Storm Window — Support
Storm Window answers one practical question: when is the lower-risk window to be outside? Every hour is scored for outdoor risk: lightning, storms, wind, heat stress, cold, air quality, official active alerts, and activity-relevant hazards. Pro can tune that scoring for specific activities. Need a hand? Start below, or email us any time.
Contact us
Questions, feedback, or a bug to report? Email support@StormWindow.SiPhy.com and we’ll get back to you. To help us help you, please include your device model, iOS/watchOS version, and the app version (shown at the bottom of the app’s About screen).
Frequently asked questions
What do the colors and the headline mean?
The iPhone home screen shows a daily risk chart for Today, Tomorrow, and an additional following day when risk, lightning, or alert context makes it useful. Each bar or dot scores one hour for outdoor risk: green is low risk, yellow means use caution, orange means unsafe, and red is dangerous. Swipe left or right, or tap a day, to change the focused chart. A thin NWS overlay appears only when an official alert is more cautious than matching local data; if the matching local value is unavailable, the alert is treated as the available source instead of a mismatch. The headline is your plan in plain language, for example, “Low-risk until Tue 10:30 AM.” It ends a low-risk period a little before storms arrive, because lightning can strike well ahead of the rain.
Does “Low risk” mean sunny?
No. The color is always about outdoor safety risk, never just the sky. A low-risk hour can still be cloudy or lightly raining, so the actual conditions ride alongside the verdict (for example, “Low risk · Partly cloudy”). You can turn on an optional rain & snow overlay in Settings; it’s informational only and never changes the lower-risk window.
How does it decide?
It blends atmospheric instability (CAPE, CIN, and lifted index), rain chance, wind gusts, heat index, estimated WBGT-like heat stress, wind chill, air quality, and, in the United States, the National Weather Service’s thunderstorm probability and active alerts. Beach and water profiles also use marine wave height and sea-surface temperature. Forecast data comes from Open-Meteo, Open-Meteo Marine, and the U.S. National Weather Service.
For background on the published guidance behind the default activity thresholds, see Threshold Sources.
UV and rain/snow are shown as planning advisories only. They help with sun protection and comfort, but they do not close the lower-risk window by themselves. For mountain profiles (Hiker, Climber, Tactical Training), locations above about 5,000 ft also show an altitude-illness advisory banded by elevation — also informational, and it never closes the window on its own.
What are Activity profiles?
Profiles tune the forecast to what you’re doing outside. A cyclist is more sensitive to wind gusts; a golfer, beachgoer, swimmer, paddler, or boater gets an earlier lightning cutoff and treats a weaker thunder chance as a threat, because they’re exposed and slow to reach shelter. Beach and water profiles also apply wave-height and cold-water thresholds scaled to the activity or craft. Heads-up cards and hour-detail rows are filtered by activity, so a runner does not see beach, wave, or water-temperature details that do not apply. Built-in profiles now include Everyday, Walker, Runner, Cyclist, Hiker, Climbing, Golfer, Tennis / Pickleball, Beach, Pool & Swim, Open Water Swim, Small Boat, Sailboat, Powerboat, Offshore Boat, Paddler, Angler, Outdoor Worker, Coach / Sports, Field / Team Sports, Snow Sports, and Tactical Training. Activity profiles also include intensity and typical duration, so a high-intensity two-hour ride can be treated differently than a short low-intensity walk. Free includes Everyday, Walker, Runner, Cyclist, Stroller, and Using a Baby Carrier. Storm Window Pro adds the remaining built-in profiles plus custom Activity profiles.
Can I create custom Activity profiles? (Pro)
Yes. Storm Window Pro lets you create custom profiles for your own activities, such as a long run, road ride, course walk, open-water swim, tactical training day, beach day, or outdoor shift. When creating a custom profile, choose the activity type first; Storm Window then shows the name, intensity, typical duration, and only the bounded tolerance controls that are relevant to that activity. Custom profiles can tune heat index, estimated heat stress, air quality, wind, waves, cold water, and low-risk-window rules when those factors apply. These settings personalize the hazard state and recommended window without changing the displayed weather values.
Custom profiles keep safety guardrails in place. They do not let you disable lightning safety, ignore severe weather, or edit raw storm-model thresholds such as CAPE, CIN, lifted index, or thunder probability.
Why are Air Temperature Tolerance and Heat Stress Index Tolerance different numbers? (Pro)
Custom Activity profiles show two separate heat tolerances, and their default numbers look backwards at first glance — Air Temperature Tolerance’s caution/unsafe/severe values are typically higher than Heat Stress Index Tolerance’s for the same profile. That’s intentional: the two settings aren’t measuring heat on the same scale.
Air Temperature Tolerance is based on the forecast’s felt-air temperature (Open-Meteo’s apparent temperature), which already accounts for humidity and wind — it’s the same kind of number most weather apps mean by “feels like.” Storm Window only falls back to it for hours where there isn’t enough forecast data (temperature and humidity) to estimate the fuller heat-stress value below.
Heat Stress Index Tolerance is an estimated Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT)–like value. WBGT starts from the same idea as “feels like” — temperature, humidity, and wind — but adds one more input “feels like” doesn’t have at all: direct solar radiation. That’s literally the “globe” in Wet Bulb Globe Temperature, a globe thermometer that measures radiant heat from the sun. WBGT also weighs humidity’s effect on your body’s ability to cool itself (evaporative cooling via sweat) more heavily than a typical feels-like calculation does. The combined effect is that WBGT reads on a genuinely different, numerically lower scale than feels-like temperature for the same real-world danger — a WBGT of 88°F already represents serious heat stress, even though the number alone looks mild next to a 95°F feels-like reading.
This isn’t a Storm Window quirk. Real safety guidelines set WBGT action limits in the 80s–90s Fahrenheit: for example, ATP/USTA tennis rules call for a mandatory cooling break around 86°F WBGT and suspend play around 90°F WBGT — numbers Storm Window’s own Heat Stress Index defaults are set to match. See Threshold Sources for the underlying NWS Heat Index and WBGT references.
What is the Personal Profile? (Pro)
The Personal Profile is shared across your activity profiles. You can optionally set an age range, heat tolerance (Low, Typical, High, or Very High), air-quality sensitivity, and fitness level. Storm Window keeps the displayed forecast values unchanged, such as Heat Index 96°F, estimated Heat Stress 86°F, or AQI 54, but can classify the risk differently for your selected activity and personal settings. Fitness level and a higher heat tolerance only affect heat and estimated heat-stress tolerance; they do not loosen lightning, official alerts, rip current or beach hazards, wind, or air-quality rules.
What does Storm Window Pro+ add?
Pro+ adds Apple Intelligence guidance on supported devices, plus Trips, Trip forecast changed alerts, shareable low-risk-window snapshots, backend-delivered safety alerts, and live lightning nearby alerts for Follow My Location. The Apple Intelligence features can explain an hourly rating, teach what individual factors mean, answer “Should I Go?” for the current period, summarize the 3-day outlook, and explain why guidance changed since the last forecast update. These are explanations of Storm Window’s deterministic assessment, not separate weather forecasts.
What if my device doesn’t support Apple Intelligence?
You still get every Pro+ feature. Storm Window shows a notice before you subscribe if Apple Intelligence isn’t available on your device, and every AI-explained feature automatically falls back to Storm Window’s own plain-language explanation of the same deterministic rating and factors — nothing is locked out, only the phrasing changes.
Does Apple Intelligence decide whether conditions are safe?
No. Storm Window calculates risk from weather data, activity profile, personal settings, and official alerts first. Apple Intelligence receives already-classified factors and explains them in plain language. Guardrails keep deterministic risk as the source of truth, including which factors are actually contributing to an unsafe or dangerous rating.
Does Storm Window change the weather numbers for my profile?
No. Personalization affects the hazard state, recommendation, and low-risk-window calculation. It does not change the underlying weather measurement shown in the app.
What are Trips?
Trips (Pro+) let you pin a future date, time, and place — a race, a trip, a tee time — from the overflow menu’s Trips sheet. Storm Window fetches that place’s own forecast, independent of your saved locations, and shows today’s read on the pinned slot. Swipe right on a trip to edit its title, time, or place. Turn on the Trip forecast changed alert in Settings to get notified if that slot’s forecast worsens as it approaches.
What are Weather Alerts?
Weather Alerts are local notifications scheduled on your device from the latest cached forecast. Imminent hazard alerts are Free for the active location. Pro unlocks window-change, best-window-starting, next-window-changed, and daily-briefing alerts across saved locations. Pro+ keeps Trip forecast changed alerts with Trips. There is no backend for these local alerts.
What notifications can Storm Window send, and how do I control them?
Storm Window has two kinds of notifications. On-device alerts are scheduled locally from your cached forecast: the free imminent-hazard alert for your active location, Pro advanced Weather Alerts across saved locations, and the Pro+ Trip forecast changed alert. Push notifications are delivered remotely and let you opt in to Pro+ backend safety alerts, live lightning nearby alerts for Follow My Location, and general Storm Window Updates (Tips & Safety Information, New Features & Announcements). Window-change Drivers choose which hazards can trigger backend Window-change alerts; they do not send separate heat, wind, air-quality, or severe-weather messages by themselves. You choose exactly which categories you want in Settings, and you can turn everything off in iOS Settings at any time.
What is the other-locations ticker? (Pro)
When you have more than one saved location, Storm Window Pro can show a ticker of cached conditions for the places you are not currently viewing, with the most urgent shown first. Turn it on in Settings ▸ Display. It reads only forecasts already cached on your device — it never refreshes locations in the background or changes your notification settings — and tapping an item switches to that location.
How do I manage or restore Storm Window Pro?
Open Settings in Storm Window. If Pro is active, the Current plan row shows your active plan. Use Restore Purchases after reinstalling or moving to a new device, and use Manage Subscription to review, change, or cancel your App Store subscription.
Does Storm Window sync across my devices?
Yes. Storm Window uses iCloud to automatically keep key settings in sync across your iPhone and iPad when both are signed into the same Apple ID. Changes propagate in the background; there is no manual sync button, and no Storm Window account is required.
What syncs (shared per person):
- Saved locations, including renames and deletes
- Custom activity profiles (Pro)
- Selected activity profile (Pro)
- Personal profile settings: age group, heat tolerance, air-quality sensitivity, and fitness level (Pro)
- Cautious Lightning toggle — your personal safety posture setting
What stays per-device (not synced):
- All notification toggles — each device can be configured independently for how you use it
- Display preferences: chart style, rain/snow overlay, and the other-locations ticker
If you edit the same setting on two devices at nearly the same time, the most recently saved change wins and the other device catches up when it next connects. Each device always keeps its own active location, so switching locations on your iPhone does not affect the one your iPad is viewing.
The app can’t find my location or shows the wrong place.
- Make sure location access is enabled in Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Location Services ▸ Storm Window.
- You don’t need to share location at all — you can type a city, state, or ZIP/postal code instead.
- Use Reset Location in the app’s location menu to clear the saved spot and set it again.
The forecast won’t load.
Storm Window needs an internet connection to fetch a fresh forecast. If a fetch fails, it shows the last cached forecast when possible. Check your connection and pull down to refresh. Coverage for extra U.S. thunderstorm probabilities and active NWS alerts is unavailable outside the United States, but the core forecast still works worldwide.
How do I add the widget or the Apple Watch app?
- iPhone widget: touch and hold the Home Screen or Lock Screen, tap Edit ▸ Add Widget (or the “+”), search for Storm Window, and choose a size.
- Apple Watch: install Storm Window from the Watch app on your iPhone, then add a complication to your watch face for an at-a-glance view.
What can Apple Watch do with and without the iPhone?
With the iPhone nearby, Apple Watch receives the active location, saved locations, per-location forecast caches, and shared settings from the phone. It shows the same low-risk-window verdict, current status, and activity profile as the phone, with a compact risk strip based on the same hourly outlook. Its complications reload when the phone relays fresh forecast or location data. Storm Window Pro complications can follow the active location or pin one saved location.
Apple Watch can also work on its own. It reads the last forecast and settings already stored on the watch, recomputes the low-risk-window headline locally as time passes, and can fetch a fresh forecast over its own network connection when the cache is stale or you pull to refresh. If no phone location has been synced yet, the watch app can set a location from the watch’s own GPS using a one-time, city-scale location fix.
Current limits: use the iPhone app to add, rename, delete, and organize saved locations. The watch also does not schedule the iPhone’s imminent-hazard local notifications.
Is this a lightning detector or an emergency alert system?
No. Storm Window provides forecast guidance and optional lightning-alert context only. It is not a certified lightning safety system, emergency alert system, medical app, or substitute for official watches, warnings, or your own judgment. Conditions can change quickly and no forecast is a guarantee. Do not wait for an app alert: when thunder roars, go indoors.
Privacy
Storm Window needs no account. Saved profiles, personal profile settings, and most app data stay on your device. Pro+ Apple Intelligence guidance is generated on device when available; Storm Window does not send forecast prompts to a SiPhy AI service. App Store subscriptions are processed by Apple and RevenueCat so paid features can unlock and restore. If you opt in to Pro+ backend safety alerts, SiPhy’s backend stores limited alert-registration data such as an anonymous device identifier, enabled alert categories, approximate forecast grid location, location display name, and activity profile selection. OneSignal delivers push notifications and receives the push token and delivery payload, but not your saved-location list, personal profile settings, or precise GPS location. See our Privacy Policy for details.