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    Health & Wellness Tech
    Beginner
    4 min read 4 stepsApril 20, 2026Verified April 2026

    MyRadar: Real-Time Weather Radar and Severe Weather Push Alerts

    MyRadar shows live weather radar on a map of your exact location and sends push alerts when severe weather is heading your way.

    At a Glance

    Category
    Health & Wellness Tech
    Difficulty
    Beginner
    Read Time
    4 min read
    Steps
    4
    Topics covered
    myradar
    weather radar
    severe weather
    weather alerts
    storm tracking
    1

    Download and open MyRadar

    ~31s
    Search for "MyRadar Weather Radar" in the App Store or Google Play. Download the free version — it is the one with the most reviews and the orange radar icon. Open the app and allow it to access your location. The radar map will right away center on your area and display any current precipitation. If the sky is clear, the map will show your region with no colored overlay.

    Quick Tip

    Quick Tip: Allow notifications when prompted. Severe weather alerts are the most important safety feature this app offers. And they only work if notifications are enabled.

    2

    Read the radar colors

    ~22s
    On radar maps, colors show precipitation intensity. Green means light rain or drizzle. Yellow and orange mean moderate to heavy rain. Red means very heavy rain or large hail. Purple usually shows the heaviest precipitation or possible hail. Blue and teal shades show snow or mixed precipitation. When you see red or purple on the map heading toward your location, that is a sign of a significant storm.
    3

    Animate the radar to see storm movement

    ~32s
    Tap the play button (triangle icon) on the radar screen to animate the past hour of radar data. The colored shapes will move across the map, showing you the direction and speed a storm is traveling. This lets you estimate whether rain is heading toward you, moving away, or stalling in one area. Watch where the storm is going, not just where it is now.

    Quick Tip

    Quick Tip: You can extend the animation time window in settings to see several hours of radar history. This is useful for understanding the full path of a slow-moving weather system.

    4

    Set up severe weather alerts

    ~33s
    Tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines) and go to Settings, then Notifications. Enable alerts for your location. You can choose which types of warnings you want to receive — tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings, flood warnings, and others. For maximum safety, enable all of them. MyRadar pulls these alerts directly from the National Weather Service. So they are the same official warnings broadcast on TV and radio.

    Warning

    Severe weather alerts are official warnings, not forecasts. If you receive a tornado warning, do not go outside to look at the sky. Move to the lowest floor of a sturdy building, away from windows, right away.

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    MyRadar is one of the most popular free weather radar apps in the United States, with more than 50 million downloads. It shows you live NEXRAD radar data — the same weather radar data used by the National Weather Service — overlaid on an interactive map centered on your location. When rain, snow, or storms are moving through, you can see them in real time as colored shapes sweeping across the map.

    The app is developed by AJC Mobile and is available for free on iPhone and Android, with an ad-free premium version available if you prefer. The free version has all the core radar and alert features that most people need.

    NEXRAD stands for Next Generation Weather Radar. And it is a national network of radar stations operated by the National Weather Service. These stations sweep the sky every few minutes and detect precipitation, wind speed, and storm rotation. MyRadar pulls this data and updates the display every few minutes so you can see where storms are moving.

    The most important safety feature in MyRadar is its severe weather alert system. You can configure the app to send push notifications when a National Weather Service warning is issued for your location — including tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings, flash flood warnings, and winter storm warnings. These alerts are time-sensitive and can give you critical minutes to take shelter or prepare.

    Unlike a general weather app that shows you a forecast, MyRadar shows you what is happening right now and where precipitation is heading. This is most valuable when you are deciding whether to leave for an errand, whether to cancel outdoor plans, or whether a storm is heading directly for your home.

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