About Tornado Tracker

🎯 What It Does

Tornado Tracker is a free, interactive tornado map that displays active tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm alerts, and other severe weather notifications across the United States in real time.

• Live tornado warning and tornado watch polygons on an interactive map
• Push notifications for new severe weather alerts
• Search and filter alerts by location, event type, or keyword
• Coverage for Tornado Alley and all 50 US states
• Auto-refreshing data — updated every 60 seconds

⚙️ How It Works

Tornado Tracker is a real-time tornado tracking application built with modern web technologies. Here's how the system works:

1. Our backend continuously polls the NOAA Weather API for the latest severe weather alerts
2. New alerts are processed and broadcast to all connected users via push notifications
3. The interactive storm tracker map renders alert polygons with color-coded severity levels
4. Users can click any alert to view full details including affected areas, timing, and safety instructions

📡 Data Source

All severe weather alerts displayed on Tornado Tracker come directly from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather API. This is the same authoritative data source used by the National Weather Service (NWS).

We do not modify or editorialize NOAA alerts. What you see on our weather radar map is the official alert data, presented in a user-friendly, map-based format optimized for quick situational awareness.

🛠️ Technology

Tornado Tracker is built with Next.js, TypeScript, and MapLibre GL for high-performance map rendering. Push notifications are powered by Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), ensuring you receive tornado warnings the moment they are issued.

📬 Contact

Have feedback, questions, or feature requests? Reach out to us at [email protected].