1  Getting Started

This chapter walks you from first launch to a live radar view with the overlays you care about.

1.1 First launch

The first time you open NeoWeatherwall, an interactive onboarding tutorial introduces the basics. You can close it at any time, and re-run it later from Settings > Debug > Reset Onboarding.

To show your own location on the map, grant the location permission when prompted. This enables the Current Location dot and is required for location-based features.

1.2 Picking a radar site

NeoWeatherwall shows single-site radar from one WSR-88D (NEXRAD) or TDWR (Terminal Doppler) site at a time:

• Open the radar site picker and choose a site (for example, KTLX near Oklahoma City), or
• Turn on the Radar Sites overlay and tap a site marker on the map to switch to it.

Your selected site is remembered between launches. If you don’t want the smaller airport TDWR sites cluttering the picker and map, enable Hide TDWR Sites in Settings.

The radar site picker, with WSR-88D and TDWR sites listed.

1.3 Choosing what to display

Each map panel shows one radar product plus any overlays you toggle on:

1. Open the radar product picker for the panel.
2. Choose a product. Start with Reflectivity (precipitation intensity) or Velocity (motion).
3. For products that support it, pick an elevation tilt (0.5° is lowest/closest to the ground).
4. Toggle overlays such as Warnings, Watches, Lightning, or Spotter Positions.

See Radar Products and Map Overlays for the full list.

A basic reflectivity view with the radar controls and playback transport visible.

1.4 Navigating the map

• Pan by dragging; zoom by pinching (iOS) or scrolling/trackpad (macOS).
• Tap a feature (warning polygon, spotter, station, storm attribute) to see its details.
• Long-press a point on the map for contextual actions such as saving a location.

1.5 Playing the loop

Radar animates. Use the playback transport (step backward, play/pause, step forward) and the timeline scrubber to loop through recent frames. By default the app loads roughly the last hour of data. See Animation & Archive.

1.6 A typical severe-weather setup

A good starting configuration during active weather:

1. Select the radar site nearest the storms.
2. Set the panel product to Reflectivity at 0.5°.
3. Turn on Warnings, Watches, and Storm Reports.
4. Optionally add a second panel with Velocity or Azimuthal Shear (see Panels & Layout).
5. Press Play to loop and watch the trend.

From here, the rest of the manual covers each capability in depth, and the Radar Reading Guide teaches you how to interpret what you’re seeing.