Weather Light reached the App Store in March 2013 as a small idea: a weather app that is also a flashlight. Tap the sun, the weather appears and light comes out of the back of the phone; drag a cloud over the sun and the light strobes. Thirteen years later it still ranks first for "weather light" in the store, and in 2026 it was rebuilt from scratch under the same record.
What the new version has
- Weather from Apple Weather: the temperature now, how it feels, the next 24 hours, the next 10 days, wind, humidity, pressure, UV, sunrise and sunset, and severe weather alerts.
- Rain radar: where it is raining now and where it will in the next two hours, as a loop over the map around you.
- Widget and lock screen: the temperature and the next hours on the home screen and, if you want, on the lock screen and in the Dynamic Island.
- The flashlight: the same 2013 trick, off by itself when you leave the app.
- 26 languages: including Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Hungarian, Thai and Vietnamese, with Celsius or Fahrenheit and a dark mode.
Why rebuild a 13-year-old app
The original is 32-bit and has not run on any modern iPhone since 2017, and Apple was about to remove it from the store. On the other hand, whoever searches "weather light" in the store finds it first. The rebuild keeps the name, the ratings and the old "Ads free" purchase, and replaces everything underneath.
Under the hood
Expo and React Native with TypeScript, a small Swift module for WeatherKit and the torch, widget and Live Activity in expo-widgets. No server: the data comes straight from Apple and RainViewer, and the location is stored nowhere.