FAQ Why does your radar go from clear to fuzzy?

Frequently Asked Question: Why does your radar go from clear to fuzzy? Is this suppose to happen?

Answer: The radar on our free app Instant Weather is a mix of “Past” and “Future” Radar.

The “Past” radar is clear at 1km resolution and “Future” radar is a bit fuzzy or soft as it’s a lower, 3km resolution.

Some popular apps just take the “Past” radar and move it in the direction it was heading to create a cheap and cleaner looking “Future” radar. We could have done this and saved a lot of money but we decided to use a premium future model that runs on a supercomputer and updates every 15mins, worldwide.

Why? If storms are expected to develop or dissipate, a model approach has a much better chance of predicting the future. Simply moving “Past” radar looks cleaner but often doesn’t provide you with an accurate picture of what could actually happen.

We do have some ideas for creating a hybrid between the two methods in the future as moving “Past” radar, even just a few frames can be useful for pop-up storms that show up out of the blue.

We hope this makes sense! 🙂

- Adam

P.S. Because of how expensive the premium radar data we purchase is, we were only able to include 4 intervals on the free version (1 “Past” and 3 “Future”). We do, however, offer the option to ‘Upgrade Radar’ in the app menu (top left button) and this will provide you with 5 hours and remove ads from the app. Thank you to all those who have subscribed! You’re the reason we can offer the app for free to everyone!!

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