Real-time lightning
Follow lightning on the map as it strikes and check the distance from your position: the most direct way to see where a storm is heading.
Is rain on the way?
Watch the radar in real time.
StormCast is the weather app that shows real-time lightning, rain radar with nowcast and push alerts for the places you choose: home, work or your weekend destination. Forecasts up to 14 days, sea data and air quality.
Free download for iPhone, iPad and Android. With ads and a daily usage limit; optional Premium.
How to get started and what the free version includes ↓
StormCast at a glance
StormCast is a free weather app for iPhone, iPad and Android, published by StormCastLab. It shows real-time lightning on a world map, the precipitation radar with two hours of history and a nowcast of how rain will move over the next two hours, and forecasts up to 14 days. It sends push notifications when lightning or rain approaches the places you monitor. No account required.
- What it's for: knowing whether and when it will rain at a specific place, in the next few minutes as well as the coming days.
- Platforms: iOS 15 or later (iPhone and iPad) and Android.
- Price: free to download and use with ads and a daily viewing limit; yearly Premium subscription to remove both.
- Coverage: world map; official Civil Protection alerts for Italy.
- Languages: Italian, English, Spanish, French, German, Romanian, Polish, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian.
All the bad weather, in one app
Professional weather data, presented simply.
Rain radar + nowcast
Precipitation on the map, back in time and forward: the history of the last two hours and the predicted movement of rain for the next two.
“Rain incoming” alert
Choose the places to monitor and get a notification when rain is forecast to approach, with the radius and quiet hours you set.
Forecasts up to 14 days
Hour by hour and day by day: temperature, wind, gusts, UV, pressure, humidity and freezing level, with the forecast reliability index.
Sea and air quality
Wave height and period for those heading out to sea, the European air quality index for those living in the city.
Civil Protection alerts
In Italy the app reads the Civil Protection Department's criticality bulletin and shows the alert level for your warning area.
Recent earthquakes
Seismic events near your places, from INGV for Italy and USGS for the rest of the world, with magnitude, depth and distance.
Display mode
Turn a tablet into a wall-mounted weather station: map, data and alerts always visible, screen always on. Free initial trial, then available with Premium.
The app
Simple on the surface, complete underneath.
Your first place, in three steps
From installation to the first rain alert in under three minutes.
- Download StormCast on your iPhone, iPad or Android device.
- Search for a place and look at rain, lightning and forecasts on the map.
- Turn on monitoring for the place and choose the alerts you want to receive.
To receive alerts, allow notifications on your device.
Where the data comes from
StormCast does not produce its own forecasts: it gathers and lines up professional sources and open data, also credited inside the app.
- Lightning: Xweather (Vaisala) detection network.
- Rain radar and nowcast: Rainbow Weather.
- Forecasts, sea and air quality: Open-Meteo.com.
- Weather alerts in Italy: criticality bulletin of the Civil Protection Department (open data, CC BY 4.0 licence).
- Earthquakes: INGV for Italy, USGS for the rest of the world.
- Maps: © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO; satellite Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics.
App fact sheet
| Name | StormCast |
|---|---|
| Category | Weather — radar, lightning and forecasts |
| Publisher | StormCastLab (Italy) |
| Platforms | iPhone and iPad with iOS 15 or later; Android phones and tablets |
| Price | Free download with ads and a daily usage limit; optional yearly Premium subscription |
| Account | Not required: no sign-up, no email |
| Languages | Italian, English, Spanish, French, German, Romanian, Polish, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian |
| Coverage | World map; Civil Protection alerts for Italy |
| Notifications | Lightning within a chosen radius, rain incoming, official alerts; configurable quiet hours |
| Privacy | Privacy policy — no account, pseudonymous identifier per installation |
Frequently asked questions about StormCast
Answers to the most common questions before you download the app.
Is StormCast free?
The download is free. Radar, lightning and forecasts are available with ads and a daily usage limit shown in the app. Push alerts stay active even after you have used up your viewing time. Premium removes ads and the time limit; Display mode requires Premium after the initial trial.
How does the rain radar with nowcast work?
The radar shows detected precipitation on the map. The timeline lets you go back up to two hours to see where the rain is coming from and forward up to two hours with the nowcast, the very-short-term estimate of how precipitation will move.
What is the difference between radar and forecasts?
The radar shows precipitation on the map and the nowcast estimates its movement up to two hours ahead. Hourly and daily forecasts are for checking the weather over the coming days, up to 14 days.
Which push alerts can I receive?
For every monitored place you can enable lightning alerts within a radius you choose, the rain-incoming alert based on the nowcast and, in Italy, the weather alerts of the Civil Protection Department. You can set quiet hours so you don't get notifications at night.
Does it work on iPhone and Android?
Yes. StormCast is available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad (iOS 15 or later) and on Google Play for Android. Check your device's compatibility on the store listing.
Do I need an account to use StormCast?
No. StormCast requires no sign-up or account: the app creates a pseudonymous identifier per installation, used only to save your places and deliver notifications. Details are in the privacy policy.
Where does StormCast's weather data come from?
Lightning comes from the Xweather (Vaisala) detection network, the rain radar and nowcast from Rainbow Weather, forecasts, sea data and air quality from Open-Meteo. Italian weather alerts come from the Civil Protection Department (open data CC BY 4.0) and earthquakes from INGV and USGS.
What is Display mode?
It is a full-screen dashboard designed for wall-mounted tablets: clock, current conditions, hourly forecasts, seven days and animated radar that update on their own with the screen always on. After the initial trial it requires Premium.
Which languages is StormCast available in?
The app is translated into ten languages: Italian, English, Spanish, French, German, Romanian, Polish, Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian, and follows the language set on the device. This website is available in the same languages.
Do the alerts guarantee that rain will arrive?
No. Alerts depend on the available data and are estimates: the timing and location of bad weather can change. They do not replace official alerts or the instructions of the authorities.
Glossary: the words of weather
The terms you meet in the app, explained in one line.
- Nowcast
- A very-short-term forecast, from a few minutes to two hours, obtained by extrapolating the movement of precipitation observed by radar rather than from a full weather model.
- Weather radar
- An instrument that emits radio pulses and measures the echo returned by drops, hail and snow: the radar map shows where it is raining right now and how heavily.
- Lightning
- An electrical discharge between cloud and ground or within the cloud. Detection networks record its position and time in near real time, making it possible to follow a storm's movement.
- Weather alert
- A warning issued by civil protection authorities based on the level of criticality forecast for a warning area. In Italy the colours go from green to red.
- Freezing level
- The altitude at which the air temperature is 0 °C: it indicates the height at which rain turns into snow.
- Reliability index
- A measure of how much the different runs of an ensemble model agree with each other: the more similar they are, the more reliable the forecast.
See the weather for your places
Start with a place you know. Explore radar and lightning, then choose the alerts to receive.
Free download · With ads and daily limit · Optional Premium