Full feature list
Everything in Spotter Tools Pro
One app, every tool. Everything below ships in the current build. Tap a deep-dive link for more on radar and alerts.
GPS & Beacon
Spotter Network Beacon
Transmit your position so the NWS and fellow spotters know where you are during severe weather.
Foreground & background beacon
A persistent foreground service keeps the beacon alive even when the screen is off, with a status notification you can tap to return to the map.
Configurable upload interval
Choose how often the app pushes your position to Spotter Network, balancing accuracy against battery.
Auto-restart on boot
Optional boot receiver brings the beacon back automatically after a device reboot so you never forget to turn it back on.
Encrypted credential storage
Your Spotter Network application ID lives in encrypted device storage, never on a server we operate.
Battery optimization wizard
Built-in, device-specific instructions for Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Pixel, and more, so the OS doesn't kill the beacon in the background.
Map & Layers
The Map
A Mapbox-rendered tactical view with every layer a spotter needs, so you can toggle exactly what's on screen.
Active spotter markers
See every other Spotter Network beacon on the map with callsigns, vehicle info, and status.
NWS warnings & watches
Tornado, severe thunderstorm, flash flood, and fire warnings as full polygons, plus tornado / severe watch boxes.
SPC storm reports
Today's SPC tornado, hail, and damaging-wind reports plotted in real time.
Mesoscale discussions
Short-fuse SPC forecast areas (MCDs) and WPC Mesoscale Precipitation Discussions (flooding MPDs) overlaid as polygons, with full discussion text on tap.
Outlooks suite
SPC convective outlooks Day 1 through Day 8 (Categorical, Tornado, Wind, Hail), plus general thunderstorm, WPC Excessive Rainfall and QPF, Fire Weather, Winter Storm Severity (WSSI), CPC 6 to 10 day temperature and precipitation, and the Drought Monitor, switchable from a single sheet.
METARs
Live airport observations with selectable variables (temperature, dew point, wind, pressure, visibility) and unit pickers.
Surface observations (RTMA)
RTMA analyzed surface fields (temperature, dew point, theta-e, wind, and gusts) plus MRMS observed precipitation totals, all as true observations rather than forecast output.
Air quality (AirNow AQI)
EPA AirNow air quality on the map: Combined AQI, PM2.5, and Ozone, with a 24-hour loop animation, a smooth contour surface, and per-station readings on tap.
Surface fronts & pressure
The WPC Coded Surface Bulletin drawn on the map with cold, warm, stationary, and occluded fronts plus high and low pressure centers.
Map style picker
Switch between basemap styles to match the conditions and your preference.
Mapbox location search
Geocode addresses, towns, and landmarks to jump anywhere on the map instantly.
Storm track projection
Drag a heading line to draw a forecast cone with configurable speed and spread, and the app auto-detects every town inside it with an ETA.
Long-press context menu
Press and hold anywhere on the map for a quick menu: pull a point sounding, list the nearest radars, inspect that spot, or find the nearest cameras.
Radar
GPU Radar: Level 2, Level III & TDWR
Real, decoded NEXRAD in your hand, GPU-rendered and crisp at any zoom, now with WSR-88D Level III, dual-pol products, the full TDWR network, and dual-view split-screen compare.
NEXRAD Level 2 decoding
Reflectivity (BR), Velocity (BV), Correlation Coefficient (CC), Spectrum Width, and Storm-Relative Velocity decoded directly from raw Level 2 data, no third-party tile server.
GPU-rendered, sharp at any zoom
A native GPU custom layer (OpenGL on Android, Metal on iOS) draws radar crisply at any zoom level, no blocky pre-baked tiles.
WSR-88D Level III & dual-pol
RPG-processed super-resolution Level III velocity and reflectivity, plus dual-pol products: Differential Reflectivity (ZDR), Correlation Coefficient (CC), Specific Differential Phase (KDP), and Hydrometeor Classification.
TDWR terminal radar
The complete 45-site Terminal Doppler Weather Radar network at high resolution, extra low-level detail near major metro areas, with looping just like the WSR-88D sites.
Level III storm attributes
Overlay NWS Level III storm tracks, mesocyclone rotation, and Tornado Vortex Signature (TVS) markers on single-site radar to see where cells are headed and where rotation is tightening.
More single-site products
Vertically Integrated Liquid (VIL), Digital Precipitation Rate, Normalized Rotation, Max Reflectivity, Min Correlation Coefficient, and 1-hour and storm-total precipitation, alongside the base moments.
VAD Wind Profile
Open a VAD Wind Profile (VWP) panel from any radar-site pin to read the wind profile derived from the radar's velocity data.
Composite radar mosaic
A GPU-rendered CONUS composite, crisp at every zoom, drawn in data space from the full MRMS product catalog, with a transport bar, hourly playback, and tap-to-read values.
Full animation transport
Play, pause, scrub, change loop speed, and pick frame count, same controls you'd expect from a desktop radar app.
FastScan sweep (optional)
An optional beam-reveal sweep animation with range rings and live pipeline status chips, off by default and switchable in settings.
Dual-view split-screen
Compare two radar views side by side (different products or two sites), each pane with its own independent controls.
Custom GR2Analyst-style color tables
Sixteen built-in .pal palettes for BR, BV, and CC, plus drop-in import for your own .pal files.
Storm cell picker
Tap any storm cell on the radar to see its identifier and attributes pulled from the radar product.
Storm cell deep dive
Expand any cell into a full readout: rainfall rate, peak reflectivity, storm-top height, footprint, mass and volume, an age tracker, and at-a-glance severe indices.
Mesoanalysis layer
SPC-style severe-weather parameters under the radar (CAPE, shear, storm-relative helicity) plus derived composites like Supercell and Significant Tornado, sampled anywhere with a bilinear crosshair readout.
Per-site selection
Pick the closest WSR-88D site automatically, or choose a specific site to focus on, useful when chasing the edge of coverage.
Live Cameras
Traffic & Sky Cameras
See conditions on the ground with tens of thousands of cameras on the map, with live video where the agency streams it.
37 states of DOT traffic cameras
State transportation cameras coast to coast, live HLS video where the agency offers it, frequently-updated stills where it doesn't.
Beyond the highways
FAA WeatherCams, Windy community webcams, NOAA offshore buoy cams, USGS volcano cams, National Park vista cams, and ALERTWildfire fire-watch cameras.
Fullscreen & direction-aware
Watch any feed fullscreen, and map icons point the direction each camera faces so you know what you're about to see.
Choose your sources
Pick exactly which states and agencies appear on the map from a single Camera Sources sheet, keeping it focused on your area.
Live Chasers
Live Storm Chasers
Watch the chase as it happens, with major storm chasers streaming live from the field, without leaving the app.
In-app live streams
YouTube and Facebook Live embeds play right on top of the map, no app-switching to follow the action.
A roster of well-known chasers
Reed Timmer, Ryan Hall Y'all, Max Velocity, WXChasing, Corey Gerken, Texas Storm Chasers, and more, curated in one panel.
Real-time LIVE badges
The app checks who's broadcasting and surfaces live streams first, so you always land on someone actually on a storm.
Weather Models
Forecast Model Guidance
Look ahead with high-resolution model output overlaid right on the map.
HRRR, GFS & RRFS overlays
Pull HRRR, GFS, and RRFS guidance directly onto the map: reflectivity, 2 m temperature, wind, CAPE, precipitation, and more.
Animated time bar
Scrub through forecast hours with a time bar and color legend to watch a system evolve before it arrives.
On-map control chips
Quick chips switch model, product, and run without digging through menus.
Lightning, Satellite & Tropical
Lightning, Satellite & Tropical
Three new layers for the full atmospheric picture: strike-by-strike lightning, satellite imagery, and tropical tracking.
Live lightning (GOES GLM)
Real-time GOES Global Lightning Mapper strikes on the map, with an adjustable display window, bolt size, radar-loop sync, and a flash glow as new strikes land.
GOES East & West satellite
GOES-East and GOES-West imagery (Infrared, Water Vapor, Visible, and GeoColor) with a radar-synced cloud loop, GPU cross-fade animation, on-map product chips, and a freshness readout that names the lagging satellite. Drop it under the radar with adjustable opacity.
Worldwide tropical & hurricane tracking
Named storms in every basin (typhoons too) via a global feed, plus NHC outlook areas-to-watch, forecast cones, tracks, intensity, and the observed past track. Tap any storm for a detail card.
Wind
Live Wind Flow
Real surface wind, rendered as thousands of flowing particles, an instant read on outflow, convergence, and where it's really blowing.
Animated particle flow
Live RTMA surface wind drawn as comet-like particles streaming across the map, colored by speed (blue → green → orange → red).
GPU-rendered, smooth at any zoom
A native GPU custom layer (OpenGL on Android, Metal on iOS) keeps the flow fluid, with zoom-scaled trails and particle density.
Read the wind at a glance
See boundaries, convergence, and gradients without reading a number, then drop radar or lightning on top for the full picture.
Soundings
On-Device Soundings
Full atmospheric profiles without a desktop: skew-T, hodograph, and complete sounding analysis, right on your phone.
Skew-T & hodograph
Read the vertical profile the way forecasters do, a skew-T log-P diagram and hodograph, rendered on-device.
Full sounding analysis
Derived parameters and a complete sounding breakdown to size up instability, shear, and storm potential at a glance.
Observed + forecast profiles
Pull observed balloon data or HRRR forecast profiles for a point, the current state or the hours ahead.
Alerts & Notifications
Smart Push Alerts
An on-device watch worker fires NWS warnings even when the app is closed, with the controls a chase op-center actually needs.
Background watch worker
A foreground service watches the NWS alerts feed and posts notifications without needing a cloud account.
Custom watch zones
Track your current location, a fixed home zone, custom counties / forecast zones, or any combination at once.
Population inside the polygon
Each warning shows an estimated number of people inside the polygon, so you can gauge the potential impact at a glance.
Filter modes (including Outbreak)
Choose between standard severity filtering or 'Outbreak' mode for active multi-state events where you want broader coverage.
Event-type filters
Per-event toggles for tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings, flash flood, fire weather, and more.
Custom sound profile + DND override
Bundled severe-alert tone or stock system sounds, with an option to bypass Do Not Disturb for the most critical events.
Full-screen Tornado Emergency takeover
On Android 14+, opt-in alarm-style full-screen intent for Tornado Emergencies and PDS warnings, waking the screen even when locked.
Custom flash colors
Pick distinctive flash colors per alert tier so a tornado warning never looks like a flood advisory.
Significant report & MCD pings
Optional notifications when SPC posts a new mesoscale discussion or a high-tier storm report lands inside your zones.
Reporting
Severe Weather Reporting
File reports straight from the field, directly to Spotter Network, with the right metadata baked in.
All Spotter Network report types
Tornado, funnel cloud, wall cloud, hail, damaging wind, flooding, and damage, each with the right structured fields.
Reporting guidelines
Built-in reporting guidelines reference so you can submit a clean report under pressure.
Local report history
Every report is saved to a local SQLite database for your own records, even when offline.
Browse SPC reports on the map
Toggle today's SPC tornado / hail / wind reports as map markers and tap any of them for full detail.
Presence
See Other Spotters (Opt-In)
An optional, privacy-first way to see other Spotter Tools Pro users on the map, and let them see you.
Opt-in only, off by default
Nothing about your location is shared until you turn Presence on, and you can turn it off any time.
Avatars, usernames & bios
Opted-in users appear with their chosen map avatar, username, and a short bio you can read from a tap sheet.
Built to stay free & fast
Powered by an edge-cached backend so the map stays snappy and the feature stays free, no subscription, ever.
Customization & Setup
Set It Up the Way You Like
Spotter Tools Pro is opinionated about defaults but gives you control over the things that matter.
Guided onboarding
A four-step setup walks you through permissions, map data, and the beacon so you're operational the first time you open it.
Searchable settings
A sticky search field at the top of Settings filters every control on the page, so you find a toggle in seconds.
Connection status indicator
An always-visible chip on the map shows whether you're online, on cellular, or offline.
Active spotter info sheets
Tap any active spotter to see their callsign, vehicle, and last update without leaving the map.
In-app Contact & Feedback
Send feedback or reach out to support right from Settings, without leaving the app.
Private by default
No ads, no analytics, no tracking. Your beacon goes to Spotter Network and weather data comes from NWS / SPC / Mapbox. The only thing we store is an optional account, if you choose to create one.
More to explore
Bonus details
A few extra views that don't fit neatly in the categories above.
METARs: live airport temperatures across the country
Switch the METAR variable: temp, wind, dew point, and more
Single-site radar, composite, and METARs in one sheet
Pick the day, hazard, and visual style for SPC outlooks
Built-in SN reporting guidelines so reports stay clean