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Getting Started

Get radar tiles on screen in 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

  • Docker Desktop 24+ (or Docker Engine + Docker Compose v2)
  • 4 GB RAM allocated to Docker (8 GB recommended for full NEXRAD ingestion; 8 GB+ for all 159 stations)
  • No GPU required — NEXRAD Level 2 provides native 250m resolution tiles without upscaling

Steps

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/cwdaniel/radrview.git
cd RadrView

2. Create your environment file

cp .env.example .env

The defaults work out of the box. Edit .env if you need to change the port or storage path. See Configuration for all options.

3. Start all services

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up -d

This starts the following containers:

Container Role
radrview-redis Frame index, queues, pub/sub
radrview-ingest-mrms NOAA MRMS CONUS ingester
radrview-ingest-alaska NOAA MRMS Alaska ingester
radrview-ingest-hawaii NOAA MRMS Hawaii ingester
radrview-ingest-mrms-type MRMS CONUS precipitation type
radrview-ingest-mrms-alaska-type MRMS Alaska precipitation type
radrview-ingest-mrms-hawaii-type MRMS Hawaii precipitation type
radrview-ingest-canada Environment Canada ingester
radrview-ingest-dwd DWD Germany ingester
radrview-ingest-nexrad NEXRAD Level 2 ingester (all 159 WSR-88D stations, z8+)
radrview-tiler-1 Tile generation worker
radrview-tiler-2 Tile generation worker
radrview-compositor Multi-source tile merger
radrview-cleanup Data retention pruning
radrview-server HTTP tile server + WebSocket
radrview-situation-api Aviation weather intelligence API + WebSocket

4. Open the viewer

https://radrview.com

MRMS data starts flowing within 30–60 seconds. NEXRAD Level 2 data is automatically enabled — no additional setup or API keys required. The ingester polls the public unidata-nexrad-level2 S3 bucket and begins serving 250 m tiles at zoom 8+ as volume scans become available (~5–10 minutes per station on startup). Station markers on the map show live status in green (active), orange (stale), or red (unavailable).

Verifying Data Is Flowing

Check the health endpoint:

curl https://radrview.com/health

A healthy response looks like:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "sources": {
    "mrms": { "status": "ok", "lastFrame": "20260322143000", "ageSeconds": 45, "consecutiveErrors": 0 }
  },
  "latestComposite": "20260322143000",
  "uptimeSeconds": 120
}

Check available frames:

curl "https://radrview.com/frames?source=composite&limit=5"

Stopping

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml down

Tile data is stored in a named Docker volume (radrview-data). It persists across restarts. To clear all data:

docker volume rm radrview-data

Next Steps

  • Configuration — Tune zoom levels, retention, log levels, and NEXRAD station selection
  • API Reference — Integrate tiles, station status, and sweep WebSocket into your own map application
  • Sources — Understand what each source covers, including NEXRAD Level 2 details
  • Palettes — Choose or create a color palette