Is it really free?
Yes. There is no paid tier, no locked feature, no ads and no usage limit. Donations keep it going, and they unlock nothing.
What do I need to run it?
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, an internet connection, and graphics that support WebGL 2, which draws the map. Split screen and the Compare models grid draw several maps at once, so they ask more of the graphics chip. The Download section above shows the installer's size for the current release.
Is there a version for Mac, Linux or phones?
Not yet. WeatherTS runs on Windows only for now. macOS and Linux versions and a version for phones are planned.
Why might Windows warn me about the installer?
The installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen can show "Windows protected your PC" the first time. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Signing the installer is one of the things sponsorship is for.
Do I need an account?
No. The app opens straight onto the map, and everything that comes from a public feed works without one. An account, with email and password or with Google, is only for sharing your position with other chasers, seeing theirs, and pinning your home.
What does WeatherTS know about me?
Without an account, nothing: the app has no analytics, crash reporting, advertising or tracker. It reads public data straight from the agencies that publish it, and each of them sees your IP address, as any website does. With an account it keeps your email, display name and photo, and a home pin only if you set one, rounded to about a kilometre before it is stored. Your live position goes to other signed-in users only while you have sharing switched on, and it is never recorded. The full notice is shown before an account is created.
Does it work outside the US?
In large part. Satellite, station plots, soundings, tropical cyclones, space weather and the global models (GFS, ECMWF, AIFS, ICON, GEM and their ensembles, and the GFS analysis) cover the world, and lightning covers the Americas and the oceans either side. In Brazil, the rivers come from SGB and ANA, and INMET's stations come in with your own token. Radar is the NEXRAD network: the US, Puerto Rico, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and South Korea. Alerts, storm reports, outlooks, MRMS, the HRRR, RAP, NAM and RTMA, and the mesoanalysis archive are US and North American products. Brazilian radar volumes come in the next release, and opening radar files from other networks is being built.
Can I open my own radar files?
Not yet. It is being built: Level II, Level III, DORADE, CfRadial, ODIM, IRIS/SIGMET and UF files, from zips, folders or links, and Level 2 polling servers for radars outside the US. Until then, radar is the NEXRAD network, live and from the archive.
How much data does it download?
Only what you open. Loops fetch the frames you play, satellite fetches the area on screen, and a forecast model fetches the hours you look at. The heaviest parts are a Level II cross-section, which reads the whole radar volume, and the mesoanalysis archive, which reads an hour whole the first time. What you have seen is kept on disk so it reopens quickly, in your temporary folder: up to 1.5 GB of satellite and lightning files, 3 GB of model fields and 4 GB of archive hours.
Does it work offline?
No. Every product is read from its public source when you open it, so new data needs a connection. What you have already looked at is kept on disk for a while and reopens without downloading again.
Where does the data come from?
Public sources, read straight from the agencies that publish them. Coverage and sources lists them by kind of data; in short:
- Radar: NOAA's NEXRAD Level II and Level III data on AWS, and the NWS.
- Satellite and lightning: NOAA's GOES data on Google Cloud and AWS, Himawari on AWS, CIRA's SLIDER, EUMETSAT and NASA GIBS.
- Models and analyses: NOAA NCEP, ECMWF, DWD, Environment Canada, the NHC's ATCF decks, MRMS from NOAA NSSL, and the RAP and RUC archives on AWS and at NCEI.
- Observations and soundings: the Aviation Weather Center, MADIS, OGIMET, INMET, the Iowa Environmental Mesonet, the University of Wyoming and Open-Meteo.
- Alerts and outlooks: the NWS, SPC, WPC, CPC, the NHC and NadoCast.
- Tropics: the NHC, CPHC and JTWC, ATCF and HURDAT2, IBTrACS, the Hurricane Hunters' archive, NOAA STAR, Coral Reef Watch and CPC.
- Rivers: the NWS, USGS, the National Water Model, and Brazil's SGB and ANA.
- Space weather: NOAA's SWPC and NASA's SDO.
How do updates work?
Installed copies check for a new release when they start and install it on the next launch. You only download the installer once. What changed in each release is in the app and on GitHub.
Where do I report a bug or ask for a feature?
On the WeatherTS Discord, or by email at contact@weatherts.tech. Say which version you have, what you had on the map, and what happened; a screenshot helps. Every release is announced on the Discord and on X as well.
Can I see the code?
The GitHub repository holds every release, the README and the MIT license. The source itself is not published there yet.
Will there be an API?
That is the plan, and it is still being defined.
Who is it for?
Meteorologists and forecasters first, and storm chasers, researchers and students too.