Weather Relay · Documentation
Weather Relay privacy and data choices
Current availability: Weather Relay is in private review for Mac. This notice describes the reviewed experience and does not announce public availability, a release date, or a public-download channel.
Weather Relay uses your Mac to receive weather products, keep a local library, resolve locations you request, render selected text aloud and provide an optional same-Mac browser reader. This notice follows those workflows and identifies the information involved.
On this page
Receive weather directly
Weather Relay connects directly to NOAA/NWS for weather archives and uses Census/NWS services for the places you request. Providers receive the requested resource or place information and normal connection information, such as an IP address. Each provider applies its own request handling and retention practices. Text checks, image checks and recent-history backfill follow their own schedules. Use the receiver controls to start/stop that collection.
Choose a location lookup
Find location or a saved-location selection starts a lookup. A matching fresh cached profile can supply the result. The app saves up to twelve recent query strings and a current cached profile for reuse.
| Recipient | Request and purpose |
|---|---|
| US Census geographic services | Your entered ZIP, city/state or state selects reference geography, representative coordinates and boundaries. |
| National Weather Service | The points service receives derived representative coordinates. NWS reference-map queries receive boundary polygon geometry to identify intersecting zones, counties and offices. |
| Apple geocoder fallback | For ZIP and city/state lookups, an empty Census match can invoke fallback: the system geocoder sends the entered place text to Apple geocoding. State queries follow the reference-geography path. This is a separate system-geocoder flow from the app’s URLSession archive/Census/NWS requests. |
A representative location describes the place you requested. For an eligible ZIP or city fallback, Apple’s system geocoder handles the place lookup. Derived coordinates and boundary geometry describe the area you requested. Use the original product’s areas and warning geometry when interpreting coverage. Consult each provider’s published service/privacy information for its handling of requests.
Keep and manage local data
Your local library keeps weather originals, source and receipt metadata, cached location results, settings and history notices. Saved feeds can include status and diagnostic messages as well as weather information. Review the contents of exported files and the details you choose to provide for support. Preferences include Store-edition folder access/bookmark and library identity, history/storage choices, resume choice and recent queries. A cached profile holds query/area, representative point, zone/county/office/source references and lookup time. The seven-day freshness window controls profile reuse; replacement or the profile reset updates that saved profile entry.
On first setup, the Store edition creates a fresh local library in application-support storage or a new child under a parent you select. Saved grants/bookmarks and the library identity support later access. A request for a fresh location or access renewal keeps Start disabled until storage becomes ready. Keep earlier review-edition history and its matching app/folder in place while requesting release-specific help.
Select Done to apply the displayed library retention/storage settings on each click. Applying those settings, active collection and periodic work can expire eligible files and records in the current library. Independent exported/shared copies, backups, other libraries and earlier preferences follow their own lifetimes. A paused receiver still permits app initialization, local state updates and other library work.
Forget recent locations and the current profile
- Stop receiving and wait for Stopped.
- Close the local viewer and wait for its stopped status.
- Choose Settings → Forget saved locations and profile. The control is disabled while receiving, viewing, changing folders or an earlier reset is busy.
Forgetting saved locations… identifies the busy state. The app stops animation, cancels pending lookups and joins already-started library work. The reset removes the current library’s logical cached profile and clears recent Store-edition queries/current filter after acknowledged profile removal. Earlier ordinary work finishes under its existing retention choices before reset proceeds. The reset’s own deletion scope is this profile and query list.
An unconfirmed outcome can leave profile removal completed while recent queries remain. Keep the exact message and seek support for an incomplete result. Logical deletion updates active records; physical database storage, previous backups, independent copies and other libraries have their own lifecycle. All areas changes the current filter.
Open the same-Mac reader and save copies
The optional browser service listens on this Mac’s loopback address. While it is open, same-Mac software can request the permitted feed and original routes. Close local viewer stops that service separately from receiving. Save a copy writes a retained original or bounded feed to the destination you choose. Preserve source attribution and verify reuse terms for any copy you share.
Share a selected weather original
Share opens the standard macOS Share interface for an eligible selected bulletin or image. After the original passes the app’s existing reuse-rights screen, Weather Relay prepares an unchanged unused local temporary copy before enabling Share. A mouse press opens the sharing picker; activating the control without a mouse pointer uses AppKit’s standard Share menu item. You choose the service and recipient; the selected service and recipients manage their copies under their own privacy and delivery policies. The selected product’s title supplies the sharing subject where the service supports it.
No service or recipient is selected, and no transfer is attempted, until you act in the macOS interface. The ready temporary snapshot keeps the selected original fixed for the handoff. Selection or library changes and clean Quit request removal of unused ready copies. Share gives its ready copy to the sharing session; cancellation or a service’s reported completion or failure requests cleanup, then the app prepares a fresh ready copy for the current selection. A pending system callback, interrupted exit or cleanup failure can leave temporary files for macOS to manage. Temporary sharing copies and copies managed by a chosen service have lifetimes separate from library retention. Review the selected service and recipient before completing the share.
Local monitoring, notification choices and system maps
Monitoring reads a bounded snapshot of already retained local products. The library can keep saved resolved-place metadata, alert rules and notification choices, named dashboards with filters and pinned series, and bounded warning-event summaries with source/receipt clocks and original references. It does not start another collector, silently geocode saved dashboards, or send products to a new cloud service. Supported retained station reports are decoded locally and preserve their original reference; an inferred observation date is labeled, and receipt does not renew it.
Alert and health notifications start off. Enabling either requests macOS local-notification permission. macOS manages presentation, sound, and delivered copies under its settings. Weather Relay does not register a remote push service, configure a company sender, send email or SMS, or guarantee closed-app or always-on delivery. The optional Apple base map is off until chosen in Monitoring; Apple’s system map service receives normal connection information for the viewed region, while Weather Relay does not request this Mac’s device location.
Health separates current receiving-session requests, current-session backfill, and retained library history. A retained header or archive receipt never supplies a current request result or source clock. Starting a new receiving session resets its live request/backfill telemetry. A successful archive response does not establish completeness, product validity, or current warning status. Current failures, incomplete backfill, paused state, or unknown/malformed/future clocks cannot qualify as recovery; notifications are withheld when permission or monitoring-state persistence fails.
Hear text and request support
System speech facilities render selected passages with installed voices into local temporary audio files, and playback uses the Mac’s selected output. Stopping/replacing a clip requests cleanup. Failed/interrupted cleanup can leave a temporary audio file. Manage installed voices and sound output through macOS settings.
Choose receiver/viewer/audio/animation controls and the resume/login choices to manage app activity. macOS login registration is a separate choice from saved resume preferences. Use clean Quit and wait for actual writer exit before moving library files.
For Weather Relay support, email support@lanternacre.com. Use Lanternacre.com for release-specific guidance. You choose the details and files to send for the issue you want help with. Confirm the support contact and its attachment method before sending files. Your selected storage, backup, and sharing services manage their independent copies.
Support messages and attachments can include the app version, Mac/macOS, actions, times, exact messages, and any screenshots or files you select. Screenshots and files from your Mac can also show account names, folder paths, location queries, and unrelated details. Review a copy before sending it; keep relevant diagnostic details, cover unrelated personal or business information, and remove any visible passwords, sign-in or recovery codes, API keys, and access tokens. Mark redactions and preserve relevant weather source attribution and product times. Your selected delivery service handles its own copies under its settings and policies.