Terms of Service for Tornado Tracker Users
Tornado Tracker terms govern your access to our live meteorological tracking tools, Doppler radar feeds, and active weather alerts.
1. Acceptance of Terms & Legal Binding
By visiting, browsing, or using Tornado Tracker (including all associated subdomains, web applications, and mobile interfaces), you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these terms in their entirety, you must refrain from using the platform.
These Terms apply to all visitors, registered users, automated crawlers, and researchers who interact with our services, interactive maps, or public data endpoints.
2. Critical Life-Safety & Emergency Action Disclaimer
TORNADO TRACKER IS AN INFORMATIONAL SITUATIONAL AWARENESS PLATFORM AND MUST NOT BE RELIED UPON AS A PRIMARY LIFE-SAFETY WARNING SYSTEM.
While we ingest official alert feeds directly from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS), digital web delivery is subject to internet network delays, telecommunications infrastructure disruptions, power outages, and client-side device latency.
- Outdoor Warning Sirens: When local municipal storm sirens sound in your community, immediately take shelter regardless of what is displayed on digital screens.
- NOAA Weather Radios: A dedicated, battery-backup NOAA Weather Radio receiver with Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) technology is the gold standard for reliable, instantaneous severe weather alerts.
- Emergency Broadcasts: Always follow direct instructions issued by local emergency management agencies, law enforcement, and National Weather Service forecast offices.
3. Permitted Use & Intellectual Property
You are granted a limited, revocable, non-transferable, and non-exclusive license to view our live radar layers, inspect the interactive Tornado Map, and consult historical outbreak statistics for personal, educational, and non-commercial informational purposes.
All custom UI components, Apple-inspired graphic layouts, styling code, logos, icons, and software architecture are the intellectual property of Tornado Tracker. You may not copy, reverse-engineer, frame, or redistribute proprietary platform source code without prior written consent.
4. Public Domain Data & Third-Party Services
The raw meteorological data powering our platform originates from public domain government datasets:
• NOAA National Weather Service: Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) polygons, convective watch coordinates, and storm-based warning text.
• Storm Prediction Center (SPC): Day 1-3 convective categorical and probabilistic tornado outlook shapefiles.
• Map Basemaps: Street map tiles courtesy of OpenStreetMap and CARTO; satellite imagery courtesy of Esri and Earthstar Geographics.
Tornado Tracker does not claim proprietary copyright over government weather records or third-party open-source tile cartography.
5. Disclaimer of Warranties & Limitation of Liability
THE PLATFORM AND ALL ASSOCIATED METEOROLOGICAL PRODUCTS ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR CONTINUOUS AVAILABILITY.
IN NO EVENT SHALL TORNADO TRACKER, ITS OPERATORS, AFFILIATES, OR DATA PROVIDERS BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO, INABILITY TO ACCESS, OR RELIANCE UPON WEATHER INFORMATION PRESENTED ON THIS SERVICE.
6. Prohibited Conduct, API Abuse & Modifications
You agree not to engage in any activity that degrades platform performance or compromises system availability. Prohibited actions include launching denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, sending abusive high-frequency automated scraping requests that bypass caching layers, or attempting to compromise edge infrastructure.
We reserve the right to revise or update these Terms of Service at any time without prior notice. Your continued use of the Tornado Tracker platform following the posting of revised terms constitutes your binding acceptance of the changes.