// A DESKTOP WEATHER WIDGET_

Your local forecast, made cozy.

A living desktop weather companion, dithered from the real forecast. Watch global weather unfold in an animated, retro-style scene that shifts with the sky. Complete with a reactive little pet and a daily poem—it’s weather tracking, redesigned to feel low tech.

How to get it → $4.99 once · no subscription

macOS · out now Windows · coming soon No ads · no account

The Dither Weather window showing a dithered beach scene in clear weather, with a frog companion and the current temperature.

The window itself — frameless, draggable, resizable. Shown at its design size.

What it is

Living, nostalgic art

Thirteen original scenes, rendered in a classic Bayer 4×4 ordered dither. It’s not just a static icon—it’s a living, breathing pixel-style world that updates with your local time, clouds, and precipitation.

Your own weather pet

Choose one of eight adorable little friends to brave the elements with you. Yours might sunbathe on clear days, pop an umbrella in the rain, or strap on a snowboard when it freezes—each with twenty unique, cute weather states.

Seriously accurate forecasts

Cute on the outside, powerful on the inside. Get current conditions, ‘feels-like’ temps, wind, UV, and a 7-day outlook powered by Apple Weather (with a MET Norway fallback). When severe weather hits, critical alerts seamlessly take over the scene.

Thirteen tiny worlds, one forecast

From quiet lily ponds to bustling city skylines, experience thirteen distinct, living landscapes. Watch rain fall, snow drift, and fog roll in as the whole environment shifts from day to night in perfect sync with your sky.

⌖ AUTO — Let the app choose your vibe. Our Auto feature matches the scene to your location’s actual climate. Singapore gets a lily pond, Reykjavík gets alpine peaks, and Cairo gets dunes. Or, just lock in your favorite cozy spot in Settings.

Eight little companions to keep you company

Pick your favorite virtual pet and they’ll stick by your side through every season. Each companion has twenty unique weather states to discover as the days change. Whether it’s the Boba Cat or the Mochi Frog, they’re always ready for whatever the sky throws at them.

boba catmanjū dog dango bunnymochi frog taiyaki octopusdorayaki bear melonpan tanukimonaka panda

A grid of all eight companions — cat, dog, bunny, frog, octopus, bear, tanuki and panda — each shown in eight weather states: clear, hot, rain, thunder, fog, snow, cold and night.

Every companion, in eight of its twenty states. Rendered straight from the app’s character engine.

Taiyaki octopus companion in an open-ocean scene under clear skies.

taiyaki octopus · ocean, clear

Dorayaki bear companion in a forest scene under partly cloudy skies.

dorayaki bear · forest, partly cloudy

Melonpan tanuki companion in a village scene under partly cloudy skies.

melonpan tanuki · village, partly cloudy

Monaka panda companion in a hills scene under partly cloudy skies.

monaka panda · hills, partly cloudy

A daily poem, just for you

Every forecast brings a touch of poetry to your desktop. Enjoy a short poem from a library of hundreds, authored natively in eleven languages—never machine-translated. Experience true Japanese haiku complete with a monthly kigo (seasonal word), or traditional Chinese hanpai forms.

A note on translation: the interface (10 languages) and the poems (11 languages) are in beta while we gather native-speaker feedback. Spot a clumsy phrase? Settings → Send Feedback goes straight to the developer.

The Dither Weather interface in Japanese, showing a haiku beneath the forecast.

日本語 — no uppercasing, system CJK face

The Dither Weather interface showing an Arabic poem laid out right to left.

العربية — the poem flips right-to-left, independent of the interface language

The Dither Weather interface fully translated into Irish.

Gaeilge — full interface translation

The Dither Weather interface fully translated into Filipino.

Filipino — full interface translation

Right at home on your screen

Frameless, draggable, and fully resizable to fit perfectly into your cozy setup. Keep the living scene pinned for a constant nostalgic view, or collapse it down to a sleek, tiny bar when you just need the numbers.

°C / °F Adjustable dither grain City, zip or coordinates 10-language interface Three window modes

The forecast panel open, showing an hourly strip and a 7-day outlook.

Hourly and 7-day, always one click away

Compact bar mode: a single horizontal strip showing the temperature and conditions.

Compact bar — the numbers, no scene

Mini bar mode: an even smaller strip showing just the temperature.

Mini bar — smaller still, for when the desktop is busy

A tornado warning taking over the entire widget, replacing the scene with a high-contrast alert.

A tornado warning takes over the whole scene

Modern accuracy, retro privacy

We built Dither Weather to feel like software used to: simple, honest, and completely yours. It pulls up-to-the-minute conditions and severe weather alerts from Apple Weather and MET Norway, but it never tracks you. No ads, no analytics, no accounts. Just the sky outside, brought safely to your screen.

Apple Weather MET Norway · CC BY 4.0 US NWS alerts © OpenStreetMap

Privacy first: your location goes to those providers to fetch the forecast and nowhere else.

$4.99

once. not a subscription.

No adsNo account No trackingFree updates

macOS — out now

Universal — Apple Silicon & Intel
On the Mac App Store · 5.4 MB

Windows — coming soon

10 / 11, 64-bit · signed installer
Coming to the Microsoft Store

Questions

Is this a subscription?

No. $4.99, once. No account, no monthly fee, no ads. Updates are free.

Can I buy it now?

On a Mac, yes — Dither Weather is on the Mac App Store now, $4.99 once, with no subscription and no in-app purchases. The Windows build is finished and signed but is not on sale yet; it’s headed for the Microsoft Store, and this page will link to it the day it lands. There’s still no mailing list and nothing to sign up for.

What platforms does it run on?

macOS, as a universal build for both Apple Silicon and Intel — that’s the one on sale today. Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) is built and signed and on its way to the Microsoft Store. It’s a desktop app: there is no iPhone or iPad version.

Does it need an internet connection?

Yes, to fetch your live forecast from Apple Weather (with a MET Norway fallback). Nothing else in the app needs one — the scenes, companions, poems and fonts are all local.

Why “dither” and not “ASCII”?

The app used to be called ASCII Weather, but the artwork is a real Bayer 4×4 ordered dither — there’s no character art in it at all. Renamed for accuracy.

Are the ten interface languages reviewed by native speakers?

Not yet. They’re written directly in each language rather than machine-translated, but they’re labelled beta in-app until a native speaker has checked them. Feedback from Settings goes straight to the developer.

What happens to my location?

It’s sent only to the weather and geocoding providers, to return your forecast. No personal data is collected, no account exists, nothing is sold. No analytics, no tracking.

Press kit

Quick facts and a few press-ready shots. Need something else — full-resolution captures, the icon, a quote from the developer — just ask.

Name: Dither Weather
Developer: Portal & Co. — Zarah Del Rosario
Price: $4.99, one-time
Platforms: Windows 10/11 · macOS (universal)
Category: Utility / Weather
Contact: hello@ditherweather.com

Press and review copies: hello@ditherweather.com — the shots below are free to use, and the full-resolution originals are a reply away.

Press shot: beach scene in clear weather.

Press shot: mountain peaks scene in snow.

Press shot: city skyline scene on a clear night.