Report updated Jun 21, 2026

KXLY Weather is an established weather app that is completely free. With a 2.7/5 rating from 272 reviews, it shows polarized user reception.

What is KXLY Weather?

KXLY Weather is a regional utility app providing localized forecasts, severe weather alerts, and school closure data for Inland Northwest residents on iOS and Android.

Users hire this app for trusted, hyper-local emergency information that national weather services cannot provide, specifically regarding regional school status and storm tracking.

Current Momentum

v7.0 · 1mo ago

Active
  • Ships stability updates for regional alerts.
  • Maintains legacy radar interface.

Active Nemesis

Weather app - eWeather HDF

Weather app - eWeather HDF

By BARVINENKO SERGEY VLADIMIR, IE

Other Rivals

WeatherFront - Radar & Models
St. Cloud Live StormTRACKER
WDAY StormTRACKER
Weather ++++
Florida Storms
NHC Hurricane Tracker: Cyclo
DNT StormTRACKER
Forecast & What to Wear

7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸

Weather

No ranking data

WeatherGrossing

Rating Pulse 🇺🇸

What makes this app unique?

What Does It Look Like?

What Are The Key Features?

Local Weather ForecastsStandard

Detailed, up-to-date weather data provided by the local KXLY First Alert team

Severe Weather AlertsStandard

Location-specific push notifications for severe weather events

School Closures and DelaysDifferentiator

Real-time list of local school status updates

How much does it cost?

Free
  • Free ad-supported version

The app operates as a free, ad-supported utility designed to drive traffic to the publisher's broader news and media properties.

What is the competitive landscape for KXLY Weather?

How's The Weather Market?

How does it evolve in the Weather market?

The app maintains a niche regional presence, currently ranking #88 Free in the South African weather category. Its low 2.1★ iOS rating relative to the category median suggests that discovery advantages are being offset by poor user experience.

Rank progression

1 active ranking tracked — 30-day window

No rank history available for this chart.

The rivals identified

Nemeses(1)

Weather app - eWeather HDF icon

BARVINENKO SERGEY VLADIMIR, IE

4.8(13.6K)

eWeather HDF competes directly by offering a comprehensive, data-dense weather experience that targets the same power-user demographic seeking detailed meteorological insights.

Differentiators

  • Offers specialized fishing forecasts and historical archives that provide deeper utility than standard local news apps.
  • Provides extensive customization options for widgets, allowing users to tailor their home screen data density.
  • Integrates multi-source forecasting data, reducing reliance on a single local weather team's model.

Head to head

The target app should double down on its local news exclusivity while modernizing its UI to match the high-fidelity widget capabilities of eWeather.

Contenders(4)

WeatherFront competes by offering advanced, professional-grade radar and model visualization tools that appeal to users dissatisfied with basic local weather apps.

Differentiators

  • Features a dual-pane radar mode that allows simultaneous viewing of different weather layers or timeframes.
  • Supports offline map functionality, ensuring critical weather data remains accessible during network outages.
Weather ++++ icon

Touchberry

4.7(190)

This app competes on the basis of visual customization and aesthetic appeal, targeting users who prioritize a personalized home screen experience.

Differentiators

  • Prioritizes visual customization and aesthetic themes over the raw data density found in news-based apps.
  • Focuses heavily on home screen widget integration to maintain daily user engagement through visual updates.
WDAY StormTRACKER icon

Forum Communications Company

4.7(6.9K)

WDAY StormTRACKER is a direct regional competitor that mirrors the KXLY model of providing localized, news-backed severe weather tracking.

Differentiators

  • Maintains a significantly larger user base and higher review volume, indicating stronger regional brand penetration.
  • Offers a more mature, battle-tested interface for high-resolution radar and severe weather alert management.
St. Cloud Live StormTRACKER icon

Forum Communications Company

4.6(7)

This app competes by providing the same localized, news-station-backed weather alerts and radar features as the KXLY app.

Differentiators

  • Focuses on a specific geographic market, providing highly relevant local alerts that generic apps ignore.
  • Utilizes a streamlined, radar-first interface that prioritizes immediate situational awareness during severe weather events.

Same space(3)

Forecast & What to Wear icon

Natalia Jakubczyk-Gajewska

4.2(305)

This app occupies the same category but differentiates itself by targeting parents with gamified, lifestyle-oriented weather utility.

Differentiators

  • Integrates interactive dress-up games to help children understand weather-appropriate clothing choices.
  • Provides personalized clothing recommendations based on temperature zones rather than just raw meteorological data.
DNT StormTRACKER icon

Forum Communications Company

4.7(62)

This is a regional peer that provides identical functionality to the target app, focusing on localized severe weather tracking.

Differentiators

  • Leverages established local news station credibility to drive trust in severe weather alert accuracy.
  • Provides location-based forecasting that is specifically tuned to the regional geography of its audience.
Florida Storms icon

University of Florida

3.7(299)

This app competes in the severe weather space by providing specialized, state-specific emergency information and radio feeds.

Differentiators

  • Includes a live FPREN radio stream, providing critical emergency communication during major weather events.
  • Aggregates specialized feeds that provide deeper context for hurricane and tropical storm tracking.

Compare KXLY Weather against every rival

All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.

Go deeper

The outtake for KXLY Weather

Strengths to defend, gaps to attack

Core Strengths

  • Exclusive school closure data functions as a regional distribution barrier
  • KXLY First Alert branding provides high-trust local content

Critical Frictions

  • 2.1★ iOS rating indicates severe UI regressions
  • Lack of widget customization limits daily home-screen engagement

Growth Levers

  • Integrate live radio feeds to increase time-in-app
  • Add offline radar maps to capture users frustrated by connectivity-dependent competitors

Market Threats

  • WDAY StormTRACKER's higher review volume signals stronger regional brand loyalty
  • eWeather HDF's fishing and pressure data captures niche outdoor segments

What are the next best moves?

highPivot

Rebuild radar interface because 2.1★ rating indicates severe UI regressions → improve baseline retention

The 2.1★ iOS rating is a critical failure point that prevents the app from competing with higher-fidelity radar tools.

Trade-off: Pause all new feature development until the core radar utility meets parity with regional peers.

mediumInvest

Promote school closure module on home screen because it is the primary differentiator → increase daily active usage

School closure data is the only feature that provides a unique value proposition against national weather apps.

Trade-off: Deprioritize the general forecast UI refresh to focus engineering on the closure module visibility.

A counter-intuitive read

The app's regional exclusivity is a liability, not a strength, because it limits the user base to a geography that cannot support the R&D needed to match national radar fidelity.

Feature Gaps vs Competitors

  • Offline radar maps (available in WeatherFront but missing here)
  • Fishing and barometric pressure data (available in eWeather HDF but missing here)
  • Customizable home screen widgets (available in eWeather HDF but missing here)

Key Takeaways

KXLY Weather holds a regional advantage through exclusive school closure data, but its failing UI creates a churn risk that regional peers are exploiting, so the PM must prioritize a radar interface rebuild to stabilize the rating baseline.

Where Is It Heading?

Declining

The regional weather app market is consolidating around high-fidelity radar tools that offer professional-grade data, leaving news-station-backed apps like KXLY exposed. Without a significant investment in UI stability and widget utility, the app will continue to lose its regional audience to more capable, radar-first competitors.

Persistent low ratings on iOS indicate that the latest UI updates failed to resolve core navigation complaints, accelerating user churn to regional competitors.

Competitors like WDAY StormTRACKER are capturing regional market share by offering more mature radar interfaces, which directly threatens the target app's local news-station brand moat.

Disclosure: Independent intel to help mobile builders succeed.

AI-powered analysis with editorial review, built from publicly available sources. Marlvel.ai is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by KXLY Weather, its developer, the app publisher, Apple, or Google Play. All trademarks, logos, and screenshots referenced remain the property of their respective owners.

What's new

The app has pivoted its roadmap to prioritize a radar interface rebuild to address critical UI regressions, while the competitive landscape analysis has expanded to include more specialized, high-fidelity radar rivals.

shifted

Strategic Roadmap Pivot

shifted

SWOT Analysis Update

added

Expanded Feature Gap Identification

declined

Competitive Outlook

Cite this report

Marlvel.ai. “KXLY Weather Intelligence Report.” Updated Jun 21, 2026. https://marlvel.ai/apps/kxly-weather

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Data licensed under CC-BY-NC 4.0