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Storm Shield - Version 4.17
(Released September 11, 2023)
A few under-the-hood maintenance items are in this release, including:
• Fixed a bug where some map layers were not staying selected in repeat app sessions for some users.
• Fixed a bug with the map legend image.
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Storm Shield - Version 4.16
(Released October 17, 2022)
Version 4.16 APP IMPROVEMENTS:
• NEW! Improved widgets for iOS 15 and above: Choose either a Small or Large widgets to see at a glance active weather alerts and current conditions on your iPhone and iPad home screen.
• Additional under-the-hood maintenance items are included in this release.
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Storm Shield - Version 4.15
(Released June 1, 2021)
• A few under-the-hood maintenance items are included in this release.
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NEW RELEASE: Storm Shield App for iOS Version 4.14
Version 4.14 APP IMPROVEMENTS:
• NEW! We added a new feature in Settings > Advanced > called 'Opening Weather Alert Notifications'. Now, when you tap a weather alert notification on your iOS device, you can choose to 'Show Map Screen', which opens the app on the Map screen and displays the location for which the alert was about (this is the default app behavior), or you can 'Show Alert Detail Screen', which opens the app and takes you straight to the Alert Detail screen so you can read or listen to the full details for the alert that you just received.
• We fixed a bug on the Hurricane Tracks layer where '???' sometimes appeared for one of the data values when viewing a storm's detailed information.
• Additional under-the-hood maintenance items are included in this release.
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NEW RELEASE: Storm Shield App for iOS Version 4.12
Version 4.12 BUG FIXES:
• We fixed a map rendering bug that caused the map pins to appear to move away from their fixed locations on the map as you zoom the map out to a broader regional or national map view.
• We fixed a bug that caused the detailed storm information for an active hurricane or tropical storm to not display when you tapped one of the storm's past or forecasted plot points on the map.
• We fixed a bug that would intermittently cause the map view to default to Omaha, Nebraska when you launched the app.
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NEW RELEASE: Storm Shield App for iOS Version 4.11
APP IMPROVEMENTS:
NEW MAP KIT
• A new map kit allows for new weather imagery layers that did not exist in version 4.10 and below. You'll notice the base map itself now looks a little different because of this map kit change.
This new map kit brings the following NEW features:
DARK MODE
• Storm Shield App now supports iOS 13's Dark Mode. To enable Dark Mode in Storm Shield App, set your iOS device to 'Dark' in your iOS 'Settings' > 'Display & Brightness'.
VIEW SEAMLESS PAST-TO-FUTURE RADAR IMAGERY
• The new map kit lets you view Past-to-Future Weather imagery seamlessly, without having to switch weather layers (requires an optional in-app purchase to the Premium Weather monthly subscription).
FOUR NEW FUTURE IMAGERY MAP LAYERS
• The new map kit adds 4 brand new Future imagery map layers that did not exist in any prior version of the app (these require an optional in-app purchase to the Premium Weather monthly subscription):
• Future Clouds: See predicted cloud imagery for the next few hours.
• Future Clouds & Radar together: See predicted clouds and radar imagery together for the next few hours.
• Future Water Temps Map: See predicted future water temperatures map.
• Future Wind Speeds Map: See predicted future wind speeds map.
• NOTE: If you already have a pre-existing active subscription for the optional Premium Weather in-app purchase, all six Future imagery layers will be enabled automatically when you update your app to this version 4.11 release.
• If you do not have an active Premium Weather in-app purchase subscription, or your Premium Weather in-app purchase previously expired, then you will need to purchase the optional Premium Weather in-app subscription to unlock these six Future imagery map layers.
IMPROVED IMAGERY TO THESE EXISTING PAST WEATHER LAYERS:
• Radar
• Clouds
• Clouds & Radar together
• Temperatures Map
• Water Temps Map
• Wind Speeds Map
• Road Weather Map
IMPROVED IMAGERY TO THESE EXISTING FUTURE IMAGERY LAYERS:
• Future Radar: See predicted radar imagery for the next few hours.
• Future Temperature Map: See predicted future temperatures map.
ADDITIONAL NEW MAP FEATURES INCLUDE:
• The new map kit adds a new 'Current Conditions' map layer under the 'Severe Weather Overlays' menu, to help you better see current conditions across a wide area.
• The new map kit adds a new 'Current Temperatures' map layer under the 'Severe Weather Overlays' menu, to help you better see current temperatures across a wide area.
• The new map kit adds a new 'Snow Fall' map layer, which replaced the 'Snow Cover' map layer from version 4.10 and below. The 'Snow Cover' layer from the previous app version's map kit depicted the amount of snow on the ground at a given time from all previous accumulations (i.e. snow pack). Conversely, the new 'Snow Fall' layer in the v4.11's map kit update depicts the amount of snow that has fallen in the last 24 hours, which is a better representation of recent snowfall, but does not account for snowfall that occurred more than 24 hours ago.
OTHER APP IMPROVEMENTS INCLUDE:
• We added a new feature in 'Advanced > Show When App Starts' that lets you choose what location you want to see when you launch Storm Shield: choose to always show 'Your Current Location' (if you've allowed location permission) when you launch the app, or always show 'Your Last Viewed Location' when you launch the app.
• We removed the 'Advanced > Weather Layer Imagery Loops' user preference that was in the old v4.10 app, because the new map kit from our weather provider in this version 4.11 app release does not support this capability.
• Additional under-the-hood maintenance items are included in this release.
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NEW RELEASE: Storm Shield App for iOS Version 4.10
BUG FIXES:
• We fixed a bug on iPad where the map didn't properly display across the entire screen when iPad was in Landscape View. As a result of this fix, we've expanded the Location Card view (at the bottom of the map screen) to be more helpful and show more hours when iPad is in Landscape view.
• We fixed another bug where the Hurricane Tracks detail screen could not be closed if it displayed a lot of hurricane track data points.
• We fixed a small bug where the app would crash when attempting to Share a map image to the device's Camera Roll.
• We fixed a small bug that caused the app's Notifications permission box to not display correctly when the user wanted to enable Weather Alerts in the app, but the iOS device itself had notifications disabled (in iOS Settings).
• Additional under-the-hood maintenance items are included in this release.
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NEW RELEASE: Storm Shield App for iOS v4.9
APP IMPROVEMENTS:
TURN SEVERE WEATHER ALERTS ON OR OFF BY LOCATION
• This was a popular user request! In Settings, tap Manage Locations, then swipe left on a location name to reveal this new option. Note: Storm Shield supports notifications for up to 25 total locations (for example: 1 Current Location plus 24 Saved Locations).
VOICE PLAYBACK OF AN ALERT'S FULL DETAIL TEXT
• In the app, when a user taps a location's active alert to read its full text, users can tap a new Play/Pause button at the top of the Alert Detail to have Siri read the complete alert text. This feature is also helpful with Accessibility needs for our visually impaired users.
MORE STORM DETAIL FOR HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS
• With the Hurricane Tracks overlay enabled, Storm Shield now displays this storm detail: storm name; type of storm (i.e. 'Tropical Depression'); direction, speed, and wind speed; past date and time stamps (i.e. '8 hours ago'); and forecasted date and time stamps (i.e. 'in 2 days').
CUSTOMIZE WEATHER IMAGERY DISPLAY FOR SLOW CELLULAR CONNECTIONS
• A new Advanced setting lets you set the number of looping imagery frames to display for weather layers (such as radar) if you are on a slow cellular connection. Using less frames will help looping layers like radar display faster, but you won't see as much imagery.
ACCESSIBILITY FIXES:
• For our visually-impaired users: when inside the app and you tap an active alert to read its full detail, you can now tap the new Play/Pause button at the top of the Alert Detail screen. This gives Voice Over users more control over the voice read-back of an active alert's full detail text.
• When the iOS Accessibility Voice Over ability was on, and there were multiple locations saved in Storm Shield, and those locations had multiple active alerts, a bug caused one location in the app to get its number of alerts confused with the number of active alerts for other locations in the app. This bug has now been squashed.
• When the iOS Accessibility Voice Over ability was on, and Local Media Provider content appeared in the Location Card Detail screen, a bug caused the 'Live Stream' and 'Full Story' buttons to not be tappable. This bug has now been squashed.
OTHER BUG FIXES:
• We squashed an annoying bug that was causing severe weather notifications to stop working for some users, while these notifications continued to work fine for the majority of users. If your device was affected by this, updating your app and opening this version 4.9 should correct that issue.
If, after installing and opening this version 4.9 update, you feel you're still not getting weather alert notifications, please submit a Support ticket from within your Storm Shield App, which provides us with additional diagnostic data, and we'll look into it.
• A bug was found in Storm Shield iOS version 4.8 (which was released on July 9, 2018), which caused in-app purchase subscriptions that expired to not actually become disabled correctly in the app for some users. The net result was, some users continued to get access to the premium features for free after the in-app purchase subscription expired. This bug has been corrected in Storm Shield iOS version 4.9.
• A bug was found in Storm Shield, which caused the purchase of an individual in-app subscription feature to inadvertently also unlock the other in-app subscription purchase feature. As an example: if you purchased the individual 'Lightning' feature, you inadvertently also got the separate 'Future Radar' feature for free. This bug has been corrected in Storm Shield iOS version 4.9.
• Additional bug fixes and performance improvements are included in this release.
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Version 4.7
APP IMPROVEMENTS:
• Widget: Storm Shield App now has a widget for the Today screen on your iOS device! This was a common user request, and we are excited this is now part of the app! Get quick access to active weather alerts, current conditions and a 5-hour forecast for the first location you have in your Storm Shield App. Be sure to enable your widget on your device’s Today screen. Storm Shield’s widget can also appear on your lock screen for super-quick access if you enabled it.
• 3D Touch: The app’s icon is now enabled with 3D Touch, an Apple technology that senses how deeply you press the display in iPhone 6S and later iPhone models. By 3D touching the app icon on your iPhone, you can get quick access to active weather alerts, current conditions and a 5-hour forecast for the first location you have in your Storm Shield App, right from the home screen of your iPhone.
• A new Advanced feature allows you to select your preference to show on the Location Card at the bottom of the map either the 5-hour forecast Conditions or the 5-hour forecast Temperatures. This new preference also takes effect on Storm Shield’s new Widget. To set your preference, on the Map screen tap Settings (the gear icon), then Advanced, and under ‘Location Cards’ select either ‘Show Hourly Conditions’ or ‘Show Hourly Temperatures’.
• Tapping a location pin on the map shows a bubble with a new info button that opens the Location Details screen. (You can still tap the ‘More’ button on the Location Card at the bottom of the screen to access the same location information.)
BUG FIXES:
• This includes a patch for the bug fix in version 4.5 that was supposed to clear up duplicate saved locations in the app. Version 4.5 cleared up duplicate current locations, but turns out it did not handle all cases for duplicate saved locations. This version 4.7 should now resolve that for saved locations too. If, after installing version 4.7, your device is still affected by this, please submit a Support ticket from within your Storm Shield App, which provides us with additional diagnostic data, and we will be happy to look into it.
• Additional Accessibility and Voice Over improvements for our visually-impaired users are included in this release. (Fixed Voice Over for when the Hi/Lo temps (or other data) are not available.)
• Fixed a bug that caused an app crash if you had to delete and then quickly re-install the app (the app could crash if any app settings at the iOS system level were not cleared immediately when the app was deleted, due to some system level app settings that could remain cached for a few extra minutes).
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Version 4.6
• HOT FIX to ver4.5: Fixes an app crash on startup that only affected older 32-bit devices, such as iPhone 5. This bug got introduced in the version 4.5 release related to the new feature that lets you change the order of your saved locations. It turns out older 32-bit devices, such as iPhone 5, didn’t like the new code. This patch should fix that so the app no longer crashes on startup for older 32-bit devices.
• This also fixes a bug that caused the app to crash if you have zero locations saved in the app.
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Version 4.5
APP IMPROVEMENTS:
• Change the order of your saved locations! This was a common user request, and we’re excited this is now part of the app! In Settings, tap Manage Locations, then tap ‘Edit’ to move existing locations up or down the list (tap ‘Done’ to save the new list order). Note: Current Location (if you allowed it) will always be set to position #1.
• The orange temperature displayed on the Location Card at the bottom of the map screen now shows the ‘current conditions temperature’ instead of the ‘forecasted temperature for the current hour.’ We made this change because some users were confused as to why the orange temperature on the Location Card (i.e. the ‘forecasted temperature for the current hour’) didn’t match the orange temperature on the Location Details screen (i.e. ‘current conditions temperature’).
• Accessibility and Voice Over improvements for our visually-impaired users are included in this release.
• Select the text of an active alert’s full details. Simply long-press on the text to display the iOS selection tool.
• When you receive a severe weather alert push notification for one of your locations, you can now swipe open that notification and the app will take you to that location on Storm Shield’s map so you can see its active weather.
BUG FIXES:
• Fixed a bug that caused current locations to be duplicated in the app for some users. If your device was affected by this, updating and running this version 4.5 should correct that issue automatically. If it does not, please submit a Support ticket from within your Storm Shield App, which provides us with additional diagnostic data, and we’ll look into it.
• Tapping the red alert triangle on the Location Details screen (this red triangle appears if your location has an active alert), now takes you to the list of active alerts for that location.
• When using Metric units in Storm Shield’s Advanced settings, the Location Details screen now correctly displays “mb” for Millibars instead of “in” for Inches on the barometric pressure reading.
WHAT’S UP NEXT:
• We’re working on adding some new feature preferences, as well as continued performance improvements to further polish the app. We are also working to resolve a bug that is causing saved locations to be duplicated in the app for some users.
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Version 4.4
• New Weather Alerts improvements: Thanks to your feedback from the initial version 4 release, Storm Shield App now provides over 160 weather alert types (instead of 45) for which you can choose to receive a push notification. This is even more alert types than the original Storm Shield App version 3's push notifications (which had 110). To choose which alert types you want to enable or disable, on the Map screen tap Settings (the gear icon), then Manage Weather Alerts.
As always, when you receive a push notification from Storm Shield App, you will hear an audio notification that says: “Beep! Beep! Beep! The National Weather Service has issued a ‘Name of Alert’.”
• New Lightning Alerts improvement: In Settings, you can now enable and disable Lightning push notifications with an on/off switch.
• New Lightning Alerts improvement: When you have Lightning Alerts enabled, a new slider lets you adjust the notification sensitivity between 1 and 10 miles. Adjust this by 1-mile increments to be notified of lightning strikes within X miles.
• Apple Watch fix: We squashed a bug which caused expired weather alerts to not disappear from Storm Shield’s Apple Watch app. Opening Storm Shield App on your iPhone will now update the Apple Watch app for any weather alerts that have since expired.
• Map fix: When adding a new location, the map now centers itself on the new location you just added to match the Location Card display.
• Additional bug fixes and performance improvements are included in this release to resolve an annyoying app crash bug that affected some users.
• WHAT’S UP NEXT: Our next two updates will address some fixes for occasional display inconsistencies between the Location Card and number of active alerts on a given location, improvements to let you change the order of your locations on the the Manage Locations screen, Accessibility improvements for Voice Over, and continued performance improvements.
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Storm Shield - Version 4.0
- (Released January 2018)
Storm Shield has been updated for iOS 11 and beyond. With this major update comes new map layers, new features and a sleek new design.
Severe weather alerts for your exact location. Storm Shield Weather Radio gives you storm-based alerts for tornado, hurricane, flood, thunderstorm, winter storms and other life-threatening weather events via voice and push notification.
Storm-based or polygon alerts help reduce false alarms from county-based alerts by alerting you to severe weather based on your exact location within a county. Why is that important? Because county-based alerts can give you false alarms, warning you even if your location in the county is not within the threatened area.
Benefits include:
• Get NOAA alerts just like a NOAA weather radio via voice and push notification no matter where you are in the United States.
• Share severe weather alerts with your family and friends to make sure they stay safe.
• Beautifully sharp radar map as your home screen so you can immediately see what's going on at your current and saved locations.
• View current conditions, hourly and daily forecasts.
• Save additional locations to make sure friends and family at home, work, or out of state stay safe.
• New hi-definition radar provides stunning precipitation detail. See freezing rain (pink) areas of radar so you know where hazardous road conditions are likely.
• Tap any storm alert polygon on the map to view info about that weather alert.
• New weather overlay called 'Snow Cover' that shows you snow accumulation across the United States.
• Watch live video streams during local severe weather coverage (when available) in these local media provider markets: Denver, Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Nashville, Omaha, Tulsa, Tampa, West Palm Beach, Ft. Myers, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Lansing-Jackson, Baltimore, Buffalo, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, San Diego, Bakersfield, Boise, Tallahassee. When you install your app, you can choose your local media provider based on your home location. After your app is registered with one of these local media providers, the Live Video button will appear on the detail screen for any location you've added in your app that is in these local media provider markets.
• School Closings for Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Lansing-Jackson, Milwaukee, Nashville, Omaha and Tulsa.
INTERACTIVE MAP:
View NOAA severe weather warning boxes on the map to see where dangerous weather is happening:
• NEW: Tap an alert to view its info.
• NEW: Show multiple severe weather layers on the map at the same time
• Flood watches and warnings
• Tornadoes and Thunderstorm watches and warnings
• Hurricane and Tropical Storm forecast tracks, watches and warnings
• Winter storm watches and warnings
• Marine and coastal alerts
NEW WEATHER MAP LAYERS:
• Radar
• Clouds
• Clouds & Radar together
• Wind Speed
• Snow Cover
• Temperatures
• Water Temperatures
• Road Weather
• Earthquakes
• Future Weather (in-app purchase subscription required)
• Lightning Alerts and notifications (in-app purchase subscription required)
NEW: Enhance your app with a Future Weather (Future Radar) auto-renewing subscription for purchase in the app for $0.99/month to see:
• Radar up to 6 hours in the future
• Temperature Forecast map up to 12 hours in the future
• Storm Tracks to see how fast storms are moving and where they are headed
NEW: Enhance your app with a Lightning Strikes auto-renewing subscription for purchase in the app for $0.99/month:
• Receive lightning strike push notifications for your locations
• See lightning strikes on the map within 150 miles of a selected location