Your iPhone has known for years that it’s about to rain. Your car’s dashboard, running Apple’s own CarPlay software, has had no idea — because Apple Weather never made the jump to CarPlay. But starting today, you won’t have to wait on Apple to fix that.
The Weather Channel’s Storm Radar app version 4.0.19 just rolled out. The centerpiece is a dedicated CarPlay experience that finally puts live weather where you’re already looking while driving. If your commute was ever ambushed by a storm your map app couldn’t see coming, this is the update you’ve wanted.
What Storm Radar on CarPlay offers
CarPlay is Apple’s system for bringing key iPhone features to a car’s built-in display. Once the handset is connected, drivers can use familiar apps for navigation, music, messages, calls and other functions through an interface designed to minimize driver distractions.
Surprisingly, Apple’s own Weather app isn’t among these apps. But that matters less now thanks to the new CarPlay-enabled version of The Weather Channel’s Storm Radar.
Storm Radar’s CarPlay screen opens a live map centered on your location. It also has a quick toggle that lets you switch between standard and satellite views. Layer on radar, cloud cover, and precipitation — you get all real-time conditions instead of a static icon.
But the smarter piece is route awareness. Storm Radar shows current conditions alongside your ETA, and it also shows forecast waiting at your destination.
It keeps refreshing in the background as you drive, so if a storm builds along your route, the app can trigger automatic rerouting. You’ll get a push alert before you’re in the storm, not after.
Apple Weather is still sitting this out
Storm Radar has spent the majority of 2026 turning itself into one of the more ambitious weather apps on Apple’s platforms. It picked up an AI-generated forecast presenter earlier this year, followed by an Apple Watch app. CarPlay was naturally the next step.
Apple also deserves some credit here. The CarPlay platform was open enough that a third-party app could pull this off. The same openness allowed CarPlay to expand into new categories like video playback this year.
It’s a little odd Apple’s own team didn’t get here first, though. But for now, Storm Radar is happy to do the job.
Install or update Storm Radar – Weather Tracker through the App Store, and the CarPlay icon should show up automatically the next time you connect your iPhone to your car.
