Best Weather Apps for Camping in Australia 2026: BOM and 6 Others Compared

Quick comparison

Install BOM Weather whatever else you choose: it is free and carries the official warnings. Add a second app for the job it does better, such as tides, wind or lightning.

1. BOM Weather: the official warnings, free

BOM Weather is the Bureau of Meteorology's own app, which it calls Australia's official weather app. It is free with no ads on iPhone and Android. It gives hourly forecasts for 72 hours and a 7-day forecast, a rain radar from 90 minutes in the past to 90 minutes ahead, and active warnings on the map.

For camping, three features matter most. Warning notifications cover up to 3 locations and include fire weather, flood, heatwave, severe thunderstorm, tropical cyclone and coastal hazards. The fire danger rating for the district is shown in the app. And an offline mode keeps recently viewed data, so check your next camp before you lose signal.

Lightning is not among the features the Bureau lists for the app, and WillyWeather goes further on tides and swell, which is where the next apps help.

2. WillyWeather: tides, swell and wind for coastal camps

WillyWeather builds its 7-day forecasts on Bureau data and adds tide times for every Australian beach and many rivers, swell height and direction, wind and an hourly UV forecast. It shows Bureau warnings for your location and lists campgrounds among more than 30,000 locations. It is rated 4.7 from 366,237 Australian ratings, on iPhone and Android.

The free app shows ads. WillyWeather+ costs A$6 a month or A$48 a year and adds custom alerts, rain projections and offline forecasts, a paid feature that helps when you camp out of signal.

3. Weatherzone: lightning and the long view

Weatherzone's free app has radar with a lightning layer, a 10-day forecast, 28-day temperature and rainfall outlooks, marine conditions and widgets, and it lists official severe weather alerts. It has the most Australian ratings of the apps here, 598,996 averaging 4.6.

Pro costs A$5.99 a month and adds rain, storm and lightning alerts and individual lightning strikes; removing ads costs A$5.99 a year. Its forecasts are increasingly Weatherzone's own rather than the Bureau's, according to the data sources page of Elders Weather, which uses Weatherzone content, while radar and warnings still come from the Bureau.

4. Windy.com: wind and storms in detail

Windy shows more than 50 map layers from global and regional models, including ECMWF, GFS, ICON and the Australian ACCESS-C, with a lightning tracker and alerts when strikes come close. It is rated 4.8 from 22,509 Australian ratings. Premium in-app purchases are listed from A$4.99 and add a 15-day outlook and more frequent updates.

It is the app for wind: gusts on an exposed headland, a rooftop tent or an awning. Its forecasts come from its own mix of models rather than from the Bureau, so use it alongside BOM Weather for official warnings rather than instead of it.

5. Elders Weather: built for the bush

Elders Weather comes from the rural services company Elders and uses Bureau data and Weatherzone content, and its detail shows it: a 7-day forecast with frost risk and 9am and 3pm winds, a 48-hour forecast, radar, warnings and long-range rain maps. Silver membership, A$2.99 a year, adds 28-day and 12-month rainfall outlooks and lightning on the national radar. It is rated 4.5 from 67,905 Australian ratings.

It suits inland and rural trips, where frost and rain on dirt roads matter more than tides.

6. AUS Rain Radar (Old BoM Radar): just the radar

AUS Rain Radar is an independent app, not from the Bureau, that shows local and national rain radar in the style of the old BoM radar, with a 7-day forecast. Some of its data comes from the Bureau. It is free with ads, or A$4.99 once to remove them, and rated 4.6 from 70,290 Australian ratings.

Its listing does not mention warnings, so treat it as a quick radar check.

7. Apple Weather: already on your iPhone

Apple Weather is built into every iPhone and rated 4.8 from 118,616 Australian ratings. It gives hourly and 10-day forecasts and a precipitation map without installing anything.

Apple Weather can show severe weather alerts, but Apple does not name its Australian source, so use BOM Weather for the Bureau's official warnings.

AussieCamps: the forecast for each campsite

AussieCamps is a camping app rather than a weather app, but weather is part of every place page: current conditions and a 7-day forecast from Apple Weather for each campground, rest area and park. Add campsites to a trip with arrival dates and it shows the forecast for each stop you will reach within the forecast range, so you can see which night of the week looks wet before you book.

Forecasts need a connection, while place details such as facilities and fees stay readable out of signal. It has no warnings, radar or fire danger ratings, so keep BOM Weather alongside it. It is free to download, with in-app purchases, and runs on iPhone only.

Warnings, fire danger and the apps that carry them

Weather apps tell you what the sky will do; emergency apps tell you what the fire and emergency services are doing about it. The Australian Warning System uses three levels across bushfire, flood, storm and extreme heat: Advice, Watch and Act, and Emergency Warning.

Fire danger ratings run from Moderate through High and Extreme to Catastrophic, with No rating on low-risk days. State and territory fire agencies set them, and those agencies are also responsible for a total fire ban, so check the agency for the state you are camping in, not only a weather app. Emergency+ is free, helps you call Triple Zero (000) and shows your location details to read to the call-taker.

How we compared them

Each app's price, in-app purchases, rating and features were checked on the Australian App Store and on developer pages on 20 October 2026, and the warning and fire danger information on Bureau of Meteorology and state agency pages. We looked at what matters at a campsite: official warnings, radar, fire danger, tides and wind, and what still works when the signal drops.

AussieCamps is our app, and it is listed after the weather apps because forecasts are not its main job. No weather app paid to be included or for its place in the list.

Places along the way