Climate Clock shows your local forecast on the hour

It's hard to get excited about weather apps. Sure, every so often you see something original like Fahrenheit, the first app to show the outdoor temperature as an icon badge, or Dark Sky, which predicts the weather for the hour ahead.

Mostly, however, they're variations on a theme: weather forecasts, weather radar, weather video, and on and on.

If you're looking for something simpler, something more elegant, check out Climate Clock. True to its name, it's, well, a clock, but one that shows you the forecasted temperature and conditions for each hour on the clock face.

In the accompanying screenshot, for example, you can see that it's around 9:50 a.m., with a current local temp of 37 degrees. Looking ahead to 4 p.m., the temperature will be... 37 degrees. (Yeah, that's winter in Michigan for you.) But you get the idea.

If you tap the screen, the numbers change from temperature to percentage chance of precipitation. Tap again and you get wind speeds. You can also swipe up to see a 10-day forecast, swipe left for location/settings management, or swipe right to quickly search for a city or U.S. Zip code. Climate Clock can keep tabs on multiple locations; you simply swipe through them for location-specific clocks.

Another perk: the app can show you the current outdoor temperature (for your default city) as an icon badge, same as the aforementioned Fahrenheit. Thus, you can get the temp at-a-glance, without even opening the app.

That said, the best use for Climate Clock is as a screensaver for docked iPhones or iPods. If you typically keep yours on your desk or nightstand, why not leave the app running so you always know both the time and weather?

Climate Clock normally sells for $1.99, but it's currently on sale for 99 cents -- and well worth it, in my opinion, if you're looking for a simple weather app that doubles as a clock. Or, um, a clock that doubles as a weather app. Your call.

Have you found a weather app you like better? Tell me which one!