# The end of Darksky?
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003
**Category:** General
**Created:** [31 March 2020 22:59 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003 "2020-03-31T22:59:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Paul-Reed](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Paul-Reed)
#### Post date: [31 March 2020 22:59 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/1 "2020-03-31T22:59:59Z")
Topic moved to it's own thread from [The end of Weather Underground!](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-weather-underground/409)
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### Author:  [@eg33](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/eg33)
#### Post date: [31 March 2020 21:08 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/2 "2020-03-31T21:08:03Z")
Darksky was **just** purchased by Apple. Not sure what effect this will have on the API, but their Android app is shuttering.
According to their blog:
> _API_
>
> Our API service for existing customers is not changing today, but we will no longer accept new signups. The API will continue to function through the end of 2021.
I think I'll try openweather now, but I'm tired of jumping around. It's just for hobby use (1 call per day)
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### Author:  [@ghayne](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ghayne)
#### Post date: [31 March 2020 21:15 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/3 "2020-03-31T21:15:29Z")
Sad, but not surprising. Money makes the world go around. Thanks for the news!
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### Author:  [@ghayne](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ghayne)
#### Post date: [31 March 2020 21:18 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/4 "2020-03-31T21:18:02Z")
> **[Dark Sky Blog](https://blog.darksky.net/)**
>
> Blog of the best weather app and weather API in the world: Dark Sky
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### Author:  [@afelix](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/afelix)
#### Post date: [31 March 2020 21:46 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/5 "2020-03-31T21:46:38Z")
I saw MET.no mentioned above, I’ve been using their API actively since 2013. Wrote a Python library for it, but can probably write a contrib node around it just as easily. As for MET.no quality, I’ve experienced forecasts to be about per-minute accurate for areas outside of the UK. They also offer all other kinds of meteorological APIs, which allowed me to create this animation a couple years ago. [http://hubsec.eu/files/northern\_europe.gif](http://hubsec.eu/files/northern_europe.gif)
I created a similar one of the same set of data for central Europe but it’s not currently stored online.
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### Author:  [@realjax](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/realjax)
#### Post date: [1 April 2020 08:19 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/6 "2020-04-01T08:19:47Z")
I guess a move to the dark side was inevitable with a name like that. Unless it is an april fools joke !
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### Author:  [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)
#### Post date: [1 April 2020 08:28 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/7 "2020-04-01T08:28:20Z")
we shall see - though I trust Apple's privacy policy somewhat more than Facebook, Google, et al...
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### Author:  [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)
#### Post date: [1 April 2020 08:34 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/8 "2020-04-01T08:34:55Z")
> [@dceejay](#):
>
> though I trust Apple's privacy policy
Agreed. As an Android user I no longer have any privacy concerns with the dark sky app.
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### Author:  [@realjax](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/realjax)
#### Post date: [1 April 2020 08:50 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/9 "2020-04-01T08:50:27Z")
Yep, the problem I have with apple is not a privacy concern, it is the way they treat their customers by selling them very expensive stuff which often appears to be faulty in some way. I have different model macbooks with different but characteristic model problems which they typically refuse to acknowledge until a class action lawsuit is filed. And even then only offer a limited time for repair.
Not to mention the efforts they put in to make their products as non-repairable as possible.
That's why I think Darksky's move to Apple is a move to the dark side. Being able to immediately kill the android app must have put a smile on the faces of the Apple people.
But you are right, Google and/or Facebook are equally evil.
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### Author:  [@afelix](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/afelix)
#### Post date: [1 April 2020 10:14 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/10 "2020-04-01T10:14:46Z")
Strong agree in relation to the privacy policy, but in terms of android users I don’t see much use for that as the app has been removed from the play store and will soon reach EOL.
> [@](#):
>
> _Android and Wear OS App_
>
> The app will no longer be available for download. Service to existing users and subscribers will continue until July 1, 2020, at which point the app will be shut down. Subscribers who are still active at that time will receive a refund.
Same for the website and API, service until July 2020 or 2021, but what’s next beyond that? Especially to API users it means migrating to yet another API.
> [@](#):
>
> _Website_
>
> Weather forecasts, maps, and embeds will continue until July 1, 2020. The website will remain active beyond that time in support of API and iOS App customers.
>
> _API_
>
> Our API service for existing customers is not changing today, but we will no longer accept new signups. The API will continue to function through the end of 2021.
It was from that same premise that I wrote YAWS, “yet another weather script”, as drop-in replacement for the at the time quite popular [conkyForecast](https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869328) script. cF was based on the [weather.com](http://weather.com) API, which too closed. Every time a forecasting API closes, the user-ship moves to the next popular available option, see WeatherUnderground to Darksky, just like WUnderground itself had become a popular alternative after [weather.com](http://weather.com) closed to developers.
It makes me wonder what the next popular replacement is going to be and how long before we all start searching for the next when the cycle repeats...
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### Author:  [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)
#### Post date: [1 April 2020 13:04 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/11 "2020-04-01T13:04:53Z")
> [@afelix](#):
>
> It makes me wonder what the next popular replacement is going to be and how long before we all start searching for the next when the cycle repeats...
And of course, it gets progressively worse as subsequent API's were probably not as good to start with and now have all those extra users hammering it.
Well, I suppose we can fall back on screen scraping - that's how we used to have to do "integrations" anyway a lot of the time 😸
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### Author:  [@Paul-Reed](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Paul-Reed)
#### Post date: [1 April 2020 13:33 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/12 "2020-04-01T13:33:35Z")
I'm going to resort to sticking my finger out of the window in future...
I can't do with constantly changing providers.
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### Author:  [@afelix](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/afelix)
#### Post date: [1 April 2020 14:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/13 "2020-04-01T14:13:02Z")
I've been using the same provider since 2012, I'm currently attempting to port most of my old Python code to a subflow instead. They've since introduced JSON as output format, meaning my old XML parser can be retired 🙂
> [@TotallyInformation](#):
>
> Well, I suppose we can fall back on screen scraping - that's how we used to have to do "integrations" anyway a lot of the time
"_used to_"? Speak for yourself 😛 I still get my integrations together like that most of the time
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### Author:  [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)
#### Post date: [1 April 2020 14:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/14 "2020-04-01T14:13:13Z")
That is often better for us anyway since where we are in Sheffield, the climate can be significantly different between local roads. I really should invest in a set of external sensors.
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### Author:  [@ghayne](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ghayne)
#### Post date: [1 April 2020 17:24 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/15 "2020-04-01T17:24:42Z")
Hey, if we all stick our fingers out of the window and pool the results we will have a wide area real-time weather report 🙂
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### Author:  [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)
#### Post date: [1 April 2020 20:01 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/16 "2020-04-01T20:01:11Z")
This is, of course, true. If we could find somewhere to keep the data ... 🤔
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### Author:  [@ghayne](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ghayne)
#### Post date: [1 April 2020 20:08 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/17 "2020-04-01T20:08:25Z")
Node-red-contrib-subjective-weather-by-feel.
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### Author:  [@Cathprotech](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Cathprotech)
#### Post date: [6 April 2020 10:14 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/18 "2020-04-06T10:14:38Z")
I use 3 services at the moment, 'Weather Underground', 'Darksky' and 'Open Weathermap'.
Out of the 3, Darksky seems to be the better and more accurate.
My API still works for Weather Underground but not sure how long for and now Darksky has sold us out doesn't leave many options.
I have my own very limited weather station but it’s a bare minimum at the moment more of atmosphere than weather.
I also noticed that the Darksky plugin for Grafana no longer works, but from what I have read this is unrelated and just down to an update bug which has already been fixed. The fix should be included on the next Grafana update. My Node-Red API still works fine.
Is there a shared list anywhere of useful weather API's ?
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### Author:  [@bakman2](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/bakman2)
#### Post date: [6 April 2020 10:31 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/19 "2020-04-06T10:31:24Z")
Try [https://api.met.no](https://api.met.no)
No signup and has been running for years.
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### Author:  [@Cathprotech](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Cathprotech)
#### Post date: [6 April 2020 12:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003/20 "2020-04-06T12:13:04Z")
Just updated Grafana and now got Darksky back.
Had to go into each visualisation and reselect each data element which was strange, but it works now.
Thanks Bakman2, I will have a look at that.
[Next page](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/the-end-of-darksky/24003.md?page=2)