What Is The Best Free Doppler Radar App

Most people are perfectly fine with normal weather apps. You get your forecast, current weather conditions, and a functional but otherwise unimpressive weather radar. As it turns out, you can really upgrade the weather radar functionality with a secondary app. These apps focus primarily on the radar side of weather rather than the basic features like forecasts. Most let you do things like add layers, track storms, and see things in a much higher resolution than a standard weather app. Here are the best weather radar apps to really see what the weather is like.

This list is primarily only for apps with powerful weather radars. Most weather apps have radars, but this is an entirely different genre. Those looking for an all-in-one weather app can check out our best weather apps and weather widget list here.

The best weather radar apps for Android

MyRadar Weather Radar

Price: Free / $2.99-$6.99 / $24.99 per year

MyRadar is one of the better and more popular weather radar apps. The app features smooth animations, multiple layers, and a slew of other features. On top of its radar, it also uses a patent pending technology to show you hyper-local precipitation. Additionally, it has support for Wear OS, a bit of forecasting, and some other stuff as well. You can remove ads for $2.99, add on some extras for additional fees, and there is an aviation weather feature available for $24.99 per year. However, the free version works just as well. You can get a Level 2 add-on for $6.99 if you want more radar features.

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RadarNow is a radar app for people who need a lot of weather information. This app provides radar information from the NWS NOAA WSR-88D NEXRAD radar sites. It's quite a mouthful but it's a reliable source of weather data. You can see storms and systems moving through the area and also see stuff like temperature, wind speed, and other data. The app worked fine in our testing and it does what it says. You get a 5-day free trial on download and the premium version runs for $6.99

RadarScope

Price: $9.99 / $9.99 per year / $14.99 per month or $99.99 per year

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RadarScope is one of the best weather radar apps available. It has a metric ton of data and is trusted among people who care about weather radars. It doesn't use level 2 data like some believe, but it's still better than most others. The app also has support for AllisonHouse subscribers if you want to go that route. Otherwise, there isn't much else to talk about. You can change some settings to make things look different and find more info. The app runs for $9.99 on the face with two optional subscription tiers. The first one is $9.99 per year and includes real-time lightning data and access to Level 2 radar data. The more expensive $14.99 per month ($99.99 per year) tier adds more extra stuff.

Joe Hindy / Android Authority

Raindy Days Rain Radar is one of the simpler weather radar apps on the list. It shows you radar from multiple sources for about half of the world. That makes this a good option for our International readers. It sources doppler radars first and then uses satellite feeds if doppler is not available. It could probably use a few more layers and options, such as a longer weather loop, but otherwise it's a good, cheap solution for a radar.

Storm Radar by The Weather Channel

Price: Free / $3.99 per month

Storm Radar by The Weather Channel is a fairly reliable source of weather radar data. It comes from one of the biggest sources of weather in the United States. This is an offshoot of the main Weather Channel app. It focuses primarily on storm tracking, including tornadoes, hurricanes, and other potentially risky storms. It uses Doppler radar for its imagery and can do other things like project trajectories up to eight hours in advance. The app has two subscription tiers. There is an absolutely stupid $1.99 per week option that no one should ever use and a $3.99 per month option that is a bit more reasonable.

Joe Hindy / Android Authority

WeatherRadarUSA is a perfectly usable solution. It uses NOAA NEXRAD data like most of the others on this list. It auto-checks for new data every 2.5 minutes. There are also two resolutions to choose from along with some base weather app stuff like a 7-day forecast and severe weather alerts. It's not the prettiest app on the list, but you do get all of the features for free as long as you don't mind some advertisements.

Weather Radar App

Price: Free

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Weather Radar App is a pretty boring name, but the app is actually pretty good. It features a high definition radar, and several good options. You can view things like changes in wind speed, cloud cover, temperature, and, of course, precipitation. It also includes a widget, some good basic weather app functions, and it works in multiple countries. It's easy to use and it's also free as long as you don't mind the occasional video ad.

Weather Underground screenshot 2019 Final

Weather Underground is technically your standard weather app with a radar rather than a dedicated radar app. However, it still has a really good radar. The radar includes things like cloud cover, precipitation, temperature, wind, and low and high pressure front lines. It also uses over a quarter of a million PWS points to report local weather on a scale most other apps can't compete with. The only downside is IBM bought Weather Underground a while back and now charges more money for the premium subscription. Luckily, the radar is the same in both versions so you can use it for free.

Windy.com

Price: Free / $19.99 per year

Windy.com is a popular option for weather radar apps, especially in countries outside the US. It sources information from a ton of sources, including global ECMWF, GFS, NEMS, AROME, ICON, and NAM. There are 40 radar layers along with both satellite and doppler imaging. You can also save map setups to the menu for quick access later. It doesn't seem to have the most advanced technology like Level 2 data, but it's definitely among the best in its class otherwise. The subscription is a bit pricey, but you can use most of the features for free anyway.

Joe Hindy / Android Authority

Wx is a bit of a wildcard on this list. It's the only entirely free weather radar app on the list. It's also open source with no advertising. As it turns out, the app is also really good. It features both Level 3 and Level 2 data from NEXRAD in single, dual or quad pane configurations. It also does some basic stuff like the 7-day forecast and current conditions. It's not the best looking of the weather radar apps on the list, but it's legitimately one of the best.

If we missed any great weather radar apps for Android, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists.