Conditions & hazards
Keep conditions separate from activity
Open Map tools and choose Hazards, Weather observations, or Warnings for weather, lightning, thermal detections, and NWS alerts. These sources have different authority, coverage, refresh timing, and purpose; dalMap keeps them visibly separate.
Weather and hazards
| Tool | What it is | What it is not |
|---|---|---|
| APRS weather | Community station-submitted measurements | Independently verified weather, a forecast, or safety information |
| Official observations | METAR and NOAA NDBC measurements at reporting stations | An area forecast, warning, or correction to APRS data |
| Satellite lightning | Recent total-lightning satellite context | A ground-strike location or warning service |
| Satellite fire detections | Thermal-anomaly pixels near the saved grid | An exact fire location, incident perimeter, or safety warning |
| NWS alerts | Current alerts affecting the center of the saved grid | A replacement for official local alert channels or authorities |
| Tsunami alerts | Current PTWC and NTWC warnings, watches, and advisories | A replacement for official local tsunami warnings or authorities |
| Earthquakes and tropical cyclones | Public situational context | Damage, impact, evacuation, or operating guidance |
Use official local channels and authorities for safety decisions. Sources can have latency, gaps, coverage limits, and outages; an empty or stale layer does not prove that no hazard exists. An NWS alert leaves the map when the message carrying it expires, which is often before the hazard it describes is over — the issuing office is expected to replace the message, and dalMap has not seen the replacement yet. An alert card you already have open stays where it is and tells you it is no longer listed, rather than closing itself.
dalMap’s hazard coverage is strongest for the United States today. Tsunami alerts covers the Pacific, U.S., and Caribbean coasts PTWC and NTWC serve directly; other ocean basins have their own accredited tsunami warning centers this site does not yet carry, and the same is true of severe-weather and volcanic-ash sources outside the NWS and USGS. Where dalMap has nothing for your coast, use the warning center and local authorities that serve it.
These rows report their state in the same words the activity layers use, and Read a layer status is where each one is explained. Two are worth knowing before you open this section: Not offered on this dalMap means this copy does not carry that source at all, which is not a fault and will not clear by waiting, and Source not answering means it is carried and is not responding, which can.
Space weather
dalMap’s own Space weather page presents the current NOAA R, S, and G scales; the F10.7 and Kp indices; GOES X-ray flux; solar wind speed and magnetic field; the Kp forecast; NOAA’s 3-day and 27-day outlooks; recent radio-relevant bulletins; the daily Solar Region Summary; and four broad operator and band-group readings derived from that evidence — each with its own freshness read against the source rather than a fixed schedule. NOAA scales, solar and geomagnetic indicators, derived readings, solar regions, and auroral guidance are broad operating context — not station-specific path predictions or a declaration of a band opening, and solar regions describe observed solar-disk features rather than predicting a flare. D-RAP and auroral guidance remain here, on the map, where they are drawn as layers.
Alerts and watches
Open Map tools → Alerts & watches for browser-local watches of current callsigns, prefixes, grids, zones, xOTA references, observed bands, and planned satellite passes. Optional worked-log conditions remain private. Watches never submit spots, tune a radio, or alter dalMap’s requests. Their temporary match state and cooldowns last only while the page is open.