Cloudbreak Weather — User guide

The complete guide to Cloudbreak. Walkthroughs are shown on iPhone; the app works the same on iPad and Mac, with a companion Apple Watch app and widgets. Use the contents to jump around.

Getting started

On first launch, Cloudbreak asks to use your location. Allow it and the first page shows the weather where you are. You can also tap Use My Location later, or skip it and add places by name.

If you haven't added anything yet you'll see "No locations yet" with an Add Location button. Everything in Cloudbreak revolves around your current location plus the places you save.

Finding your way around

Cloudbreak is built around a full-screen weather page per location, like Apple's own Weather app.

• Swipe left or right to move between places. The first page is always your Current Location; your saved places follow.
• The dots at the bottom show where you are — a pin marks current location, and there's a dot per saved place. Tap a dot to jump straight to it.
• Tap the place name at the top (it has a small ▾) for a Switch location menu listing every place.
• Tap the list button (top-left) to open the full locations list.
• On Mac, use the on-screen chevrons and dots instead of swiping.
• Pull down on any forecast to refresh it.

Adding & managing locations

Tap the list button (top-left) to open your locations — titled Weather. From here:

• Add a place: tap the search (magnifying glass) or + button and type in "Search city, town, or address". Search is powered by Apple Maps and accepts cities, addresses, and landmarks (e.g. "Albuquerque", "1 Apple Park Way", "Grand Canyon"). Tap a result to preview its weather, then tap Add.
• Current Location is always the top row — tap it to jump back to where you are.
• Switch places: tap any place in the list, or swipe between pages, or use the place-name menu.
• Remove a place: swipe its row left and tap Remove.
• Tap Done to close the list.

New installs start with just your current location — there are no pre-loaded cities, so the app only ever shows places you choose.

Your forecast in detail

Each weather page scrolls from the big picture down to the details:

• Top: the current temperature, condition, today's H: / L:, and Feels like. If one of your weather stations is nearby, a small antenna chip shows it's the source.
• Hourly Forecast: up to 36 hours; use the All / Today / Tomorrow filter. A precipitation-chance line appears when rain is expected.
• Detail cards for every condition (below).
• 7-Day Forecast, a Forecast Discussion (the local forecaster's notes), and an Almanac link round out the page.

Tap any detail card to open a 24-hour chart you can drag to scrub, with NOW / LOW / HIGH readouts. The cards are:

• Sunrise and Sunset — open an interactive Sun arc (drag the sun through the day).
• Humidity, Cloud Cover, Wind, Visibility, Pressure, UV Index, and Feels Like — each opens its 24-hour chart.

Fire-weather

Tap the Fire Weather card on the main page for the full read:

• A daily risk band — Low, Moderate, High, Very High, Extreme — based on the Fosberg fire-weather index.
• A Next 48 Hours chart and a 5-day outlook.
• What's driving it — minimum humidity, 20-ft wind, the Haines index, and mixing height.
• An About explainer and the five-band scale.

Air quality

Two cards on the main page cover air quality:

• Air Quality — the current US AQI with a band from Good to Hazardous and the PM2.5 value. Tap it for a 24-hour AQI chart.
• Air Quality Outlook (EPA AirNow, US) — an Action Day flag when relevant, plus a day-by-day outlook.

The maps

Open the map (from the Radar section on the main page). A Layer switcher at the top toggles between:

• Radar — NEXRAD precipitation. Use the Now / −30m / −1h / −2h / −3h / −4h chips to step back through recent frames.
• Satellite — the latest GOES image (true color by day, infrared at night).
• Smoke — NOAA smoke plumes, light to heavy.
• Wind — a surface-wind field; tap anywhere to inspect speed and direction at that spot.

On any layer:

• Turn on Fires (top-right) to overlay active-fire hotspots and wildfire-incident perimeters. Tap a marker for details.
• Use Recenter to jump back to your location, the + / − buttons or pinch to zoom, and the legend to read the colors.

Almanac & history

Open the Almanac from the main page to look back, not just ahead. The Mode switch offers:

• On a Date — pick any past date to see that day's high, low, rainfall, and max wind. (Records run about 5 days behind.)
• Monthly Averages — a month-by-month table of typical highs, lows, and rainfall, drawn from roughly 15 years of record.

Tap Change to look up a different place.

Your own weather station

If you own a backyard station, Cloudbreak can blend its live readings into your local forecast.

1. Go to Settings → Weather Stations → Add Station.
2. Choose a Brand: Ambient Weather, Tempest (WeatherFlow), Davis WeatherLink, Netatmo, or PWSWeather. (Ambient is fully supported; the others are in beta.)
3. Enter the credentials that brand needs — there's a "How to get your keys" link with step-by-step help for each provider.
4. Give it a Name (e.g. Home, Cabin) and tap Test connection to confirm it works.

Your readings then blend over the official forecast for temperature, humidity, wind, pressure, and feels-like, shown with an antenna chip on the main screen. Cloudbreak uses the nearest station within about 25 miles. To change one later, open it to pause (the Enabled toggle) or Remove station. Your keys stay on your device and are never sent to us.

Settings reference

Open Settings from the locations list (the gear). Everything it contains:

• Your Weather Data → Weather Stations — add and manage personal stations (above).
• Units & Display:
  • Temperature — Fahrenheit (°F) or Celsius (°C).
  • Wind speed — miles per hour or kilometers per hour.
  • Time format — 12-hour or 24-hour.
• Notifications: Fire-weather alerts and Air-quality alerts (both off until you turn them on).
• Data Sources: a transparency list — forecasts from the National Weather Service, radar from NWS NEXRAD (Iowa State / IEM), search from Apple Maps, plus any stations you've added.
• About: the app version and links to the data providers.

Alerts & notifications

• In the app: when the National Weather Service issues a watch or warning for a location, an alerts banner appears at the top of its page — tap to read the full alert.
• Notifications (off by default): turn on Fire-weather alerts and/or Air-quality alerts in Settings. You'll get a heads-up before the day's fire-weather peak, or when air quality turns unhealthy for your primary location. They're computed on your device and delivered locally — no account and no push server. Turn them off any time in Settings or iOS Notifications.

Widgets

Add the Cloudbreak Forecast widget to your Home Screen or Lock Screen (small, medium, large, and lock-screen sizes) for current conditions at a glance. The widget follows your top saved location.

Across your devices

Cloudbreak is native on every screen, and your saved places and settings stay in sync.

Tips & gestures

• Swipe left/right between places; tap the dots or the place name to jump.
• Pull down to refresh any forecast.
• Tap a detail card for its 24-hour chart, then drag to scrub through the hours.
• On the Wind map, tap anywhere to inspect that spot; turn on Fires to see active hotspots on any layer.
• Swipe a place left in the list to Remove it.