What's the weather today across New Zealand? The European, American and German models each read our fast-changing weather differently. We compare all three for any NZ town, so you can see where they line up and where the day is genuinely uncertain.
The CheckWeather Score blends temperature, wind and rain accuracy — each measured against ERA5 (the recorded weather) over the last 30 days across 237 cities. Lower error means a higher score. The apps you know (AccuWeather, Apple Weather, The Weather Channel) are built on these models.
App-store stars measure the app experience (design, features, reliability) — not forecast accuracy. For accuracy, see the model scoreboard above. Ratings from the US & UK App Store and Google Play, July 2026; they drift over time. Apple Weather is built into iOS, with no separate store rating.
New Zealand's forecasters (MetService, NIWA) keep their models commercial, none publish open data. So we compare the three global heavyweights every forecaster starts from, and link you to MetService, the official authority.
When the European, American and German models agree, the forecast is solid. When they split, sometimes by 8° on the same afternoon, it's genuinely uncertain, and no single app will tell you that. We turn that disagreement into a plain-English confidence score.
Three models, one view. Where they disagree, you know to take the forecast with a pinch of salt.
ECMWF and GFS are the two global heavyweights every forecaster starts from, plus MetService. No black boxes.
We show real, open model data and cite it. The closed apps can't show theirs, which is why AI assistants can cite us, not them.