Changelog

Track what's new, improved, and fixed in Echoes.

v3.2.0

Storm Surge

  • New: Storm Surge for historical hurricanes. Replay any storm from the archive: Surge Watches & Warnings shows where official NHC surge watches and warnings were in effect along the coast, Peak Storm Surge shows the highest surge NHC forecast for each stretch of coast, and Surge Flooding paints how deep NHC expected the water to get, with a band for shoreline that is normally wet. Turn on the crosshair readout in the replay bar to read the flood depth as you pan. Available with Echoes Premium
  • The hurricane forecast cone has a new look that stays readable over satellite imagery, a small legend lists the tropical layers you have on, and the storm replay bar shows the real NHC advisory number and the storm’s intensity
  • Sounding winds read about half their true speed; wind barbs, the hodograph, and shear values are now correct
  • Model, satellite, and surface analysis layers could be drawn up to almost two miles from their true position; they now line up with the map
  • Model animations no longer freeze partway through a loop, and switching models no longer mixes frames from two models
  • Blocky edges are gone from the national radar mosaic (MRMS) and model layers, small square holes no longer punch through radar imagery, and downdraft colors no longer run in reverse
  • The map crosshair readout no longer reports values where the map shows nothing, and its color swatch matches the map’s colors
  • Tropical outlook maps no longer go blank when an NHC server stalls
  • Sounding text labels no longer overlap, and the app no longer quits on devices low on memory when spotter icons are on screen
v3.1.2

Fresher Radar Mosaic and Corrected Readouts

  • The national radar mosaic (MRMS) and surface analysis (RTMA) show the newest frame when you return to the app or switch products, instead of replaying an older cached one
  • The model product picker no longer tags shear, updraft and downdraft, or storm motion with your wind unit, and updraft and downdraft charts follow the correct unit
  • The map crosshair readout matches the bottom bar: echo tops read in kft and hail size in inches, and bottom bar values follow the unit each product actually uses, fixing pressure and precipitation rate readings
  • Station plots, wind barbs, river gauge icons, and air quality icons are sized correctly on iPad, and cloud cover icons no longer blur when zoomed in
  • METAR and weather station charts snap to the nearest real observation when you scrub, so observed lines no longer invent swings between readings
  • The historical radar chip shows the correct date in every time zone
  • Landscape map view is sharper, and panning no longer flickers along county lines
v3.1.1

Eight New National Radar Products

  • The national radar mosaic (MRMS) adds eight products: Low-Level Reflectivity, Current Hail Size, Hail Index, Hail Probability, VIL Density, Ice Aloft, and echo tops at 18 and 50 dBZ, with areas outside radar coverage kept clear on all of them
  • Hail colors follow inch thresholds, so one-inch severe hail reads as severe instead of sitting in the green band
  • Low-Level Shear and Mid-Level Shear resolve weak rotation as well as strong
  • Storm history tracks show the full path from formation
  • Each past track point carries the storm’s phase at that time, with post-tropical, subtropical, and remnant low each given their own color and label, plus a landfall marker
  • Tapping a forecast point shows how far the 39, 58, and 74 mph winds reach in each direction, plus the radius of maximum winds
  • Live radar updates recover better after a network drop
v3.1.0

Satellite Dust Detection

  • New: Dust. GOES satellites pick out airborne dust, and Echoes draws it over the map, across the Pacific, CONUS, and Atlantic views; the sensor needs sunlight, so the layer runs in daylight only (Premium)
  • Station cards now list cloud layers, each with its sky cover and the height of its base
  • Map Layers is easier to use: layers with their own data source carry an info button with the source and a legend, glossary sections start collapsed, and the popup has a close button
  • The historical picker still sets times in UTC, and now shows your local time below the start time you pick; tools that do not work with your current selection stay on screen and explain why instead of disappearing
  • Fixed a freeze at launch, and a quit during a pinch-zoom with wind barbs turned on
v3.0.5

Expanded Station Cards & Faster Loading

  • Station cards show much more of each observation, with new cards for sea-level pressure, heat index, wind chill, visibility, cloud cover, and recent precipitation, plus the station’s conditions text and raw METAR report
  • A new humidity chart joins the history charts; the visibility chart, which was empty at most stations, now fills in
  • Weather stations appear on the map sooner, with coverage now even across the country instead of some regions showing none until you zoomed in far; official network stations now appear before personal weather stations as you zoom
  • Observed soundings could load forever at some stations; they now load in seconds
  • Skew-T winds follow your wind unit setting: wind barbs, the hodograph, and shear values use knots, mph, or km/h, as you choose
  • Model visibility and ceiling layers now show flight categories: VFR, MVFR, IFR, and LIFR
  • Cloud Top Height and Cloud Top Pressure no longer show speckle where satellite data is low confidence
v3.0.4

Station Wind Fix & NO2/SO2 Air Quality

  • Some weather stations reported wind speeds that were too high; station wind now reads correctly, and station cards show whether the wind is rising or falling
  • The Air Quality layer now includes nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2); monitors that report no pollutant Echoes maps no longer appear
  • Historical radar could show an empty map with a play button that did nothing when the picked product had no data for that event; playback now works
  • Hail size follows your unit setting: centimeters in metric, inches in US units, across spotter reports, Max Hail Size, and 3D Storm Volume
v3.0.3

Terrain Toggle & Time Alignment

  • Backdrop Light can now drop its 3D relief; turn off Terrain & Trails in Map Layers for a plain light map (the light basemap previously showed hillshade that looked like a topographic map)
  • Historical radar times now line up: the chip, the scrubber, and the bottom bar show the same time, each labeled with your local time zone
  • Some forecast hub cards showed a blank high and low; the preview now fills in
v3.0.2

Forecast Hub & Chart Redesign

  • The Forecasts button now works both ways: tap it on the map to open the forecasts hub, tap again to return to the radar (the Done button is gone)
  • Location cards in the hub show today’s high and low; tap a card to open the full forecast, with a lock on the Plot and Sounding buttons for non-Premium users
  • Charts have a new look: temperature and dewpoint lines change color with the value, other chart colors are retuned for contrast, and radar and model color bars now print their minimum and maximum values
  • Skew-T soundings are easier to read on a phone, with larger text throughout the composite
  • Precipitation Type showed the wrong tilt angle at some radar sites; it now matches Reflectivity and Velocity at the same tilt
  • Storm date ranges could show a day early; dates now follow the advisory time
  • Station condition cards could disagree with the chart below them; they now use the newest observation
  • Flood and storm badges could show white text on a light background; badge text now switches to black or white for contrast
v3.0.1

Sounding Redesign & Fixes

  • Skew-T soundings have a new design
  • On a phone, the sounding fills the screen with a vertical layout: Skew-T on top, hodograph and key parameters below
  • Rotate to landscape for the full composite with parameter tables and vertical profiles
  • Alert outlines could turn solid black instead of the event color, most often when the radar finished loading after the alerts; outlines now keep their colors
  • Animations could fall behind the live radar; an animation now loads the newest available frames and keeps picking up new frames while it plays
  • River gauges and air quality sites now refresh when you switch radar sites with the coverage mask on (before this fix, they kept the previous site’s coverage)
  • Land Surface Temp no longer shows cold speckle from thin cloud; its color range is now retuned to match
  • LIVE Sweep now handles an uncommon scan pattern that could stop a sweep from loading
v3.0.0

LIVE Sweep

  • LIVE Sweep (Premium): Echoes streams each ray the moment the radar collects it
  • The beam sweeps around and paints the storm arc by arc, at the radar’s real rotation rate
  • Works on any Level 2 product and any tilt
  • Real countdowns: the bottom bar counts down to the next radar frame second by second
  • In LIVE, the countdown follows the radar’s own scan schedule
  • Premium now follows your Apple ID, so one subscription works on all your devices at once
  • Premium settings survive a brief hiccup in subscription status instead of switching layers off
  • Alert polygons, mesoscale discussions, and the location marker now have outlines so they stay readable over bright radar returns
v2.1.0

Air Quality Forecast

  • Air Quality Forecast: tap any AirNow site to see the EPA AQI outlook up to six days out
  • Each day in the outlook is color-coded by category
  • Echoes flags Action Day (Spare-the-Air) alerts whenever an agency asks the public to cut back on emissions and outdoor exertion
  • Health guidance tuned to the dominant pollutant, free for everyone
  • Full multi-day outlook (Premium)
  • Action Day badges (Premium)
  • Forecaster’s discussion (Premium)
  • 3D Storm Volume: landscape support
  • 3D Storm Volume: scene sharing
v2.0.0

3D Storm Volume

  • 3D Storm Volume (Premium): step inside a storm and explore its full structure in three dimensions
  • Orbit the core
  • Read echo tops
  • See hail lofted above the freezing level, highlighted right where it sits
  • Temperature axis with the freezing line
  • Wind barbs show the flow through the storm
  • Draw a box on the map to focus the scene on any region
  • Switch between Volumetric and Isosurface views
  • Open it from any frame on the radar timeline to watch the storm build
v1.5.0

Storm Cross-Section

  • Storm Cross-Section (Premium): draw a line across any storm to see a vertical slice of the atmosphere, revealing updraft cores, hail lofted above the freezing level, and the bright band
  • Switch between radar products and step through the timeline to update the slice to any moment
  • GOES fire detection now renders as a live overlay on satellite imagery
v1.4.1

Expanded Satellite Coverage

  • GOES imagery now switches across three regions: Pacific, CONUS, and Atlantic, powered by GOES-19 (East) and GOES-18 (West)
  • Full-basin views to follow tropical systems from formation
  • New Sea Surface Temperature product
  • UKMET and NAVGEM spaghetti tracks for tropical guidance
v1.4.0

Air Quality Layer

  • Real-time EPA AirNow air quality (AQI) for thousands of monitoring sites nationwide, free for everyone
  • Color-coded sites by category, with per-pollutant detail (PM2.5, ozone, PM10) when you tap a site
  • Bug fixes and stability improvements
v1.3.0

Dual Products & Live Tropical

  • Dual Products: compare two radar products side by side on one synced map (Premium)
  • Live hurricane tracking: NHC forecast cone, track, and coastal watches and warnings, free for everyone
  • Tropical Guidance (Premium): multi-model spaghetti, wind field history and forecasts, and wind speed probabilities
  • NHC storm bulletins: Public Advisory (TCP) and Forecast Discussion (TCD)
  • Tracked disturbances and invests (90L-99L)
  • Flood outlooks: WPC Excessive Rainfall Outlook (Days 1-5) and NWS Significant River Flood Outlook
v1.2.0

Tropical: Historical Hurricane Browser

  • Historical hurricane browser with every Atlantic storm back to 1851 (HURDAT2 archive)
  • Browse tracks, intensities, and storm history on the map
  • Bug fixes and stability improvements
v1.1.4

Push Notifications for NWS Alerts

  • Push notifications for severe weather alerts, matched to your saved locations
  • Per-location alert customization
  • Bug fixes and stability improvements
v1.0.12

Bug Fixes & Polish

  • Various bug fixes and stability improvements
  • UI polish and refinements
v1.0.11

Level 2 Dual-Pol, NAM 3km & Soundings

  • Level 2 dual-pol products: Access ZDR, CC, KDP, and PHI from super-resolution Level 2 data
  • Product selector sections: Products now organized into Base, Dual-Pol, Digital, Derived, and Accumulation
  • Alert damage threat styling: Visual indicators for damage threat levels on severe weather alerts
  • NAM 3km model: 60-hour forecasts with 3km resolution CONUS nest
  • SARS storm analogs: Match current atmospheric conditions to historical supercell and hail events
  • Observed RAOBs: View actual radiosonde soundings from upper-air stations
  • Sounding run picker: Select specific model runs and forecast hours
  • NAM soundings: Skew-T diagrams now available from NAM model data
  • Historical improvements: Better sweep selection and fallback to nearest scan times
  • Bug fixes and performance improvements
v1.0.8

Historical Events

  • Historical radar data: Browse radar imagery from significant past weather events
  • Various bug fixes and performance improvements
v1.0.7

Bug Fixes and Small Features

  • SPC Outlooks: Convective and fire weather outlooks from the Storm Prediction Center
  • City search: Search for cities and save favorite locations
  • MRMS Composite: Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor composite reflectivity
  • Fixed NBM model processing issues
  • Various bug fixes and stability improvements
v1.0.3

Crowdsourced Weather Reports

  • Crowdsourced reports: View weather reports submitted by other users
  • Redesigned Map Layers: New popup interface for toggling map layers
  • Bug fixes
v1.0.2

Initial Release

  • NEXRAD Level 3 radar: Real-time data from 150+ radar sites with 60+ products
  • Weather alerts: NWS alerts with polygon overlays
  • Lightning data: Real-time GLM satellite lightning
  • METAR stations: Airport weather observations with wind barbs
  • Weather stations: MesoWest/RAWS surface observations
  • Weather models: HRRR and NBM forecast data with GPU rendering
  • Skew-T soundings: Atmospheric profiles from model data
  • Animation: Radar loop playback
  • Multiple map styles: Light, dark, and satellite base maps