Radar and severe-weather alerts. Pay once, own it forever.
Weather apps got greedy: subscriptions for radar, ads on the forecast, accounts to see if it will rain. Weathervane is the opposite — animated NOAA radar, minute-scale rain forecasts, and warning alerts for $5.99, once. No subscription, no ads, no account, no trackers. From the team behind Snoflo.
The weather is free, public data. Apps charge you monthly for it anyway.
Radar comes from NOAA. Warnings come from the National Weather Service. Forecast models are run by federal agencies with public output. Yet the most-downloaded weather apps put that public data behind $30-a-year subscriptions, wrap it in ads, and sell your location to data brokers on the side.
Weathervane is a protest in app form. You pay $5.99 exactly once, and you get the radar, the minute-by-minute rain sentence, severe-weather alerts for the places you care about, and every data layer we can build from public pipelines — forecast rain and snow totals, temperature, wind, river flow, ocean waves, wildfires, smoke, drought. Nothing is held back, and nothing renews.
There is no account because none is needed. There are no trackers because your location is nobody's product. When Dark Sky died, this is the app we wished had replaced it.
What the subscription apps won't do
Each of these exists because a thousand one-star reviews of the incumbents asked for it.
One price, forever
$5.99 buys the whole app: radar, alerts, all layers, widgets, and every update we ship. There is no subscription tier to upsell you into, no ads in a "free mode," and no feature that quietly moves behind a paywall later. That promise is the product.
The business model is the featureHonest minute-cast
The rain sentence is cross-checked against two independent forecast systems. When they agree, you get a confident "starting in ~15 min." When they disagree, the app says "possible" and shows you the probability — instead of a false-precision minute that erodes your trust the first time it's wrong.
Two models, one honest sentenceLayers no cheap radar app has
Forecast rain totals out to 72 hours, snowfall analysis and forecast, temperature, wind, drought, live river flow, ocean wave height, active wildfires and smoke plumes — built from the same federal data pipelines that power every Snoflo app. Tap anywhere and one popup aggregates every active layer's reading at that point.
Nine federal pipelinesA reason to open it on clear days
Sky Tonight scores the stargazing where you stand — light pollution, moon phase, and each night's cloud forecast — and watches NOAA's space-weather feed for aurora storms strong enough to reach your latitude. Computed on-device, so it works at a dark trailhead with no bars.
Dark Sky's spirit, literallyEverything Weathervane does
Animated radar
Smooth cross-faded NOAA radar — the past two hours plus a 30-minute nowcast, scrubbable by hand, refreshed every few minutes.
Minute-cast
When rain starts and stops at your exact location, in plain language, cross-checked across two forecast systems.
Severe-weather warnings
Live tornado, severe thunderstorm, and flood warning polygons on the map; watches and advisories shaded by severity beneath them.
Alerts for your places
Save home, the cabin, the kids' school — flip the bell and your phone checks for warnings in the background and notifies you.
Forecast layers
Rain totals to 72h, snowfall past and forecast, temperature, wind arrows, and drought — one tap each in the map filters.
Water & fire layers
Live river flow, ocean wave heights, active wildfire detections, and smoke plumes — tap any of them for the reading at that point.
Forecast reports
Google-style temperature curves, 8-day outlooks with highs, and Snoflo's interactive meteograms for every place and every tap.
Sky Tonight & aurora
A stargazing score for tonight and the next five nights, plus aurora watches when a geomagnetic storm can reach your latitude.
Widgets & Live Activity
Current conditions and the rain sentence on your Home Screen, and a live "rain in 12 min" countdown on the Lock Screen.
From federal pipelines to your Lock Screen
Public data
NOAA radar, National Weather Service warnings and forecasts, and open forecast models — the same sources the incumbents resell.
Snoflo pipelines
Daily builds of rain, snow, temperature, wind, fire, smoke, river and wave layers — infrastructure shared by every Snoflo app.
One map
Radar animating on top, warnings above it, your layers beneath — and a single popup that reads out everything at any point you tap.
Your pocket
Warning notifications for saved places, Home Screen widgets, and a Lock Screen countdown when rain is minutes away.
One price. We mean it.
Every feature ships to every buyer. The absence of a second column isn't a design choice we might revisit — it's the reason the app exists.
- Animated radar and minute-cast
- Severe-weather alerts for unlimited saved places
- All ten-plus data layers
- Sky Tonight, aurora watch, widgets, Live Activity
- Every future update, no upsells
- No subscription — nothing renews, ever
- No ads — not even in a "free tier." There isn't one.
- No account — nothing to sign up for, nothing to leak
- No trackers — your location is not for sale
- No paywalled weather you might get caught out in
Storm watchers to subscription refugees
Severe-weather country
- Warning polygons the moment NWS issues them.
- Bell alerts for home, family, and the places you love.
- Radar smooth enough to actually track a cell.
Outdoor planners
- Snowfall, river flow, and wave layers for real trips.
- "Rain in ~15 min" before the trailhead, not after.
- Sky Tonight for the clear-night payoff.
Subscription refugees
- Everything the $30/yr apps charge for, for $5.99 once.
- No renewal email, ever.
- No ads between you and the forecast.
Built on public data, done right
Weathervane reads the same pipelines that power Snoflo on the web and eight sibling apps — infrastructure a subscription competitor would need months to replicate.
Real humans, usually within a day
Questions, bug reports, or a layer you wish existed? Email info@snoflo.org. Deeper forecasts, reports and data live at snoflo.org. Weathervane is a one-time purchase — there is no subscription to manage or cancel; refunds are handled by Apple through the App Store.
Terms of Service
- Informational use only. Weathervane presents weather information (radar imagery, forecasts, National Weather Service alerts, environmental data layers, astronomical calculations) for general informational purposes only. It is NOT an official forecast or warning service, an emergency information source, or professional or safety advice. For official forecasts, warnings, and evacuation guidance, consult the National Weather Service, NOAA Weather Radio, local authorities, and Wireless Emergency Alerts.
- Forecasts are estimates, not measurements. Radar nowcasts, minute-scale rain predictions, and every forecast layer are model output. They routinely differ from actual conditions, sometimes substantially, and cannot capture every local effect or rapid change. The rain sentence is deliberately worded to a ~15-minute grain because that is the honest precision of the underlying data.
- Alerts are best-effort and must not be relied upon. Warning notifications are evaluated on your device when iOS chooses to schedule background work. They can be delayed — sometimes by hours — or not delivered at all if your device is offline, low on battery, in Low Power Mode, has background refresh or notifications disabled, or if the system defers the work. Weathervane is not a life-safety warning system. Never let the presence or absence of a Weathervane notification factor into a safety decision; official channels (Wireless Emergency Alerts, NOAA Weather Radio, local sirens) exist for that purpose.
- Severe weather is dangerous. Use at your own risk. Tornadoes, flash floods, lightning, extreme heat and cold, high winds, wildfire and winter storms can cause injury and death with little warning. You are solely responsible for your own safety and for independently verifying conditions against official sources. You assume all risk arising from reliance on the app's content.
- Data availability. Radar, alert, and forecast data are relayed from public and third-party services that can be delayed, degraded, or unavailable. Layers built from daily data pipelines may lag or be temporarily missing. We do not warrant continuous availability of any data source.
- One-time purchase. Weathervane is sold as a one-time purchase through the App Store. There is no subscription and nothing renews. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase; purchases and refunds are handled by Apple under the App Store terms. We do not process payments or receive your payment details.
- No warranty. Weathervane is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, availability, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the app or its data will be uninterrupted, timely, current, or error-free.
- Limitation of liability. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Snoflo.org LLC, its members, officers, and suppliers shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for personal injury, death, property damage, or economic loss, arising from or related to the app or reliance on its content. Our total aggregate liability for any claim shall not exceed the amount you paid for the app. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations; in those jurisdictions our liability is limited to the fullest extent permitted.
- Acceptable use. You may not misuse the app, including probing or disrupting the services it relies on, redistributing its data feeds at scale, or reverse-engineering the app except as permitted by law.
- Indemnification. You agree to indemnify and hold Snoflo harmless from claims arising out of your use of the app or your violation of these terms.
- Changes. We may update the app or these terms at any time. What we will not do is convert your one-time purchase into a subscription or remove purchased functionality; that commitment is part of the product. Continued use after changes to these terms constitutes acceptance.
- Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the state in which Snoflo.org LLC is organized, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remainder stays in effect.
Privacy Policy
- The short version. Weathervane has no accounts, no advertising, no analytics SDKs, and no tracking. We operate no server for the app and hold no database of its users. We could not sell your data if we wanted to, because we never receive it.
- Location. Your location is used to center the radar map, fetch forecasts and alerts for where you stand, power the widgets, and compute the stargazing score. It is requested only while you use the app (widgets use the same permission). Your coordinates leave the device only as anonymous query parameters in requests to weather services — the National Weather Service (api.weather.gov) and Open-Meteo for forecasts and alerts, and NOAA services for space weather. These requests carry no name, account, or persistent identifier from us.
- Saved places and alerts. The places you save, and which of them have alerts enabled, are stored in a file on your device and nowhere else. Alert checking runs on your device: it fetches public alert feeds for your saved coordinates and posts local notifications. No list of your places is transmitted to us or anyone.
- Map and radar tiles. Map tiles are served by Mapbox and radar imagery by RainViewer; like any web request, their servers receive standard network data (such as your IP address and the map areas requested) needed to return tiles. We have disabled the Mapbox SDK's usage telemetry in the app. See Mapbox's and RainViewer's own privacy policies for their handling of server logs.
- Diagnostics. Crash and hang reports are collected by Apple's on-device MetricKit framework and stored only on your device. Nothing is uploaded to us. If you ever email support, you may choose to attach one yourself. Standard Apple analytics (if you opted in at the iOS level) are governed by Apple's policy, not ours.
- Payments. The one-time purchase is processed entirely by Apple. We never receive your name, card, or payment details — only an anonymous entitlement confirmation on the device.
- No third-party data sales, ever. We do not sell, rent, share, or trade personal data with data brokers, advertisers, or anyone else — a straightforward promise, since we hold none.
- Children. Weathervane is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, children included.
- Changes. If a future feature ever requires collecting anything (for example, optional server-delivered push alerts), this policy will be updated first and the feature will be opt-in.
- Contact. Privacy questions: info@snoflo.org.