Answers to the questions we get most. If yours isn't here, write to us — the address is at the bottom, and a real person reads it.
Tap Measure, then press and hold the crosshair and drag it onto the leading edge of the storm you care about. The panel shows the distance, the storm's speed and direction, an arrival window, and a confidence rating for the place you're measuring to — your GPS position on the free tier, or any point or saved location with Premium.
Because the estimate comes from how the cell moved across the last few radar frames, and storms don't move in straight lines at constant speed. The range is the honest answer; the confidence rating says how steady the recent motion was. "Passing north / south" means the projected track misses your target; "moving away" means it is receding.
Please treat every number as an estimate and follow official warnings regardless.
Radar frames come from NOAA's public MRMS service, which publishes a new composite roughly every 5–8 minutes, a couple of minutes behind real time — so the newest frame is always a little behind what's outside your window. When NOAA's service can't be reached the source chip says so and the app keeps the last loop it has. Pull to refresh, or check your connection.
Yes — change the span with the timeline control (15 minutes to 4 hours). The loop always plays in about the same wall-clock time, so a longer span means bigger steps between frames rather than a slower animation. The speed chip cycles ½× / 1× / 2×.
Yes. The map and radar work without it. The free tier measures to your GPS position, so without location you'll need Premium to place the target by hand, or use the demo storm to try Measure.
Premium. Open Locations, search a place name or long-press the map, and save it with a name. Saved locations live only on your phone; delete any of them from the same screen. Uninstalling removes them.
The Warnings tab lists the watches and warnings the US National Weather Service has in force at your target, and draws their polygons on the map. They are the NWS's own products, unedited.
No. The arrival notification fires only while the app is open and a measured storm's arrival time drops under your threshold (Settings → Alerts). It is not background monitoring. For overnight warnings rely on Wireless Emergency Alerts, a NOAA Weather Radio, or your local siren.
Check Android Settings → Apps → Simply Radar → Notifications. If you declined the prompt when you first opened the app, that is where to turn it back on.
No advertising, a target you can place anywhere plus saved named locations, and every radar update interval. It is a one-time purchase through Google Play — no subscription, nothing to renew or cancel. The price is shown in the app before you buy.
Open Settings → Restore purchases. That re-checks with Google Play. Make sure the phone is signed in to the same Google account you bought Premium with. A payment that needs approval — a family "ask to buy" request, a pending card — can take a couple of days to clear, and the app unlocks on its own once it does. Please don't buy it a second time.
Premium is a one-time purchase, so there is nothing to cancel. Refunds are handled by Google Play, not by us — use Google's refund process. If something in the app is broken, tell us first; we would rather fix it.
Settings → Ad preferences. That row only appears where the choice applies — the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. You can also reset your Advertising ID in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads.
To your phone, to place the target and run the arrival maths — and to the National Weather Service, to fetch the warnings in force at that point. It is never sent to us; we have no server. Full detail, including what Google Maps and AdMob see, in the Privacy Policy.
Email support@cypresstech.net — a real person reads it.
Please tell us what you expected to happen and what happened instead, plus your phone model and the app version (shown at the bottom of Settings). If you can include a screenshot, even better.