Data & Sources
Behind the forecast.
Dreadcast brings together public weather, radar, and hazard data from the organizations below. We process, reproject, color, and animate this data for display, in the app and on Dreadcast’s servers. None of these organizations endorses Dreadcast. The Credits button on the app’s map lists the sources in use.
Weather and radar
- Conditions and forecasts: Weather data by Open-Meteo.com, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Values are rounded for display.
- Measured radar: NOAA Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor System (MRMS), processed into map tiles by Dreadcast.
- Wind: NOAA Global Forecast System (GFS) via the NOAA Open Data Dissemination program, processed by Dreadcast.
- Standard radar: RainViewer.
- Lightning: Xweather.
- Enhanced radar and weather alerts: NOAA National Weather Service.
- ZIP code locations: Zippopotam.us.
Hazards and outlooks
- Severe-weather outlook: NOAA Storm Prediction Center.
- Hurricanes and tropical storms: NOAA National Hurricane Center.
- Wildfires: National Interagency Fire Center WFIGS.
- Smoke: NOAA Hazard Mapping System. Shows analyzed smoke aloft, not surface air quality.
- Air quality and dust: Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service data via Open-Meteo. Generated using Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information; neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use of it.
- Earthquakes: USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. M2.5+ events from the past day; not an early-warning service.
- Volcanoes: USGS Volcano Hazards Program.
- Tsunami bulletins: NOAA National and Pacific Tsunami Warning Centers.
- Solar activity, aurora, and radio disruption: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. Aurora shows modeled intensity, not guaranteed visibility.
- Meteor showers: peak dates from the American Meteor Society, bundled with the app.
Satellite imagery and maps
- Clouds: GOES-East and GOES-West GeoColor imagery from NASA GIBS, part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Contains modified EUMETSAT data where GOES has no coverage.
- Dreadcast map: OpenFreeMap · © OpenMapTiles · © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Apple map: Apple Maps, with attribution shown on the map.
Timeliness and accuracy
Each source updates on its own schedule, from about a minute for alerts to several hours for some satellite and model products. Data can be delayed, revised, or temporarily unavailable. Dreadcast shows observation times where sources provide them. For safety decisions, always follow official warnings from your national weather service and local authorities. See our Terms of Use.
Website preview
The interactive preview on this website uses recorded NOAA MRMS radar and NASA GIBS cloud imagery from September 5, 2026. Other conditions and map events on the website are illustrative, and the Colorado wind thumbnail uses an illustrative flow field rather than observed weather.
Website map attribution
The website’s interactive map and Colorado thumbnail use OpenFreeMap, © OpenMapTiles, and © OpenStreetMap contributors, rendered with MapLibre.