🛠️ IW Pro Settings Overview (last reviewed May 2025)

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To open the Settings menu, tap or click the three bars in the upper-left corner of the screen.
Here’s a description of each setting. Some have recommended values, but many can be toggled based on your needs. We often switch them on and off during active use.

IW Pro settings

🔧 Settings Breakdown

Layer Opacity
Adjusts the transparency of the radar layer on the map.

Live Mode
When enabled, IW Pro auto-loads new radar frames as they become available.

Velocity Color

  • Velocity 1: Red/blue (Environment Canada standard)

  • Velocity 2: Red/green (more common in U.S.-based radar apps)

NEW – Velocity & Measurement Format
Choose between mph/kph. This setting also determines the units for the measurement tool (mi or km).

Radar Placement Accuracy

  • Recommended: 11 for most devices

  • Use 8 for slower performance

Labels and Boundaries
Toggle on or off to show location names and boundaries.

Time Display
Choose between 12-hour or 24-hour time format.

Canadian Radar Noise Reduction

  • On: Reduces radar interference spikes (“laser beams”)

  • Off: Shows additional features like hail spikes and faint outflow boundaries

Hail Size Estimation
This feature may not be available in the current production version. It was visible in recent builds but has been temporarily removed as we rolled back to a previous version due to performance issues. It may return in a future update.

Lightning Data
Toggle on to view real-time lightning strike locations on the map.

Mosaic Radar Layer
Shows the combined radar mosaic when no specific radar station is selected.
Tip: We recommend also turning off radar icons when using this layer.

NEW – IW StormRisk (Beta)
Displays IW’s experimental storm risk overlay.
[See this blog post for more details.]

NEW – Thunderstorm Forecasts
Shows Environment Canada’s “Thunderstorm Outlooks.”
Choose a time period and opacity level.
[See this blog post for details.]

Alerts
Turn this on to display alerts on the map. You can customize which types of alerts to show:

  • ECCC Alerts (from Environment Canada)

  • IW Instant Updates (our own real-time updates)

  • U.S. Alerts (from U.S. National Weather Service)

    You can also choose which specific alert types appear:

  • Instant Updates

  • Warnings

  • Watches

  • Statements and Advisories

  • U.S. Alerts
    Note: You can mix and match alert types and sources based on your preferences.

💡 Tip

To quickly reload radar data, toggle between Single, Split, and Dual modes.

Environment Canada's "Thunderstorm Outlooks"

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Environment Canada's official "Thunderstorm Outlooks" have been integrated into Instant Weather PRO!

Day 1, Night 1, Day 2 and Day 3 are all be included with full details when you select the forecast on the map.

Screenshot of ECCC Thunderstorm Forecast

You can select a day or turn it off in rendering parameters. You can also specify the opacity.

Here are a couple more examples including a funnel cloud risk.

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Introduction to Instant Weather Pro
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🛠️ IW Pro Settings Overview (last reviewed May 2025)
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Environment Canada's "Thunderstorm Outlooks"

IW StormRisk storm track arrows and colour key

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The StormRisk storm track arrows have been added so that you can see the predicted direction of travel of the storm(s).

With the radar turned on:

Here are some examples of the colours of the outlines with the Total Severe Risk percentages. Note that the thickness of the outline also increases when the risk increases as well. You can see that in some of the examples where there is another outline present in the screenshots (24-48).

Note that the black colour for greater than 85% is a bug. You will not be able to see against the black map but it will show up well when radar is on.

IW StormRisk is live

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IW StormRisk is live for all IW Pro users and combined alert polygons are live in Canada as well!

To turn on IW StormRisk just click on the menu (three bars at the top left) and click to turn it on:

IW StormRisk only works as far north as 51N (basically just south of Calgary) but we have plans to extend it further north to 55N, which will include locations like Saskatoon and Edmonton.

The thickness of the outline is related to the risk level as well as the colour of the outline is related to the type of risks. Here are some examples:

Look for irregular shapes and click on them to see the IW StormRisk:

Mosaic Radar Layer

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You can now utilize the Mosaic Radar Layer to gain a comprehensive view of weather systems. This feature allows you to zoom in on specific storms of interest for a detailed analysis using IW Pro.

Turn it on in Rendering Parameters:

The Mosiac Radar Layer will be visible if no radar stations are selected. Below alerts and radar icons are turned off:

Below alerts are turned on:

Zoomed into a tornado warned storm:

Selected a radar station and Mosaic Radar Layer is turned off:

Note: The Mosaic Radar Layer is not automatically updated.

Measurement tool in single mode

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There is now a measurement tool that you can uses when you are in single mode.

  1. Choose Single Mode with any of the products.

  2. Click on the small open circle on the right side of the screen.

  3. With your mouse (PC) or finger (mobile) choose the center point from which to measure and hold until you reach the point you wish to measure the distance to.

  4. The radius of the circle (distance) will be displayed on the screen.

  5. You can also use this circle to “mark” a location and then zoom out.

  6. Click on the small circle again to remove the measurement circle.

In the above example Sussex was chosen as the center mark and I picked a random distance so that when I zoomed out I could see the location of Sussex.

🛠️ Requested Features (Updated May 2025)

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We appreciate all the suggestions that have come in from our awesome community! Some of these features are already in development or under consideration, while others may take time depending on feasibility and system performance. If you have more ideas, feel free to reach out as your feedback helps shape IW Pro.

✅ Already Requested (From Aug 10, 2023)

  • Lighter coloured map option
    A more contrast-friendly map theme for better visibility during daylight or in low-contrast setups.

  • Drop-down boxes for radar products and elevation/tilts
    In addition to arrows, having a drop-down menu can help quickly select specific options.

  • Switch settings to on/off toggles instead of dropdowns
    Aimed at improving mobile usability, especially on touch-based browsers with limited UI support.

  • Include timestamp info in alerts
    More detail about when each alert was issued or last updated.

  • Auto-load new frames during radar animation
    Improve Live Mode so new frames are seamlessly added during playback.

  • Different error messages when a radar station is down
    Distinguish between “station offline” and “network/load issue” to help users troubleshoot faster.

📝 New Suggestions (2024–2025)

  • Lightning and alerts in Historical Mode
    Currently, historical radar does not display lightning or alerts. This is a frequently requested feature.

  • Improve Great Lakes visibility
    Some users have noted the lakes are hard to see (black on almost black). A visual update is under consideration to make them stand out more clearly.

  • Improve accuracy of storm track arrows
    Arrows occasionally point in the wrong direction. Watching a few frames of reflectivity can help, but backend refinements are planned.

  • Precipitation type (snow/rain/etc.) in station radar
    Currently shown only in Mosaic Radar; users would like to see this per station if feasible.

  • Map and radar layer customization
    This is on the roadmap! Many users have asked to customize map backgrounds, radar colours, and toggle overlay layers.

⚠️ Features Temporarily Unavailable

  • U.S. Alert Descriptions
    These were lost during a rollback to a previous version and are currently not displaying. We plan to restore them in a future update.

  • Environment Canada Thunderstorm Forecasts
    This feature is temporarily unavailable but will return in a future version.