Getting started

Open your first radar

1. Open HookEcho in your browser, or launch the installed app.
2. Allow location access to choose a nearby radar, or search for your place or a radar’s four-letter ID, such as KTLX. Location access is optional.
3. Start with Reflectivity (Z) to see precipitation. Wait for the first scan to load; the time is shown on the bottom timeline.
4. Press Play to watch recent scans. Drag the timeline to inspect one moment.
5. Press LIVE to return to the newest scan whenever you have moved into the past.

You should now see the map, a radar timestamp, and the colour scale. An empty map can mean dry weather; check the timestamp before assuming data is missing. If the first scan never appears, use Troubleshooting.

KTLX archive replay from May 20, 2013, recaptured October 4, 2026; this is not live weather.

What you’re looking at

The app is a full-bleed map with three main controls over it:

• Menu, top-left. Choose Radar or Analysis under Views. Layers and Your Map hold weather overlays, places, forecasts, and storm attributes; search and Settings sit beside the menu.
• The colour scale, on the map edge, shows what the selected product means.
• The scrubber, along the bottom: the radar’s clock, a play button, a LIVE badge, and a time track with one tick per scan.

Radar mode keeps one map. In Analyst, the inspector can dock beside linked panes.

If you remember one thing

Press Ctrl+S to open and focus the global search. It finds products, layers, tools, and places. Escape closes search or the menu.

Watch a storm, right now

1. Pick the radar nearest the storm — Ctrl+S, type the ID or the city.
2. Leave the product on Reflectivity (Z). That’s where the rain and hail are.
3. Switch to Velocity (V) to see what the storm is doing — which way the air inside it is moving.
4. Walk the tilt row to look higher into the storm. 0.5° is the lowest common tilt; the beam is higher above the ground farther from the radar.
5. The LIVE badge means you’re on the newest scan. Anything that moves you off it turns the badge off; click it to snap back.

Drag to pan, scroll to zoom. On a trackpad, pinch to zoom and swipe sideways to pan; on a touchscreen, two fingers do both.

Save the places you care about

Search a place in the panel and the map flies there, with a Save marker button. Markers are what the alerts watch — see Alerts and notifications.

Replay something that already happened

The timeline reaches back to June 1991. Right-click the LIVE badge, pick a day, and scrub. Warning polygons and storm reports come along with you: what was actually in force at the moment you’re parked on, not today’s.

Next

• Radar and Analyst modes — the four menu sections, pane presets, and returning to your radar view.
• Install it on your other machines.
• Reading the radar — what the colours mean.
• Join the Discord if you get stuck or want to show someone what you’re looking at.