Where it is
Observed storm footprints and edge distances put the radar picture in geographic context.
PERSONAL WEATHER INTELLIGENCE
See the storm.
Understand your next hour.
From the first radar return to the bigger picture. StormTrak brings nearby storms, official warnings, projected paths and local weather into one place built around you.
Free weather. Optional subscriptions and add-ons.
View full size ↗Live reflectivity, a visible radar sweep, motion arrows and observed storm-edge distances share the map with a local forecast and a headline about an approaching storm. The screenshot records an earlier weather situation.
Real screenshots supplied by the creator. Weather, times, values and plan badges shown are recorded examples, not current conditions. Select an image to explore it at full size.
01 / BUILT AROUND YOUR LOCATION
The map tells
a more useful story.
Start with a city, ZIP code, device location or exact map pin. See where the rain is, how storms are moving and how their projected paths relate to your place.
View full size ↗A tracked storm over North Carolina with observed storm-edge distances, a projected corridor, direction information and a compact SignalCast window beside the selected map pin.
Where it could go
Direction, speed and projected corridors show possible movement, with arrival windows or closest-passage context.
What matters to you
The Hot List brings together approaching storms, official warnings, outlooks and your local forecast.
02 / SIGNALCAST
Every cell has a story.
Follow the changes.
A storm dashboard that connects the cells around you with the questions you care about: which way they are moving, what they could bring and when they might reach your area.
View full size ↗Storm cards show movement, estimated arrival windows, hazard guidance and towns along projected paths. The right side brings together probability trends, a live cell console and an event feed.
A personal storm watch
Choose a radius, inspect storm and radar cells, track a selected cell and revisit saved watches on your device.
Changes in context
Compare tornado, severe, hail and wind guidance with trends, radar-estimated hail, lightning and an event feed.
Keep the meaning clear
ProbSevere percentages describe a storm's hazard guidance. They are not the chance of that hazard at your address.
03 / AUTOPILOT
Let the map
follow the weather.
Autopilot brings camera movement, radar-site selection and storm focus together. Choose the kind of weather you want to follow, then take over whenever you need to.
View full size ↗The supplied Autopilot badge shows TOR + SVR mode: tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. This is a product control illustration, not an interactive weather control on this page.
- TORTornadoes
- TOR + SVRTornadoes and severe thunderstorms
- THREATBiggest threat to your location
- TOURTour tornado and severe warnings
Moving the map temporarily pauses following. Resume, change settings or turn Autopilot off from its menu.
View full size ↗The mode menu offers Tornadoes, Tornadoes + severe, Biggest threat to me, and Tour all warnings. The paused state includes a resume countdown, with manual resume, settings and turn-off controls.
04 / 3D RADAR + 3D STUDIO
A new dimension
to the radar picture.
Tilt the map to explore a radar volume in geographic context, or step into 3D Studio for a closer look at reflectivity and Doppler velocity. Available on supported desktop and tablet devices.
View full size ↗A tilted view over Oklahoma City raises the radar volume above the map while keeping the local forecast and storm context alongside it. Radar returns visualize storm structure, not a photograph of clouds.
GO INSIDE THE VOLUME
Six ways to explore.
Points. Surface. Shells. Velocity. Volume. Velocity volume. Change the presentation, orbit the scene and loop available scans while keeping towns and your location in view.
View full size ↗Velocity-volume rendering places red and green Doppler returns over a geographic grid with town labels. These colors represent motion relative to the radar, not a tornado confirmation.
View full size ↗A station wind gauge, gust availability, compass direction, feels-like temperature, Beaufort scale, and wind and temperature history. The selected report is from Chandler Municipal Airport.
05 / YOUR EVERYDAY WEATHER
The details
between the storms.
StormTrak is also your local weather workspace: station observations, wind and temperature history, day and night forecasts, and hourly rain chances.
Wind, with context
Read sustained wind, available gusts, compass direction, feels-like temperature and a Beaufort description. Station names and report times tell you where the readings came from.
See the trend
Switch between 1-, 6-, 12- and 24-hour history. Explore individual reports and available table views.
Look ahead
Compare NWS forecasts with HRRR, NAM Nest and GFS model views. Explore winter weather and official tropical cyclone tracks.
06 / YOUR MAP WORKSPACE
Measure. Mark.
Explore the path.
A compact tool rail puts deeper analysis within reach. Measure distance and bearing, mark the map, inspect a storm's estimated arrival or open StormTrak Impact for towns along a warning-based projection.
Distance & drawing
Multi-point measurements and geography-anchored pen strokes, arrows, circles and text.
ETA & Impact
Target-based timing and community countdowns, with official pathcast times distinguished from calculated arrivals.
Some map tools are designed for desktop and tablet. Availability varies by plan and enabled features.
View full size ↗Radar and Sky switching, zoom, Autopilot, 3D, distance measurement, Storm ETA, drawing, Storm Impact and SignalCast are gathered along the map edge. Badges identify plan or add-on access in this captured interface.
07 / STORMTRAK SKY
Stay for the sky
after the storm.
Move from radar to a panoramic sky tied to your location. Identify stars and planets, trace constellations, explore Sun and Moon times and preview the next twelve hours of celestial movement.
View full size ↗A panoramic clear-sky time preview shows named stars, constellations and planets, an object-information popup, and Sun and Moon times. The future sky view calculates celestial positions; it does not forecast cloud cover.
Look up and learn
Select an object for its name and position. Explore Moon phase, daylight and predicted satellite passes.
From now to later
Play the clear-sky time preview, pause the motion, pop out the scene or return to now.
Know what you're seeing
Celestial positions are calculated. Weather effects illustrate reported conditions; the time preview is not a cloud forecast.
THE COMPLETE STORMTRAK DIRECTORY
117 capabilities.
One connected workspace.
Explore the detailed inventory by category. Feature availability depends on your plan, optional add-ons, device and enabled features. The app’s plan page has the current access details.
01Your location & daily briefing8 features
- Place search
- Find a city, ZIP code or coordinates with suggested matches.
- Device location & map pin
- Use your device location or choose an exact point on the map.
- Recent places
- Return to recent locations and forget saved places when you choose.
- Weather Here
- Check another map point without replacing your main monitoring location.
- What matters today
- A local Hot List brings together warnings, outlooks, approaching storms and forecast rain.
- What's happening
- Read a plain-language explanation of local precipitation and storm context.
- Local time & source times
- See report, issue and forecast-valid times in their proper context.
- Flexible workspace
- Collapse the briefing, move supported panels and adjust saved display preferences.
02Radar & satellite11 features
- National radar
- Explore the broad precipitation picture on a national mosaic.
- Single-site reflectivity
- Inspect station radar labeled Level 1 in the app.
- Single-site velocity
- View Doppler motion toward and away from the selected radar.
- Level II products
- Switch between reflectivity, radial velocity and correlation coefficient (CC).
- Live Level II map
- View completed low-tilt passes assembled from real-time chunks as they become available.
- Live Sweep
- Watch supported Level II imagery paint as scan data arrive.
- Radar playback
- Play, pause, step through frames, inspect timestamps and return to the latest view.
- Extended radar history
- Load earlier available radar frames for more context.
- Radar station controls
- Choose a station and inspect station status, coverage context and product legends.
- Visible & infrared satellite
- See cloud imagery alongside the radar picture.
- MRMS precipitation type
- Inspect radar-based estimates of precipitation type.
03Storm motion & arrival context9 features
- Observed storm footprints
- See storm outlines and distances to observed storm edges.
- Motion arrows & speed
- Read reported or radar-estimated direction and movement speed with source context.
- Projected corridors
- See where a storm could travel if its current movement continues.
- Arrival windows
- Explore conditional estimated arrival ranges for your selected location.
- Closest approach
- See an estimated passing time and distance when a storm travels to one side.
- Rain in your area
- Distinguish observed precipitation at the location from rain projected to arrive later.
- Storm relationships
- Understand which cells are over you, approaching, passing by, moving away or have unknown direction.
- Communities in the path
- Inspect community centers along a selected storm's projected corridor.
- Compare a map point
- Check the selected storm's projected arrival and warnings at another target.
04SignalCast12 features
- Automatic monitoring
- Use Off, Auto or Tracking modes and choose a monitoring radius.
- Headed your way
- See the cells that could affect your selected place and their hazard context.
- Storm cards
- Inspect position, distance, movement, arrival context and scan-to-scan changes.
- Four hazard probabilities
- Read NOAA ProbSevere tornado, severe, hail and wind guidance for a storm.
- Hail, lightning & reflectivity
- See radar-estimated hail size, lightning flash rate and radar intensity when available.
- Towns & times
- Inspect towns along projected paths with conditional arrival times.
- Probability trends
- Explore one- or three-hour trends in the highest hazard guidance within the chosen radius.
- Live console & event feed
- Follow cell-by-cell values and recorded changes, including rapid strengthening indications.
- Click to track
- Select a cell, place its tracking marker on the map and start a device-local watch.
- Radar cells
- Inspect independently observed radar cells alongside ProbSevere storm objects.
- Saved watches
- Review watch history, stop or resume a watch, export its records or remove it.
- Dashboard & compact view
- Move, resize or minimize the dashboard; phones use a stacked tool sheet.
05Autopilot & SmartSite8 features
- Tornadoes mode
- Follow tornado warnings and relevant tornado guidance.
- Tornadoes + severe mode
- Follow tornado and severe-thunderstorm targets.
- Biggest threat to me
- Focus on targets in relation to your selected location.
- Tour all warnings
- Cycle through tornado and severe-thunderstorm warnings.
- Automatic camera framing
- Frame the selected target, with the option to keep your location in view.
- SmartSite
- Choose radar coverage for your location or the watched storm, or keep a manual station.
- Radar product choice
- Keep the current product or configure reflectivity and velocity choices for Autopilot.
- Pause & resume
- Manual map interaction temporarily pauses camera following; pause, resume and turn-off controls remain available.
06Official weather & threat context8 features
- NWS warning polygons
- View tornado and severe-thunderstorm warning areas and open their bulletins.
- Hazards & instructions
- Read official warning details, including the original NWS instructions.
- Other weather alerts
- Inspect supported flood, winter and other alert categories and Special Weather Statements.
- Warning explorer
- Browse received severe warnings by distance and hear a full bulletin read aloud.
- SPC outlooks
- Explore categorical outlooks and tornado, hail and wind probability layers, with supported future days.
- Satellite lightning
- See GOES GLM lightning observations with observation-age and availability information.
- Local Threat Index
- Explore a local engineering index, its history and the warning, watch and storm contributions behind it.
- Historical context
- Recognize ended warnings, earlier projections, delayed sources and genuinely unavailable values.
07Current conditions & history8 features
- Nearby station observations
- See station name, distance and report time alongside its readings.
- Temperature & humidity
- Read temperature, humidity and dew point where reported.
- Feels-like conditions
- See available wind chill or heat-index context.
- Wind Monitoring Center
- Inspect sustained wind, reported gusts, compass direction and Beaufort description.
- Wind summaries
- See recent average wind and peak reported gusts for the selected history.
- Wind history
- Explore 1-, 6-, 12- and 24-hour wind and gust trends.
- Temperature history
- Explore temperature and related feels-like or dew-point series in the available history view.
- Exact reports & tables
- Inspect individual observations and available table alternatives to charts.
08Forecasts, winter & tropical weather10 features
- NWS point forecast
- Read local day and night forecasts, temperatures, precipitation chances and wind.
- Hourly forecast charts
- Explore rain chances and temperature/dew-point trends with 24- and 48-hour views.
- HRRR future radar
- View simulated radar and forecast precipitation type from HRRR.
- NAM future radar
- View simulated radar and forecast precipitation type from NAM Nest.
- GFS future radar
- View simulated radar and forecast precipitation type from GFS.
- Model comparison
- Compare temperature, precipitation, wind, gusts and rain/snow/ice at a selected point.
- Model runs & valid times
- Select retained model runs and inspect initialization and forecast-valid times.
- Winter briefing
- See relevant winter forecast context and official alerts.
- Hurricane tracker
- Explore official NHC and CPHC cyclone advisories, tracks, forecast points and cones.
- Animated wind field
- See modeled near-surface wind with its model and valid time, separate from observed station wind.
09Map tools8 features
- Distance & bearing
- Measure multiple map segments in miles and kilometers with bearings and running totals.
- Storm ETA tool
- Choose a warning-associated storm position and a target for projected arrival or closest approach.
- StormTrak Impact
- Explore a two-hour warning-motion projection and towns along its path.
- Impact countdowns
- See live countdowns and distinguish NWS pathcast times from calculated arrivals.
- Impact speed adjustment
- Explore how a chosen motion speed changes a warning-based projection.
- Drawing tools
- Draw geography-anchored pen strokes, arrows, circles and text.
- Annotation controls
- Choose colors and widths, undo marks and clear temporary drawings.
- Storm layer controls
- Choose observed cells, projected corridors, motion tracks and uncertainty displays.
103D radar & 3D Studio9 features
- On-map 3D radar
- Raise reflectivity or velocity volumes over a tilted geographic map.
- 3D navigation
- Orbit, pan and zoom; restore a north-up view where offered.
- Volume display controls
- Adjust the display, height stretch and flat radar beneath the volume.
- Points, Surface & Shells
- Explore radar structure through three distinct geometric presentations.
- Velocity
- Inspect Doppler motion in a three-dimensional scene.
- Volume & velocity volume
- Explore volumetric reflectivity and red/green Doppler volume rendering.
- Studio appearance controls
- Adjust opacity curves, density, glow, lighting and other available rendering controls.
- 3D loops
- Step or loop through available radar volumes to see changes over time.
- Town labels & location mark
- Keep geographic context using town labels and a mark for the selected location.
11StormTrak Sky10 features
- Panoramic sky
- Explore a sky view linked to your chosen location, with Radar/Sky switching and a pop-out view.
- Sun & Moon times
- See sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset in local time.
- Moon phase & daylight
- Inspect illumination, phase and daylight context.
- Stars, planets & constellations
- Explore calculated positions, constellation outlines and object-name controls.
- Tap to identify
- Select a celestial object to read its name, position and other available details.
- Clear-sky time preview
- Preview the next twelve hours of celestial movement and return to now.
- Satellite passes
- See predicted visible passes based on orbital elements and viewing geometry.
- Meteor showers & aurora
- Read calendar and outlook context; decorative shooting stars are illustrations.
- Weather effects
- See an illustration of reported weather, including clouds and precipitation effects.
- Motion controls
- Pause animation, show or hide details and use reduced-motion behavior.
12Voice, notifications & mobile8 features
- VoiceCore warnings
- Hear supported official-weather warning announcements while using the app.
- Enhanced spoken details
- Hear additional storm and change context where available.
- Voice settings
- Choose an available voice, preview it and adjust rate and volume.
- Voice history
- Review recent spoken announcements.
- Push alerts
- Receive supported warnings and watches for a saved place after sign-in, permission and setup, where enabled.
- Notification management
- Send a test notification and manage or turn off supported device notifications.
- Phone navigation
- Move between Radar, Now, Forecast, Alerts and More with compact controls.
- Responsive tools
- Use expandable forecast periods and mobile tool sheets; 3D and some map tools are desktop/tablet features.
13Accounts, plans & support8 features
- Optional sign-in
- Use supported emailed sign-in links or Google account sign-in.
- Free, Plus & Pro
- Start with free weather and compare optional subscription plans in the app.
- Optional add-ons
- Live Sweep and 3D + 3D Studio have separate add-on entries in the current billing catalog.
- Plan management
- Use the app's account and plan-management controls for supported billing workflows.
- User guide
- Open the illustrated guide for feature explanations and workflows.
- Report a problem
- Send product feedback through the app's support workflow.
- Privacy preferences
- Manage optional analytics and device-local location/display choices.
- Example mode
- Explore clearly labeled simulated examples and return to live weather.
Feature inventory reviewed November 6, 2026. Storm estimates assume continued movement. Official NWS warnings remain the authority for protective action.
THE STORMTRAK SKY
Weather, in a different light.
Explore the new panoramic Sky: stars, constellations, moving clouds and changing light.
Animated demonstration, not live weather.
Daylight to starlight.
The atmosphere of StormTrak.
The app combines calculated celestial positions with an illustration of reported weather. This demo cycles through preset conditions. Sky sources & credits
FREE WEATHER. OPTIONAL SUBSCRIPTIONS.
Start free.
Choose more.
Free includes basic national radar, NWS warnings, the SPC Day 1 categorical outlook layer, basic storm motion intelligence and basic VoiceCore warnings.
Optional StormTrak Plus ($4.99 USD/month) and Pro ($9.99 USD/month) plans build on Free. Pro includes everything in Plus.
START EXPLORINGOpen StormTrak free
Free weather works on desktop and mobile browsers.
See the full feature lists, optional add-ons and subscription details.
02 / TORTRAK’S DEATHSTAR
DeathStar
Tornado Tracker.
Tortrak’s DeathStar Tornado Tracker brings advanced radar, storm visualization, and production tools together for weather streams. It’s the broadcast and desktop side of the family.
Explore the full feature listDEATHSTAR / BROADCAST WORKSPACEEXAMPLE SCREEN · NOT LIVE WEATHER
Full-resolution radar
NEXRAD Level II, velocity, and dual-polarization products.
Six ways to see a storm
From point clouds to volumetric 3D visualization.
Made to go on air
Camera automation, warning graphics, and OBS-ready views.
Web & Windows
A browser workspace and a dedicated desktop experience.
Watch the DeathStar platform demo
Recorded platform demonstration with earlier Tortrak branding. Weather and warnings shown are examples, not current conditions.
03 / EXPLORE DEATHSTAR
Tools for every
part of the picture.
Explore the DeathStar feature library by category. These are DeathStar’s broadcast and desktop capabilities; StormTrak’s weather features are described above; compare its plans here.
3D Storm Visualization11 features
Points
Every reflectivity gate rendered as a point cloud — the fastest mode, and the best big-picture view of overall storm shape and where the cores are.
Surface
A single solid shell colored by height, from blue at the base up to red and white at the top — echo tops and overhangs read at a glance.
Shells
Three nested, see-through reflectivity shells. A hot core glowing inside a lighter outer shell marks the heaviest rain or hail buried in the storm.
Velocity
Raw Doppler motion in 3D — green toward the radar, red away. Paired with Storm-Relative Motion, it's the primary rotation-hunting mode.
Volume
True volumetric rendering: the whole reflectivity field is ray-cast through the storm on the GPU for a smooth, glowing look. A drag-to-draw color curve — with GR2, Ramp, Core, and Hail presets — strips away the surrounding rain to expose a hook or hail core, live.
Vel·Vol — Velocity Volume
The same ray-marched rendering applied to Doppler velocity, using the familiar red/green inbound-outbound colors. Paint the curve asymmetrically to isolate just one side of a couplet, in full 3D.
3D Vortex Detection
DeathStar automatically hunts every volume for a stacked rotation signature and renders it as a glowing tube through the storm, colored by strength from base to top — visibly tightening and deepening as you loop through recent scans.
Storm-Relative Motion (SRM)
Dial in a storm's own motion and the 3D velocity views subtract it out, flattening the ambient wind field so a tight rotational couplet stands out on its own.
3D Time-Lapse
Step back through recent volumes in full 3D, in any mode, to watch a storm's structure evolve rather than looking at one freeze-frame.
Live Display Controls
Adjustable threshold, vertical exaggeration, and point size — all live, while rotating and panning the scene.
Terrain Shadow In testing
A beam-blockage layer that shades where mountains hide a radar's lowest scan is built and tested, and on its way back in after a final accuracy review.
Live Radar Engine15 features
Live NEXRAD Level II
Full-resolution, single-site data — not just the coarser national mosaic: base reflectivity, storm-relative velocity, and dual-polarization correlation coefficient, decoded straight from NOAA's real-time feed.
Debris Signature Detection
Correlation coefficient is a selectable product on its own, and CellTracker watches it automatically — a drop in CC coinciding with a rotation couplet flags a likely tornado debris signature: radar evidence a tornado is on the ground.
Full Product Menu
CONUS composite, single-site super-res reflectivity, storm-relative velocity, correlation coefficient, echo tops, GOES satellite, and HRRR forecast reflectivity — one control bar, each with a correctly scaled legend.
HRRR Forecast Overlay
NCEP's HRRR model, hourly out to 18 hours on one model run — plain, or color-coded by precipitation type — clearly badged as a forecast so it's never confused with a live observation.
LiveSweep
An optional classic "painting" radar renderer: a beam glides slowly around the scope revealing fresh data as it goes, the way a real WSR-88D scope looks.
Full Radar Control Bar
Loop playback with adjustable speed and opacity, crisp-vs-smoothed rendering, a minimum-reflectivity noise gate, auto-follow-nearest-site or lock-to-site, and auto-dim under warning fills.
Two-Site Mosaic
Blends your primary radar site with a second, user-picked site into one seamless composite — ideal for storms at the edge of one tower's range.
Quad View
A synced 2×2 wall — composite, super-res reflectivity, velocity, and echo tops — sharing one camera, built for tornado-confirmation segments.
Radar Cross-Section
Click two points across a storm for an RHI-style vertical slice through every tilt — hook echoes and hail cores aloft, on a flat chart.
Velocity Probe
Hover anywhere on the velocity field for the exact Doppler wind speed and direction under the cursor, read from the real decoded value.
Display-Level Dealiasing
Extreme Doppler velocities automatically unfold so they display correctly instead of wrapping to the wrong color.
Station Health & Auto-Failover
Every radar site's status — live, stale, or down — is monitored continuously, with automatic failover to the nearest producing tower and an honest on-screen badge.
Background Pre-Caching
Nearby high-threat radar sites are quietly pre-loaded in the background, so switching to them on air is instant.
Low-Latency Push Pipeline
Behind the scenes, new Level II data is pushed the moment it lands rather than waiting on the next poll.
Custom Dark-Amber Basemap
A purpose-built map style tuned for radar contrast and on-stream legibility.
Storm Detection & Analytics6 features
CellTracker
Persistent storm-cell tracking: every cell keeps a stable ID and a rotation tier that survives scan to scan, so you're watching one storm's evolution, not a new blob every volume.
Smoother Rotation Tracking
Between radar scans, a cell's marker now glides along its own measured motion instead of freezing in place — and snaps back the instant fresh data lands.
Storm Tracker
Draws each warned storm's motion vector and pulse rings, tracked forward between official updates so the marker never lags a fast-moving storm.
National Threat Index
A single, constantly-updating nationwide severe-weather score, charted over the last 12 hours — weighted so a long tail of flood warnings can't outweigh an actual tornado outbreak.
Storm Track Impact
Click a warning and DeathStar projects the storm's next two hours and lists every town in its path with distance and estimated arrival time.
Custom Watch Area
Draw your own box anywhere on the map for an instant severe-weather probability read on that specific area.
Warnings, Alerts & the Signature Interface13 features
NWS Warning & Watch Ingestion
Live tornado, severe thunderstorm, flash flood, and related warnings straight from the National Weather Service, with full text, timing, and tags like PDS and Tornado Emergency.
Storm Signature Interface
The interface changes color with the highest warning level in view: clear, watch, severe, tornado, confirmed tornado, and tornado emergency. A consistent visual language carries through to floating analytics panels.
Storm-Reactive Particle Effects
An ambient particle layer that changes with the threat level — calm on a quiet day, rain for severe storms, wind-blown debris for a tornado warning — with eight selectable calm-day looks, from snow to fireflies to falling leaves.
Voice Alerts
Text-to-speech announcements for new and updated warnings, with a priority queue, change detection, and an optional natural-sounding neural voice.
Voice History Console
A running, reviewable log of everything the voice engine has said, and when.
Sound Alerts
Distinct alert tones layered alongside or instead of the spoken voice alerts.
Toast Notifications
Transient, color-coded cards announcing new warnings visually, whether or not sound is on.
Broadcast Ticker
A bottom-of-screen crawl cycling through every active warning and watch, color-coded, with live alert counts.
SLAM Banner
A full-width animated banner that takes over the screen the moment a high-impact warning is issued or upgraded.
Threat Ambience
A subtle edge-of-screen glow that shifts with the worst warning nationwide.
Auto-Toast
A sticky card that always shows whatever storm the AI camera is currently on.
Auto-Zoom
Optionally fly the map to every new tornado warning or emergency, automatically.
SPC Watches & Watch Probabilities
Official Tornado and Severe Thunderstorm Watch boxes, plus the SPC's own probability breakdown for each — chance of tornadoes, damaging wind, and large hail.
AI Broadcast Camera2 features
Autopilot
A hands-free camera with three modes — off, tornado-only, or tornado+severe — that cuts to new warnings, tours the active ones, and settles back to a national view when it's quiet. Grab the map and it hands control right back.
Director
A step up: an AI camera that continuously scores every storm in the country and stays locked onto the single most dangerous one, only cutting away once another storm clearly overtakes it.
Fire Weather Tracking6 features
Fire Alerts
Red Flag Warnings, Fire Weather Watches, and Fire Warnings on the map, in their own amber/brown palette so they never read as storm products.
SPC Fire Weather Outlook
Day 1 and Day 2 categorical fire risk — Elevated, Critical, Extremely Critical — plus dry-thunderstorm risk areas.
Live Wildfire Incidents & Perimeters
Named, active wildfires with acreage and percent-contained, plus their mapped perimeters, from the National Interagency Fire Center.
Satellite Hotspot Detection
NASA satellite-detected heat sources, updating continuously once enabled.
Click-for-Detail
Every fire layer is clickable — incident name, acreage, containment, hotspot intensity, and detection time, all in one card.
Fully Isolated by Design
Fire activity never inflates the warning count, moves the National Threat Index, or triggers the on-air chrome — it runs quietly alongside tornado coverage without competing for attention.
Additional Hazard & Data Layers11 features
Hurricane Tracking
Active tropical system positions, forecast cone, forecast track, and wind radii straight from the National Hurricane Center.
Lightning
Real-time strike data, aged and faded by how recently each strike happened.
Rotation Tracks & Hail Swaths
NOAA's rotation-track and maximum-hail-size products, switchable between 1-hour and 24-hour windows — a tornado's path paints in as it happens.
ProbSevere
Per-storm, model-driven probabilities of tornado, hail, and wind risk, with a full breakdown on click.
Satellite
GOES true-color and infrared imagery layered under the radar.
Power Outages
Near-real-time utility outage territories, useful for correlating storm damage with what's actually losing power.
SPC Outlooks & Mesoscale Discussions
Day 1 categorical and probabilistic severe outlooks, plus SPC's own mesoscale discussions.
SPC Mesoanalysis Panel
Hourly CAPE, shear, helicity, and composite-parameter fields for any region, auto-refreshing.
Wind Flow
An animated, windy.com-style layer showing the current surface wind field across the country.
Local Storm Reports & Hail Chart
Same-day tornado, wind, and hail reports, plus a running chart of today's hail sizes.
Model Sounding
Right-click anywhere for a forecast sounding and computed severe-weather indices at that exact spot.
Historical Data & Replay4 features
Tornado History Archive
A searchable browser of decades of historical tornado tracks, filterable by year and EF-scale rating.
Tornado Ghosts
Significant historical tornado tracks fade in automatically near an active warning — instant "this is paralleling that year's storm" context.
Replay
A time machine for any past date: archived radar re-animated in sync with how the warnings actually evolved, clearly badged so it's never mistaken for live.
Reel
One-click recap video generation — drives Replay through a chosen window and records a fully composited broadcast frame straight to a downloadable video.
Map Tools5 features
Measure & Storm ETA
A distance ruler, plus a tool that reads a storm's real motion and computes closing speed and arrival time at any point you click.
Draw (Telestrator)
TV-meteorologist-style annotation — pen, arrows, circles, and text — glued to the geography as you pan and zoom.
Context Menu
Right-click anywhere for exact coordinates, to save a named location, or to jump to the nearest radar sites.
Place Search
Fast city, state, or ZIP lookup to fly anywhere in the country.
Unified Click Popup
One click, one answer, even where several layers overlap.
Streaming & Broadcast Production7 features
Vertical Stream Mode
A portrait 9:16 layout for TikTok Live and Shorts-style vertical capture, with the interface automatically rearranging to fit.
OBS-Ready Presets & Hotkeys
Every major layer and setting is controllable by URL, so a pinned streaming bookmark always looks the same — plus a full hotkey set and a clean mode that strips all chrome down to a pure map for a browser-source overlay.
Rehearsal Mode
A one-click broadcast rehearsal that fires the ticker, banners, and toasts with realistic fake data, so the whole on-air look can be tested with zero actual weather happening.
Brand Panel
A floating, draggable, resizable logo overlay.
Floating Panels Everywhere
Key panels detach, float, resize, and collapse independently, remembering position between sessions — and one key clears every open popup and tool at once.
Multi-Timezone Clock
Defaults to Central and UTC, expandable to every U.S. time zone — handy when a national audience is watching a storm in someone else's time.
Access Gate
A simple access-code lock on the hosted web version, so it isn't casually indexed or shared.
Desktop App Platform5 features
Native Windows App
The same features as the web version, running as its own window with a taskbar icon and a one-click installer.
Capture-Proof Rendering
Covering the window entirely with capture software never pauses the radar loop, ticker, or particle effects — a common browser limitation this eliminates outright.
Power-Save Blocker
Stops Windows from suspending the app mid-stream.
Private by Design
No URL at all — nothing hosted, indexed, or shareable the way a web address can be.
Window Memory
Remembers window size and position across restarts, so relaunching mid-stream reopens exactly the shape your capture software expects.
A FEW THINGS TO KNOW
A little clarity
before the clouds.
How are StormTrak and DeathStar different?
StormTrak centers radar, official warnings, storm tracking, Autopilot, 3D and local weather around a place you choose. DeathStar is the separate broadcast and desktop platform, with additional on-air production tools. Features listed in the DeathStar library below belong to that platform.
When can I try StormTrak?
Open StormTrak now in your browser. Free weather usage needs no account or payment.
Can I use StormTrak for free?
Yes. Free includes basic national radar, NWS warnings, the SPC Day 1 categorical outlook layer, basic storm motion intelligence and basic VoiceCore warnings, with no account or payment required. Optional Plus ($4.99 USD/month) and Pro ($9.99 USD/month) subscriptions are available in StormTrak; an account is needed to subscribe. Compare the tiers, full feature lists and optional add-ons.
What area does StormTrak cover?
Storm paths cover the contiguous United States. The warning view includes NWS tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings, with Special Weather Statements available separately. It does not include every type of weather alert.
Does StormTrak replace emergency alerts?
No. StormTrak offers weather context, voice features and supported push alerts where enabled. Push alerts require sign-in, permission and setup; delivery depends on device and browser support. Projections assume continued motion; storms can change quickly. Follow official NWS instructions and keep another way to receive warnings.
Website privacy
First-party session analytics is on by default for requests matched to the US by a local, approximate country lookup. Outside-US and unknown-country requests remain aggregate-only, without session timelines or analytics identifiers. It records fixed page labels and deliberate feature actions in order, using random temporary analytics identifiers shared between tortrak.com and storm.tortrak.com. They are separate from login cookies and do not identify verified people. Server-observed IP addresses may be linked to these sessions; an address can be shared by unrelated visitors. Approximate country/region and ISP or network information may be looked up locally, without sending visitor IPs to an external resolver. Detailed events, identifiers, IP links and enrichment caches expire within 14 days and are excluded from our automatic backups. No searched city, ZIP, address, coordinates, device/saved location, map center, form or feedback content, full URL, query string, fragment, credential or raw cookie/header is recorded in analytics. The owner can compare IP and time with separate security evidence to investigate abuse; matching addresses do not prove one person. Security protection remains active when optional analytics is off. Turning analytics off stops new collection and removes the dedicated analytics cookie; previously collected detail remains subject to the 14-day limit. The shared on/off preference applies to both sites; older host-specific opt-outs are also respected. We voluntarily suppress optional first-party metrics when GPC or DNT is present. GPC primarily covers sale/share or targeted advertising; this broader suppression is our policy. These metrics are not sold or used for targeted advertising. Browser support for DNT varies; the existing usage control remains available. Analytics failures never prevent weather use. Existing non-IP aggregate totals remain: hourly summaries expire after seven days and daily summaries after 400 days; aggregate backups within seven more days. Google Analytics (Google’s gtag.js tag) is also used for traffic statistics on tortrak.com, StormTrak and DeathStar under the same on/off setting: it does not load when analytics is off or when Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track is present. It receives ordinary visit information such as IP address, browser/device details, page URL, title and referring page, and sets first-party cookies to distinguish new and returning visits. Google signals and ad personalization are turned off, and Google’s retention and processing follow its own policy.
Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track are respected. This preference uses a shared on/off cookie for both Tortrak sites, separate from the temporary analytics identifier. With JavaScript disabled, browser privacy signals still apply.