The 5 Best Hurricane Tracker Apps of 2018
You need a great hurricane tracker app if you or someone you know might be in danger due to a current or impending hurricane. Most hurricane tracking apps can alert you when the storm is approaching any location of your choosing, and you can see detailed forecasts regarding when the storm will hit.
There are plenty of other weather tracking apps you can get on your phone or tablet, too, and while most of them can track hurricanes as well as snow and other conditions, they aren't built specifically for watching hurricane threats.
Below are the best hurricane trackers for your phone. All of these storm trackers work on both iOS and Android devices, and some can even be used from a desktop web browser. Download one now so that you can know ahead of time when a hurricane is coming.
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Storm Radar: A Free App to See Exactly Where the Hurricane Is Moving
From the popular The Weather Channel service is Storm Radar, the best way to track hurricanes. This storm tracker is so incredibly detailed that you won't have any problem seeing exactly where the hurricane will probably hit, and precisely when it's forecasted to arrive.
If you don't have a phone, you can use The Weather Channel online with their web app. See where the hurricane has been and where's it seems to be heading, and zoom up as close as you need to see if and when the hurricane will reach where you are.
What We Like:
- Lots of map overlays that can all work together, like hurricanes, temperature, cloud cover, local alerts, storm tracks, radar, and more
- Animates the map two hours from the past and several hours into the future to visualize the forecast
- Three map style options to customize the app
- It's easy to view weather conditions from any location on the map with a tap-and-hold
- Operates well even when lots of map overlays are being used at once
What We Don't Like:
- Shows advertisements
Price: Free with ads, but you can remove them for $1 /month
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Hurricane by American Red Cross: Track Your Loved Ones
It’s important to know that the people you care about are safe during a hurricane threat, which is exactly what you get with the American Red Cross hurricane tracker app. Not only is this tracker a preparedness app for dangerous storms that tells you what to do before, during, and after the hurricane, it shows you when someone you know might be in danger due to the storm.
Anyone in your contacts list can be added to a location on the map so that you can see right away on the first page whether or not your family or friends are in the middle of a storm. If you’re tracking the storm for yourself, use the “I’m Safe” feature as an easy way to tell people you’re not in danger.
What We Like:
- Monitors anyone's location from your contact list
- Displays on the map every Red Cross shelter within the hurricane’s impact areas
- Hurricane preparedness information is available even without a data connection
- Projects where the storm is most likely headed, and includes the time it’s forecasted to be there
- Includes a built-in flashlight, strobe light, and alarm siren
- It’s easy to send emails, texts, or other messages to your contacts to explain that you’re safe from the storm, and it includes your location
- Supports both English and Spanish
What We Don’t Like:
- You can’t view multiple overlays at once, such as the hurricane tracker and rain (or wind speed, clouds, etc.)
- The app is sometimes slow to load
Price: Free
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My Hurricane Tracker: An Easy to Use Hurricane Tracker
If you just want a simple way to track hurricanes and stay updated when things about the storm change, you can’t go wrong with My Hurricane Tracker. This free hurricane tracker app has a really clean interface and is simple for anyone to use.
My Hurricane Tracker identifies active storm threats and lets you see the path of the hurricane from when and where it started, where it’s at right now, and its forecasted destination. Just tap the little hurricane icons on the map for more detail.
What We Like:
- Simple design without lots of excess features
- Can alert you each time the hurricane you’re tracking is updated or tracked at a new location
- Shows a forecasted view of where, exactly, the hurricane will go (up to five days in advance), as reported by the NOAA
- Displays how far away the storm is from your current location
- Reveals the exact coordinates and wind speeds in the forecast
- Supports low bandwidth mode to download lower quality radar and satellite images when you have a weak internet connection
- You can track hurricanes from decades ago, too
What We Don’t Like:
- Doesn't show "standard" weather app details like rain, clouds, etc.
- The storm's size (like how large the hurricane is) isn't shown on the map
- Includes ads
Price: Free, you can buy the pro version for no ads and to get support for Apple Watch
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NOAA Weather Radar: Detailed Maps and Offline Tracking
NOAA Weather Radar is a good hurricane tracker app because it lets you overlay rain, radar, or satellite images on top of the hurricane tracker. This gives you a detailed look at what's happening in the storm.
On top of that, you can track storms offline with NOAA Weather Radar because it caches the map animations, forecasts, and alerts so that even if you don't have access to the internet, you can still see the most recently downloaded information.
This hurricane tracker lets you add multiple locations to the map to get alerted if they're in the path of a hurricane. Tap any of those locations and you'll see a week-long forecast including the temperature, wind speed, rain likelihood, and more details.
What We Like:
- You can track the hurricane offline*
- Animates the progression of the storm from nearly an hour ago to the current time
- Provides map overlays on top of the hurricane tracker
- You can tap icons on the map to see where the storm might be in the future
- Includes a lightning tracker and other warning and alert options, like for coastal flooding and tornadoes
- Shows a 7-day forecast for any location
- Units can be changed for the distance, pressure, wind speed, and temperature
What We Don't Like:
- Only the map icons are included in future forecasts, not the animation
- Hurricane tracking is only free for a week, and then you have to pay
Price: Hurricane tracking and alerts for saved locations is free for seven days but then costs $2.99 /week, $5.99 for three months, or $9.99 /year; other basic weather features are free
Important: When using NOAA Weather Radar offline, please remember that while it might seem like you're getting live information because the map still animates and the alerts are still shown, you can't actually download anything new. What you see when offline is just a cached version of what was last downloaded when you had an internet connection.
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VentuSky: Super Detailed Wind Patterns
If you're less interested in the normal weather app and want to know more about where the wind is coming from and moving toward during a hurricane, you'll love VentuSky.
This is both a web app and a mobile app that lets you view various storm related information on a beautiful map. Some of the options include wind speed and gusts, thunderstorms, temperature, precipitation, clouds, air pressure, humidity, waves, and snow cover.
What We Like:
- Lots of customizable map options
- Works on mobile devices and computers
- Much better animations than most storm trackers
- Fluid zooming in and out of the map
- Shows the weather forecast for the next week for any location
What We Don't Like:
- More than one map layer can't be used at once
- Won't alert you about hurricanes or any type of storm
- iPhone and iPad users can't use the app for free
Price: Free for web and Android users, $2.99 for iOS