About RadarBug

Our Purpose

RadarBug is designed to make several weather data sets easier to view and compare. The map helps people follow changing conditions around a current or saved location without replacing the official agencies responsible for forecasts and emergency warnings. Instead of a single national radar loop, RadarBug layers radar, lightning, rainfall totals, hurricane tracking, and NWS alerts on the same view, so a storm's full picture — where it is, how it's moving, and what's been issued for it — is visible at a glance.

The project started from a simple frustration: checking a storm often meant opening a radar app, then a separate alerts app, then a browser tab for hurricane tracking, then another for lightning. RadarBug exists to collapse that into one map that stays open on a phone, tablet, or dedicated display.

What RadarBug Provides

The map combines live and near-live weather layers that can each be toggled on or off, so the display can stay simple during quiet weather and get detailed when something is actually happening nearby.

• Animated weather radar and 24-hour precipitation estimates
• National Weather Service alerts, warnings, and rainfall observations
• National Hurricane Center storms, forecast cones, and outlook areas
• Recent lightning activity and optional proximity notifications
• Local current conditions, daily forecasts, and hourly forecasts
• Saved map, layer, home-location, and display preferences

Weather Data Sources

RadarBug combines public and third-party information from providers including NOAA, the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, Iowa State Mesonet, Open-Meteo, RainViewer, and Blitzortung. Google Maps Platform supplies the interactive base map.

Radar imagery is served primarily from Iowa State University's Mesonet (IEM), which mirrors NEXRAD data with the same color scale used by the National Weather Service; if that feed is unavailable, RadarBug can fall back to RainViewer's radar mosaic so the map isn't left blank. Alerts, watches, and warnings come directly from NWS/NOAA feeds and are matched to your location or saved home point. Hurricane and tropical storm tracking, forecast cones, and outlook areas come from the National Hurricane Center. Lightning activity is sourced from Blitzortung, a crowd-sourced global lightning detection network, filtered to the area visible on your map. Local current conditions and forecasts are provided by Open-Meteo and the National Weather Service's forecast API.

Each provider controls the timing, coverage, accuracy, and availability of its data. Layers may be delayed, incomplete, unavailable, or differ from observations and official products. RadarBug does not generate its own forecasts or warnings — it visualizes and combines what these agencies and services already publish.

Who RadarBug Is For

RadarBug is built for people who want more context than a single push notification gives them — someone tracking a storm approaching their home, a family keeping an eye on lightning before letting kids back outside, or a household that wants a dedicated weather display running on a spare tablet in the kitchen or garage. It works equally well as a quick browser check or as an always-on display, since the map and its settings are remembered between visits.

Ongoing Development

RadarBug is actively maintained, and its weather layers, map controls, and mobile setup guides are updated as data providers change their services or as new features are added. Because the map depends on several outside services, occasional adjustments are needed when a provider changes its data format, retires an endpoint, or adds new information worth surfacing on the map.

If a layer looks wrong, a source seems out of date, or something on the map stops working the way it should, reporting it through Contact helps keep RadarBug accurate for everyone using it.

Learn More

The RadarBug documentation explains map controls, weather layers, saved locations, alerts, tablet setup, and troubleshooting. The Privacy Policy explains location handling, browser storage, third-party services, advertising, cookies, and available privacy choices. See Terms & Disclaimer for the app's usage terms, or Contact to reach the publisher directly.

Publisher and Contact