Poncho the weathercat gets its own app

Betaworks, the New York startup incubator behind Gif search engine Giphy and the relaunch of Digg, debuted a quirky, text message-only weather service called Poncho back in 2013. Nearly three years later, the service has generated a following across the U.S. based on simplicity and witty weather commentary alone.

Now, Poncho is making things a bit more complicated: The service launched a self-titled, free iOS app today, complete with alarm functionality (which failed to wake me up this morning, as I left the sound off on my phone overnight, something the app did warn about). It also offers a timeline-style view of your forecast, which places more emphasis on how the weather affects your day and commute and less on actual forecast data.

Poncho writes:

Weather is boring. Apps are boring, Therefore Weather Apps must be the most boring. We agree. Weather needs a wake up.

https://youtu.be/-Mb9zhvZdhA

Sadly, Poncho is U.S. and iOS-only. You can download the app here.