Getting Started with IW Pro

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IW Pro includes a wide range of professional radar products and tools designed to help you better understand what's happening in the atmosphere. If you're new to IW Pro, the number of options can seem a little overwhelming at first.

To help you get started, we've created a Getting Started with IW Pro video that walks through the basics of using IW Pro inside the Instant Weather app. The same concepts also apply to the IW Pro web version, since both platforms share very similar features.

What You'll Learn

In this video, you'll learn how to:

  • Enable IW Pro inside the Instant Weather app

  • Open IW Pro Radar

  • Select a radar station

  • Switch between radar products such as Reflectivity, Velocity, and Correlation Coefficient

  • Play radar animations

  • Use the crosshair tool to examine radar values

  • Compare radar products using Swipe, Dual, Triple, and Quad modes

  • Customize the display using map overlays and settings

  • View weather alerts and read their details

  • Return to the standard Instant Weather forecast pages

By the end of the video, you'll be comfortable navigating IW Pro and know where to find its most commonly used features.

This Is Just the Beginning

This video is intended to help you become familiar with the interface. It focuses on how to use IW Pro rather than explaining every meteorological concept in detail.

Many of the radar products deserve their own in-depth explanations. For example:

  • What Reflectivity shows

  • How to interpret Velocity

  • Using Correlation Coefficient to identify different types of precipitation and storm features

  • Understanding Storm Relative Velocity

  • Choosing between different radar tilts

  • Reading weather fronts and other map overlays

We'll be covering these topics in future blog posts and tutorial videos using real weather examples.

Keep Learning

The IW Pro Blog will continue to grow with feature guides, radar tutorials, case studies, troubleshooting tips, and examples from actual storms.

Whether you're simply trying to understand today's weather or you're interested in learning more about radar meteorology, we hope these resources help you get the most out of IW Pro.

If you haven't watched the Getting Started video yet, it's the perfect place to begin. Once you're comfortable with the basics, you'll be ready to explore everything IW Pro has to offer.

Introduction to Instant Weather Pro

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Welcome to Instant Weather Pro, our most powerful radar platform yet. It is built for those who want more control, more detail, and more precision when tracking the weather across Canada and the U.S.

Following our official partnership with the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University, their team asked us to build a state-of-the-art radar suite to help track and validate tornadoes and hail across Canada. The result is a professional-grade radar system that is now available through IW Pro.

IW Pro is a next-generation radar platform offering the same high-resolution data trusted by meteorologists. Whether you're a storm spotter, first responder, outdoor event planner, farmer, or weather enthusiast, it delivers the tools you need in an intuitive, mobile-friendly interface. It also works seamlessly on desktop and laptop, allowing you to open multiple windows for side-by-side analysis or to track different storms simultaneously.

We are also planning to launch IW Pro as a subscription tier inside our popular Instant Weather app. All current subscribers will receive access to the app version as well as the website version at no additional cost.

Instant Weather Pro on iPad

🔍 What Makes IW Pro Different

Most weather apps use a "mosaic radar" view, which is a blended image from multiple radar stations. While that is great for getting a broad picture, it smooths out important details.

With Instant Weather Pro, you can:

- View individual radar stations directly and not just the combined mosaic.

- Choose from multiple radar products to get different types of data.

- Control the elevation angle (tilt) to see different slices of the atmosphere.

- Compare radar products using Dual Mode or Split Mode.

- Enjoy ad-free browsing with a faster and cleaner experience.

- Track weather using desktop, tablet, or mobile all through your browser.

🛰️ Compare Radar Products: Dual and Split Modes

Instant Weather Pro offers two powerful ways to compare radar products, helping it stand out from many other tools on the market.

🔄 Dual Mode (Side-by-Side)

Use Dual Mode to view two radar products at the same time, side by side.

- Great for tracking how features like wind rotation (Velocity) line up with precipitation patterns (Reflectivity).

- You can zoom and pan both views together to follow the storm from multiple perspectives.

Dual Mode on a laptop, showing Reflectivity (left) and Velocity (right) from the Didsbury, AB tornado (EF4) on July 1, 2023.

🧭 Split Mode (Swipe Slider)

Split Mode lets you compare two radar products in the same view using a draggable slider.

- Move the slider left or right to reveal one product on one side and the other on the opposite side.

- Unlike side-by-side views, everything stays perfectly aligned, making it easy to see exactly where features overlap.

- Ideal for quickly checking if a hook echo on Reflectivity lines up with rotation on Velocity.

Whether you prefer a side-by-side layout or a swipe-to-compare approach, IW Pro gives you the flexibility to analyze radar data your way.

Below is the Didsbury, AB tornado displayed in Split Mode. This iPhone-recorded video demonstrates how you can swipe between Reflectivity and Velocity radar products to observe how storm features align.

🛰️ Radar Products Available

IW Pro lets you switch between several advanced radar products, including:

- Reflectivity – See the intensity of precipitation.

- Velocity – Measure wind moving toward or away from the radar (great for spotting rotation).

- Correlation Coefficient, Differential Reflectivity, and Specific Differential Phase – Advanced tools used by weather experts to detect hail, debris, and rainfall structure.

Not sure which product to use? We'll explain each of these in upcoming posts to help you get the most out of them.

🕒 Access Past Radar with Historical Data

Missed a storm? No problem.

Instant Weather Pro gives you access to historical radar data, so you can revisit and review previous weather events which makes it ideal for storm analysis, research, or just satisfying your curiosity.

- Scroll through archived radar loops for past days.

- Analyze storms in detail using different radar products.

- Perfect for training, educational use, or verifying what happened.

This feature also helps us create clear blog visuals, even when the weather is quiet. Many of the radar examples in this blog were captured from past events.

💡 Customization at Your Fingertips

You can fine-tune your radar view by:

- Changing radar products with one click.

- Adjusting the elevation angle (tilt) for surface or higher-level scans.

- Choosing radar loop speed or stepping frame by frame.

- Switching color schemes (like green/red velocity view).

💰 Subscription and Access
IW Pro is currently available for $99.99/year through our website.

Please note: This is our current rate and is subject to change in the future.

What’s coming soon:

  • Monthly and app-based subscription options

  • Additional tiers to match your usage needs.

We recommend signing up on our website for the best value. App store purchases include additional platform fees.

🚀 Ready to Get Started?

Ready to explore advanced radar features? Subscribe to Instant Weather Pro today and take your virtual storm chasing to the next level.

And be sure to check back here on the blog as we’re building a growing library of helpful tips to make the most of your IW Pro experience!

Have questions or feature suggestions? Let us know as we're building IW Pro with your feedback in mind.

White screen on mobile - Update Aug 15

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Update Aug 15:

A possible solution to a white screen on a mobile device is to clear the browsing data on chrome. Specifically the Cookies and Site Data. You may see a spinning circle or a plain white screen.



Update Aug 9: The white screen when logging in should no longer be an issue. You should get the password box in portrait now.

If you are only seeing a white screen when you click on the link for IW Pro please turn your device sideways (landscape mode) and then the password box will pop up. You can turn it back to portrait mode after entering your password.