Weather Gods 4.9.4 — VoiceOver improvements, Almanac, Pollen, Timeline, and more

Hi All,

Hope everyone is well and the weather is being kind - although if like me you're in the UK you are probably fed up of the heat and sun and long for a typical British summer :)

Release 4.9.4 is out and I spent a lot of time adding some features from my backlog as well as polishing VoiceOver and accessibility.

VoiceOver and accessibility

There’s a lot of polish in this release:

Pantheon gods
Each Weather God now speaks its name and where it’s looking, then UV, pollen, rain chance, and other readings as you swipe — without VoiceOver trying to describe the artwork.

Location search
Search announces progress and how many places were found, with clearer empty and error states, a Close action, and guidance to return to the search field.

Bulletin
Three-finger swipe up or down moves through favorite locations — same pattern as Pantheon — with loading and place announcements.

Weather Wheel
- Swipe hour by hour
- Three-finger up/down to change day
- Actions rotor: Previous / Next day, Scroll to Start / End, Back to the Pantheon, and Customise hour details
- Optional spoken weather alerts at noon and midnight (on by default; toggle in Weather Wheel VoiceOver settings)
- Focus stays on the hour you’re reading

Weather Timeline (Charts)
Open Charts from the menu on Pantheon, Weather Wheel, or Bulletin. With VoiceOver: pick a day, then move hour by hour. Actions for Previous / Next day; two-finger Z returns to the day strip.

Tropical storm track
There’s now a Track points list you can move through, with Observed and Forecast Track rotors, and the latest observed position marked clearly — much more reliable than trying to explore map markers alone.

Widgets and charts
Almanac and Lunar widgets speak full day lengths and phase dates. UV widgets announce today’s peak UV and when it occurs. Minutely charts say precipitation in full units instead of abbreviated letters. Large pollen widgets speak pollen types before the weekly outlook. Offline / cached data is announced when it may be outdated.

New and updated features

Almanac
Almanac is now a proper day book you can browse by date. Pick a day for sun and moon (rise, set, paths, phases), near-term tides (with spring or neap when it applies), eclipses when they’re coming up, and same-day observances you can filter by tradition in Settings.

Sky Notes live on each Almanac day too — which planets and constellations are visible, with direction information, so you get a spoken sense of what’s in the sky without needing the map. There’s a Glossary from the Almanac footer if you want plain-language explanations.

From the footer you can also open Solar Events, Seasons & Full Moons, the Lunar Calendar, and Tides. Home Screen and Lock Screen Almanac / Lunar widgets are included (Small through Extra Large on the Home Screen).

Typical Weather and Lookback (Premium, in Almanac)
Two climate helpers sit alongside the forecast:

• Typical Weather — for US places, what’s usual for that month: highs, lows, rain and snow, in plain language (mild, warm, chilly, and so on). Handy when you’re wondering “is this normal?”
• Lookback — what this calendar date was like last year, worldwide: highs, lows, rain and wind.

Open Almanac for your place and browse to a day to find them.

Pollen forecast (Premium, beta)
This is new for Weather Gods. You get daily pollen with tree, grass, and weed levels, top allergens for your place, and a multi-day outlook — worldwide coverage while it’s in beta.

Ways in:
- Main menu → Pollen, or the leaf button at the bottom of the Pantheon
- Readings on the Air God as you explore the Pantheon
- Weather Wheel pollen ring
- Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets, plus Apple Watch complications
- Siri / Shortcuts for a quick spoken summary card

Large pollen widgets speak the pollen types before the weekly outlook. Included with Premium while pollen is in beta — feedback welcome.

Meet the Weather Gods
Double-tap Air, Water, Ice, Fire, or the Moon Goddess on the Pantheon for a detail card — outlooks, charts, and a jump into the Timeline.

Weather Timeline
Multi-pane charts for temperature, precip, wind, UV, sun strength, air quality, solar, lunar, and more. Reorder panes or use Storm / Sky / Comfort presets.

Also in this release: Offline Weather (cached forecasts when you’re offline), Wet Bulb / heat stress, Sun Strength on the Fire God card, Health & Comfort widget, Weather Radio fixes with Nearby NOAA stations, AirNow for current AQI in the US/Canada/Mexico, an Air Quality Siri shortcut, smarter UV widgets, and a tide station map details fix.

Full notes are in the app under Settings → Release Notes (and the What’s New sheet after update).

As always, if something with VoiceOver feels off or you’d like a gesture to work differently, reply here or email support — accessibility feedback from this community shapes a lot of what we ship.

Finally, many thanks to our beta testers, there has been a lot of stuff to test - it's very much appreciated. Scott