StormTracker Windy Plugin ⛈️

Real-time radar-based storm cell detection overlay for Windy.com. Brings StormTracker's storm intelligence to Windy's global weather visualization.

Features

• Storm Points — Colored markers showing storm cell positions with dBZ intensity
• Movement Arrows — Direction arrows showing where storms are heading (cell-tracked or wind-based)
• Track Cones — Predicted path cones showing likely storm trajectories
• Three Display Modes — Off / 12 Inbound (approaching storms only) / All storms
• Auto-Scan — Refreshes every 2 minutes for continuous monitoring
• Dual Radar — NEXRAD (US) primary with RainViewer (global) fallback
• Winds Aloft — Uses Open-Meteo 850-500hPa steering winds for movement estimation
• Cell Tracking — Frame-to-frame comparison for individual cell movement vectors

Installation

Development

git clone https://github.com/CAPFlyingFun/StormTracker-Windy-Plugin.git
cd StormTracker-Windy-Plugin
npm install
npm start

Open Windy.com, press the plugin button (or navigate to the menu), and load from https://localhost:9999/plugin.js.

Building

npm run build

Output goes to dist/plugin.min.js.

Publishing to Windy

To publish the plugin to windy-plugins.com so it can be installed by anyone:

1. Get a Windy API Key

Go to https://api.windy.com/keys and create a Windy Plugins API key.

2. Add the API Key to GitHub

In this repository's Settings → Secrets and Variables → Actions, click New repository secret and create a secret named WINDY_API_KEY with the key from step 1.

3. Add the Publish Workflow

Create the file .github/workflows/publish-plugin.yml in the repository (via GitHub's web editor or locally). Use this content:

name: publish-plugin

on:
    workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
    publish-plugin:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        env:
            WINDY_API_KEY: '${{ secrets.WINDY_API_KEY }}'
        steps:
            - uses: actions/checkout@v2
            - name: Build
              run: |
                  npm install
                  npm run build
            - name: Publish Plugin
              run: |
                  if [ -z "$WINDY_API_KEY" ]; then
                    echo "Secret WINDY_API_KEY is not configured" >&2
                    exit 1
                  fi
                  cd dist
                  echo "Creating plugin archive..."
                  echo "{\"repositoryName\": \"${{ github.repository }}\", \"commitSha\": \"${{ github.sha }}\", \"repositoryOwner\": \"${{ github.repository_owner }}\"}" > /tmp/plugin-info.json
                  mv plugin.json /tmp
                  jq -s '.[0] * .[1]' /tmp/plugin.json /tmp/plugin-info.json > plugin.json
                  tar cf ../plugin.tar .
                  echo "Publishing plugin..."
                  curl -s --fail-with-body -XPOST 'https://node.windy.com/plugins/v1.0/upload' -H "x-windy-api-key: ${WINDY_API_KEY}" -F "plugin_archive=@../plugin.tar"

4. Run the Workflow

Go to Actions → publish-plugin → Run workflow and select the main branch. After it completes, the plugin URL will appear in the job log.

5. Share the Plugin URL

Your published plugin URL will look like:

https://windy-plugins.com/{userId}/windy-plugin-stormtracker/1.0.0/plugin.min.js

Share this URL — anyone can paste it into Windy's plugin loader to install your storm detection overlay.

Display Modes

Mode	Behavior
Off	All storm layers hidden
12 Inbound	Shows up to 12 approaching storm cells with arrows and tracks
All	Shows every detected storm cell within scan radius

Layer Toggles

Each layer can be individually enabled/disabled:

• ✅ Storm Points — Circle markers colored by dBZ
• ✅ Movement Arrows — Cyan = cell-tracked, Blue = wind-estimated
• ✅ Track Cones — Semi-transparent path prediction cones

Scan Radius

Choose 40, 80, or 120 miles. Adjusts the detection area around the current map center.

Data Sources

• Radar: RainViewer API (global) + Iowa State NEXRAD (US)
• Winds: Open-Meteo (850-500hPa steering winds)
• Cell Tracking: Frame-to-frame cell matching with speed/direction calculation

License

MIT — see StormTracker for the parent project.