How to view conditions maps in the updated Weather app in iOS 15

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The image at far right shows the Precipitation map. You can see the stacked-squares icon on it at upper right.
The image at far right shows the Precipitation map. You can see the stacked-squares icon on it at upper right.
Photo: Apple

Among the cool updates iOS 15 brought in September is an upgraded Weather app with some interesting and useful features. One of those is a new Precipitation map that’ll show you exactly where it is, and will be, raining (or snowing or sleeting) in your area — or anywhere.

You can also view Temperature and Air Quality maps in the same way. We’ll show you how.

New features in Weather app

The additions to Apple’s Weather app most likely follow directly from the company’s acquisition of popular weather app Dark Sky last year.

To view the weather maps for precipitation, temperature and air quality index (AQI), you must be running iOS 15, naturally. It’s easy to update your iPhone’s OS, fortunately. We’ll include it in the steps below.

How to view condition maps in the Weather app

Where and when will it rain?

  1. If you haven’t updated your iPhone to iOS 15 yet, you can do so by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
  2. Open the Weather app (it comes preinstalled on every iPhone).
  3. Click on the small map icon in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  4. Click on the three small, stacked squares on the upper right side of the screen.
  5. Choose Temperature, Precipitation or Air Quality.
  6. The chosen map will appear with current conditions.
  7. To move through time on the Precipitation map, move the 12-Hour Forecast bar at the bottom of the screen left or right. That shows any precipitation-dropping clouds moving across the region over the next half-day.
  8. Each map shows a gauge at upper left indicating colors for the severity of conditions.
  9. You also can zoom in or zoom out using a pinching gesture with your fingertips to see different levels of detail about weather conditions.

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