Changelog - NWS Alerts

Beta 1.4.3

Latest

March 22, 2026

✨ New Features

📢Site Announcements — Admins can now publish announcements that appear as a banner at the top of the dashboard or as a modal popup on page load. Announcements support custom messages, frequency controls (once per user or every visit), and optional start/end dates.

🖥️NWSAlerts Desktop App — NWSAlerts is now available as a free Windows desktop app. Get instant desktop notifications for major alerts, a system tray icon with live alert count, and the full dashboard in a native window. Download here.

🔔Custom Notification Preferences — Desktop app users can now choose exactly which alert types, severity levels, and impact tags trigger desktop notifications from the Notification Settings menu.

🔄Auto Updates — The desktop app now automatically checks for updates in the background and prompts you to install them when a new version is available.

🐛 Bug Fixes & Improvements

🔧Download Link Hidden in App — The Download Desktop App link in the About section and footer is now automatically hidden when using the desktop app.

🔧Expand Button Hidden on Mobile — The map expand button is no longer shown on mobile devices where it is not usable.

🔧Restored /stats Route — The Stats page was inaccessible due to a missing route. It has been restored.

Beta 1.4.2

✨ New Features

🏷️Impact Tag System — Alerts now display impact tags automatically detected from NWS alert text. Supported tags: 🚨 EMERGENCY, 💧 FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCY, ⚠ PDS, ✓ CONFIRMED, 🌪 TORNADO POSSIBLE, 🌊 CATASTROPHIC, 💥 DESTRUCTIVE, ☠ LIFE THREATENING, ⚡ CONSIDERABLE. Tags appear on alert cards, the map, and the details panel.

🗺️Tag Labels Always Visible on Map — Alerts with active tags now display their label on the map at all zoom levels, so critical alerts are never hidden regardless of how far you're zoomed out.

✎User Tag Overrides — You can manually override auto-detected tags on any alert directly from the alert details panel. Overrides are saved locally and display an indicator showing the tag was overridden.

⚡Tagged Alerts Flash Continuously — Alerts tagged EMERGENCY, FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCY, or CATASTROPHIC now flash continuously on the map and sidebar for their entire active lifetime, matching the behavior of Tornado Warnings.

🌊Flash Flood Emergency Color — Flash Flood Emergency alerts now use a distinct blue color on the map and sidebar to differentiate them from standard Flash Flood Warnings.

🎨 Design

🏷️New Badge Styles — Each tag has a distinct color and style. EMERGENCY and CATASTROPHIC badges include a pulsing glow animation. Override indicators show clearly on both the sidebar card and the map label.

🗺️Map Override Indicator — Map labels show a small ✎ symbol when a tag has been manually overridden, so you always know which tags are auto-detected vs manually applied.

🐛 Bug Fixes & Improvements

🔧Tag Suppression Logic — Higher-severity tags correctly suppress lower ones on the same alert.

🔧Stale Override Cleanup — Tag overrides for expired alerts are automatically removed on each data refresh.

🔧Flash Colors Updated — EMERGENCY alerts flash pink, FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCY flash blue, and CATASTROPHIC flash purple.

Beta 1.4.1

✨ New Features

🗺️Radar Loop — 12-frame NEXRAD reflectivity loop with play/pause, frame scrubber, and opacity slider. Live frame auto-refreshes every 5 minutes.

🌙Dark Map Mode — Toggle between light and dark base map tiles from the map header. Preference saved across sessions.

📊Alert Count in Tab Title — Browser tab shows the current active alert count so you can monitor at a glance.

⌨️Keyboard Shortcuts — S Settings, F Fullscreen, Esc Close modals.

🗃️State Filter — Filter alerts by one or more US states from Settings.

⚡Flash Speed & Ticker Speed Controls — Adjust flash and ticker speeds in Settings.

ℹ️About Section in Settings — Quick links to Data Sources, Terms, Privacy, and Feedback.

🎨 Design

🖥️Dashboard Redesign — Unified visual style matching SWCC and Stats. New fonts, darker panels, corner accents, grid overlay, and blue accent colors.

📄Page Redesigns — Terms, Privacy, and Data Sources pages redesigned to match.

🐛 Bug Fixes

🔧Fixed focused weather "Weather unavailable" error for ld+json NWS responses

🔧Fixed expiry timers triggering too late — now triggers at 6 minutes

🔧Fixed alert time formatting showing raw ISO strings

🔧Fixed Settings defaults inconsistency between first load and Reset Defaults

Beta 1.4

✨ New Features

🔍Real-time alert search box in the alert list panel

📊Live severity summary bar with count pills above the alert list

🟢Live connection status indicator in the status bar

⚠️Latest Severe+ button to jump to the most recent high-impact alert

🌪️Tornado Warning tag detection — EMERGENCY, PDS, CONFIRMED

⛈️Severe Thunderstorm Warning tornado-possible tag detection

⚡Continuous flash for Tornado Warnings and tornado-tagged Severe Thunderstorm Warnings

🎨 Design & Performance

🎨Redesigned alert cards with colored event names and cleaner layout

🖥️Complete visual overhaul of Stats page

🚀Non-blocking zone fetching, parallel geometry loading, single FeatureCollection map layer

💾In-memory image and data proxy caching with per-domain TTLs