines a consumer mobile app with developer weather APIs. The app is designed for near-term decisions such as when to run, commute, walk a dog, or start an outdoor event, using precipitation nowcasts, radar, notifications, widgets, and a broader seven-day forecast.
Its underlying platform fuses radar and satellite data with machine learning. Rainbow documents one-minute forecast intervals, roughly one-kilometer spatial resolution, and ten-minute updates. The developer Nowcast API extends minute-by-minute precipitation forecasts up to four hours, while the current consumer store description specifically advertises rain and snow forecasts for the next two hours.
This is useful decision support, not a safety guarantee. Forecast skill varies by place, weather pattern, sensor coverage, and lead time. For hurricanes, flash floods, severe storms, evacuation orders, aviation, marine use, or other high-stakes decisions, pair Rainbow with official government warnings and domain-specific sources.
Use cases
Who Rainbow Weather is best for
The strongest fit depends on the job you need the product to complete, not the size of its feature list.
Runners and commuters
Use alerts, widgets, radar, and short-term forecasts for timing everyday trips and activities.
Travel and event teams
Monitor near-term precipitation and use broader forecasts to adjust routes, staffing, or outdoor schedules.
App developers
Add nowcasts, standard weather data, or map tiles to logistics, sports, travel, retail, media, and operations products.
Capabilities
Core Rainbow Weather features
Minute-by-minute nowcast
Estimates precipitation type and intensity at one-minute intervals for a selected location.
Interactive radar
Shows recent and forecast precipitation movement on a map, with global precipitation and cloud layers.
Rain and snow alerts
Sends location-based notifications when precipitation is expected to begin or change.
Daily weather tools
The app includes a seven-day forecast, UV index, widgets, dark mode, and iOS Live Activity support.
Hazard map additions
Recent app versions have added hurricane media, wildfire tracking, mixed precipitation, and broader global coverage.
Nowcast and Weather APIs
Provides REST endpoints for minute-level precipitation plus hourly and daily temperature, wind, pressure, humidity, UV, visibility, and dew point.
Map Tiles API
Delivers 256-by-256 cloud and precipitation tiles compatible with common web-mapping libraries and SDKs.
Process
How the Rainbow Weather workflow works
Step 1
Set the right location
Allow precise location only when it improves the decision, or manually inspect the destination on the map.
Step 2
Check timing and movement
Compare the minute-by-minute estimate with radar direction, intensity, and the broader daily forecast.
Step 3
Read the uncertainty
Treat the forecast as a probability-informed estimate and leave margin when conditions are changing rapidly.
Step 4
Cross-check high stakes
Use official alerts and specialist aviation, marine, wildfire, hurricane, or emergency sources when safety is involved.
Step 5
For API use, test locally
Compare Rainbow data with observed outcomes in the exact markets, seasons, lead times, and weather types your product serves.
Step 6
Control cost and failure modes
Cache appropriately, secure API keys, set usage alerts, design fallbacks, and disclose update times to end users.
Cost
Rainbow Weather pricing and free plan
The mobile app is free to download with optional Premium purchases whose amounts and offers vary by store, region, and promotion. Developer APIs have explicit monthly free tiers and usage-based prices with no contract or minimum.
Mobile app
Free download; optional Premium
Consumer access on iOS and Android with in-app purchase offers.
- Exact subscription period and price are shown in the app
- Public App Store listings contain multiple regional and promotional purchase amounts
- Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled in time
- Confirm the active offer before purchase
Tiles API
30,000 free tiles/month, then $0.20 per 1,000
Global cloud and precipitation tiles for maps.
- 256-by-256 XYZ raster tiles
- Global coverage
- Ten-minute update cadence
- Free tier resets each calendar month
Nowcast API
5,000 free requests/month, then $0.10 per 1,000
Minute-by-minute precipitation forecasts for coordinates.
- Forecast window up to four hours
- One-minute temporal resolution
- Type classification and confidence scores
- Ten-minute update cadence
Weather API
5,000 free requests/month, then $0.10 per 1,000
General hourly and daily weather forecasts.
- Temperature, precipitation, wind, and pressure
- Humidity, UV, visibility, and dew point
- Global coverage
- Hourly update cadence
Enterprise
Custom
Tailored delivery, data, reliability, deployment, and support.
- Volume discounts and custom forecast delivery
- SLA and expanded data options
- Private cloud or on-premise options
- Premium support is separately listed at $500 per month
Pricing checked . Check current pricing at the source ↗
Assessment
Rainbow Weather strengths and limitations
Where it stands out
- Minute-level precipitation timing is more actionable than a simple daily rain percentage
- Radar, alerts, widgets, and forecast views serve different everyday decisions
- Consumer app and APIs use the same weather-focused product family
- Developer pricing is transparent and starts with meaningful free tiers
- Global tiles and coordinate APIs are straightforward to integrate
- Pay-as-you-go API billing has no published contract or minimum
- Frequent app updates show active consumer development
What to consider
- No weather model is perfectly accurate, especially for highly local or rapidly developing conditions
- The consumer app and API describe different maximum nowcast windows, so do not assume every interface exposes four hours
- Mobile Premium pricing is not clearly mapped to subscription periods on the public store listing
- Background precise location can affect privacy and battery life
- The iOS disclosure says usage data may be used for cross-app tracking and that location, usage, and diagnostics may be collected
- The app should not be the only source for severe-weather or emergency decisions
- API accuracy needs to be benchmarked in the exact geography and use case before operational deployment
- Vendor accuracy claims and third-party rankings do not guarantee performance at an individual location
Compare
Rainbow Weather alternatives
The right alternative depends on the specific output, workflow, controls and budget your project requires.
Data Analysis
Perplexity
Choose Perplexity for source-linked research about travel disruptions or weather context, but use a dedicated live source for actual alerts.
Explore Perplexity →Business Operations
ChatGPT
Choose ChatGPT to interpret weather terminology or plan around weather data you provide; it is not a substitute for a live forecast or official warning.
Explore ChatGPT →Questions
Rainbow Weather FAQs
What is Rainbow Weather?
It is a mobile weather app and API platform specializing in hyperlocal, minute-by-minute precipitation nowcasts, radar, and alerts.
How far ahead does Rainbow Weather forecast rain?
The current developer Nowcast API documents forecasts up to four hours. The consumer App Store description specifically advertises rain and snow forecasts for the next two hours, so the visible window depends on the product surface.
Is Rainbow Weather free?
The mobile app is free to download with optional Premium purchases. Each developer API also has a monthly free allowance before pay-as-you-go billing begins.
How much does Rainbow Weather Premium cost?
The exact offer varies by store, region, and promotion. The public App Store listing shows multiple purchase amounts without reliably mapping every amount to a term, so check the in-app paywall before subscribing.
Does Rainbow Weather work worldwide?
Rainbow advertises global coverage for its current developer APIs and global precipitation coverage in the mobile app. Accuracy can still vary by local data coverage and weather pattern.
Can developers use Rainbow weather data?
Yes. Rainbow offers precipitation nowcasts, standard hourly and daily weather forecasts, and cloud or precipitation map tiles.
Can I rely on Rainbow for severe-weather safety?
Do not use any single consumer forecast as the sole safety source. Follow official government warnings and specialist sources for emergencies, hurricanes, flooding, wildfire, aviation, and marine decisions.
What data does the app collect?
The iOS privacy disclosure lists precise and coarse location, usage data, advertising data, product interaction, and diagnostics, with some usage data potentially used for tracking.
Bottom line
Our Rainbow Weather verdict
Rainbow Weather is most compelling when the decision is specifically about near-term precipitation. The app packages that signal into useful alerts and visual tools, while the APIs make the same category of data accessible to developers at transparent usage rates. Try it against observed weather in your location before paying, and always keep an official alert source for consequential decisions.
Visit Rainbow Weather website ↗
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