The answer, right away
One number. The minutes until it rains.
At the top is what you want to know: rain in 12 minutes, or dry from 14:40. Below it, a chart from two hours back to two hours ahead and a radar map you scrub through with one swipe.
This is what it looks like right now: the current forecast, straight from our server.
··
Checking the sky
Alerts
A heads-up before the rain starts.
Pick your current location or a few fixed places. Our server checks every five minutes and only speaks up when it matters: one message per shower, with how heavy and until when. No flood of alerts on a showery day, and quiet at night if you like.
Dry again around 15:10.
Widgets PLUS
Rain coming? See it at a glance.
Put RainSignal on your home screen or lock screen. The widget takes on the colour of the weather: sunny amber when a shower is on its way, deep blue when it rains, calm when it stays dry. With a chart of the next hour and, subtly, the wind.
Live Activity
A live countdown to the rain.
When rain is coming, a countdown appears on your lock screen and in the Dynamic Island, ticking by the second. Once it rains, it counts on until it’s dry, and when the shower is over it disappears by itself. The app doesn’t need to be open.
- Lock screen and Dynamic IslandiOS 16.1 and later, with a chart of the shower.
- Updated by the radarIf the shower shifts, the countdown shifts with it.
- Simply freeYou can switch it off in the app’s settings.
Or ask Siri
Without opening the app. Siri tells you right away whether and when it will rain.
Places
Home, work, school. And your parents.
Alerts for where you are, and for the places that matter to you. With Plus you get a morning briefing for each place at a time you choose: "Rain today at this place, at 07:00". So you know at breakfast whether to bring a raincoat.
- Current location and 2 fixed placesFree.
- Up to 10 places with a morning briefingWith Plus, each at its own time.
- Choose which showers countWith Plus: only alert for moderate or heavy rain.
Keeping ourselves honest
How accurate was it this past week?
After every radar run we compare what we expected half an hour earlier with what the radar actually measures afterwards, within about 2 km. Not a marketing number: it’s updated here every day.
Free and Plus
Free for what you need. Plus for those who want more.
Free
€0
- Alerts for your current location and 2 fixed places
- Chart, radar map and timeline up to 2 hours ahead
- Live Activity on your lock screen
- Siri: "Will it rain according to RainSignal?"
- Alert when it turns dry, quiet hours
With a small ad at the bottom of the app.
RainSignal Plus
€1.99 per month · or €14.99 per year
- Widgets for your home screen and lock screen, with wind
- Up to 10 places: home, work, school, your parents
- Morning briefing for each place, at a time you choose
- Choose from which shower you get an alert
- No ads
Everything in Free is included. Plus runs through the App Store, where you can also cancel it. Prices shown in your local currency.
Radar from the source
Straight from the weather services.
RainSignal uses radar and forecasts from the national weather services, as open data. Where there is no national forecast, we calculate how the showers move ourselves. Everything runs on our own servers in the EU.
Questions
Good to know.
What happens to my location?
We store the coordinates of the places you pick, rounded to about a kilometre, to read the radar above them. No history, no account, nothing is sold on. We look up place names on our own server. In the app you can delete everything with one button. See the privacy policy.
Do the alerts come from the app or the server?
From our server. Every five minutes it works out for all your places whether rain is coming, even if you haven’t opened the app for days. So your phone doesn’t have to keep watching in the background, which saves battery.
How accurate is it?
A radar nowcast looks at how showers move and grow. It’s the best forecast there is for the next two hours, but showers sometimes fade on the way or form anew. Allow for a margin of around five minutes. If a shower passes by after all, we withdraw the alert.
Which countries are covered?
At 1 km and every 5 minutes in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The app is available in Dutch, English, German, French, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.
Why an app and not just the radar?
Because you don’t watch the radar while getting on your bike. RainSignal does the watching for you and only speaks up when it matters.
Who makes it?
1338 from the Netherlands, the maker of FireSignal and PollenSignal.