RadrView

Self-hosted, real-time weather radar with direct NEXRAD Level 2 station access. No API keys. No vendor lock-in.

Live Demo | Documentation | Donate

What it does

• Hybrid radar architecture — MRMS composite at z2-z7 (1km), NEXRAD Level 2 at z8+ (250m native resolution)
• 159 NEXRAD stations — direct from NOAA's WSR-88D network, ~5-10 minute updates
• Real-time sweep display — watch the radar beam rotate for stations with live chunk data
• Global wind flow — GFS model particle visualization, like Windy.com
• Biological layer — birds, insects, bats detected via dual-pol correlation coefficient
• Velocity layer — Doppler radial wind speed from Level 2 data
• Multi-source composites — MRMS (US), Environment Canada, DWD (Germany)
• 6 color palettes — Dark, NOAA, Viridis, Grayscale, Biological, Velocity
• WebSocket push — real-time frame notifications and sweep wedge streaming
• Precipitation type — rain, snow, freezing rain, hail classification
• 24-hour animation — crossfade transitions with playback controls

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/cwdaniel/radrview.git
cd RadrView
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up -d

Open https://radrview.com (or http://localhost:8600 for local dev) — radar data appears within 60 seconds. NEXRAD Level 2 data loads within 5 minutes.

Architecture

z2-z7 (macro)                    z8+ (close-up)
MRMS Composite                   NEXRAD Level 2
1km resolution                   250m resolution
Ingest → Tile → MBTiles          Archive → Parse → Project → Render on demand
                    ↘                        ↙
                      Express Server (:8600)
                      Tile endpoint + WebSocket
                      Wind flow from GFS

API

GET /tile/:timestamp/:z/:x/:y?palette=dark&source=composite&layer=reflectivity
GET /frames/latest?source=composite
GET /nexrad/stations
GET /wind/grid
GET /health
WS  /ws → { type: "new-frame" | "sweep-wedge" }

Full API docs: docs/api.md

Documentation

• Getting Started — prerequisites, first run
• Architecture — pipeline, NEXRAD, wind
• Configuration — environment variables
• API Reference — endpoints, WebSocket, tile URL format
• Sources — MRMS, EC, DWD, NEXRAD Level 2, GFS
• Palettes — color palettes and custom palette guide
• Adding a Source — step-by-step for new radar feeds
• Deployment — production setup
• Gotchas — known issues

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on bug reports, feature requests, and pull requests.

Support

If RadrView is useful to you, consider making a donation.

License

MIT — see LICENSE