We’ve got a thing that’s called radar love
We’ve got a wave in the air, radar love.
-  Radar Love  – Golden Earring (Hay and Kooymans)

If you live in an partially off grid farm, or you dont have a television or get poor reception, keeping an eye on the weather can be a challenge.  But if you connect to the Internet, for examle by cell phone – data, or by satellite, there is a free tool that you may find helpful.

The Oklahoma Climatological Survey offers a free download software called Weather Scope.  Available for both Mac and Windows users, this software installs easily.  It takes little understanding to get it set up and working, but for instance, to view local weather radar from the National Weather Service,  simply chose the radar source from a state-sorted lists of National Weather Service radars.

The initial view include state borders, and not much more detail, but you can add urban areas, principal highways, county borders, and you can also download county roads for some locations.

Close up view showing county road detail

Weather Scope showing Iowa Radar and Texas radars during Ike