There are tons and tons of weather apps out there in the App Store. For some reason, people go nuts for them but I don’t really see the big appeal. I mean I only occasionally check the weather if I’m going on vacation or something but other than that, I never even look at it. However, that’s not to say that there aren’t people who look at the weather all the time so if that’s you, you might as well get a weather app that gives you all the information you need in a clean, beautifully laid out way. Solar: Weather is that app.

I’ve never really been impressed with weather apps as they are usually all the same but with Solar, I can say that I’m quite impressed with the simplicity of it. There’s no extraneous information, only what you need to know which is the temperature for the day and the weather forecast. It does this with colors that change depending on the forecast for the day. For instance, clear skies will be indicated at the top with blue while chance of thunderstorms is indicated by grey with light sprinkling of rain and flashes of lightning. It’s very subtle though. As for temperature, it’s also color coded at the bottom. Shades of orange determine how hot is is while shades of blue signify coolness. Both temperature and weather forecast meet each other in the middle and blend together in a pulsing rhythm. It’s something that you need to see to appreciate.

Navigating Solar is quite intuitive as well with nothing more than a swipe up or down. Swiping down displays a 3-day forecast while swiping up allows you to browse through an entire 24 hour forecast quickly. It’s actually fun checking out the 24-hour forecast as you can quickly see how the day’s weather will change just by how the colors change. It’s actually really neat to see. You can add multiple cities to keep an eye out by swiping left and adding a city. After you’ve added all the cities, just swipe left or right to access them. You can even pinch the screen to zoom out and view them all at once.

I’m really not a big weather app kind of guy, but for some reason, I think I’ll keep Solar on my phone. I really like how simple it is and it tells me exactly what is important to me. It may not have as much detailed information like some other weather apps, but most of that information just doesn’t matter to me anyways. Solar to me is one of the nicest looking weather apps I’ve seen and I can easily get the info I need at a glance and quickly.

App Store Link: Solar: Weather
Version: 1.2
Developer: Hollr, Inc.
Price: Free
Compatible Devices: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.