Hygrometer
Where it is
- Open Weather.
- Scroll past the current conditions, the hourly strip and the ten-day forecast.
- In the grid of detail tiles near the bottom, find Humidity.
- Tap it for the current percentage, the dew point, and a short description.
That is three or four interactions from unlocking the phone, which is the whole story of this page.
What the tile gives you
- Relative humidity, as a percentage.
- The dew point, which is genuinely useful and buried.
- A one-line description of what the level means.
Credit where it is due: including the dew point at all puts Apple ahead of most stock weather apps. It is the better of the two figures and many apps omit it entirely.
What it leaves out
| Figure | In Apple Weather? |
|---|---|
| Relative humidity | Yes, in the tile |
| Dew point | Yes, inside the tile |
| Absolute humidity (g/m³) | No |
| Mixing ratio (g/kg) | No |
| Condensation threshold | No |
| Comfort band | Partly — a short description |
| Hourly humidity forecast | No |
| Home or Lock Screen widget | No |
All of the missing rows are computable from what the tile already displays. The temperature and the humidity are enough to derive grams per cubic metre, the mixing ratio and the surface temperature below which things start getting wet — the arithmetic is exact and takes microseconds.
They are absent because Weather is a general-purpose app with a lot of ground to cover, not because the data is unavailable.
The two that would change most
If only two could be added, these:
Absolute humidity. The percentage on its own cannot tell you whether today is more humid than last month, because the same percentage means different things at different temperatures. Grams per cubic metre can.
An hourly humidity forecast. The hourly strip shows temperature and precipitation but not humidity or dew point, so there is no way to see the overnight convergence that predicts dew, fog or a muggy night.
Same data, different presentation
Worth being clear: Hygrometer reads the same Apple Weather service. There is no better source being claimed here — the underlying observations are identical.
What differs is what gets shown: the derived figures above, a comfort band on the dial, the condensation margin, and widgets so the number is on the Home Screen rather than four taps down. Where the data comes from sets out the sourcing and its real limitations.
What neither app can do
Tell you the humidity indoors. No iPhone has a humidity sensor, so both are reporting outdoor conditions from a weather service. Indoor readings need an instrument in the room.