Topeka Weather: High-Zoom Doppler Radar Rework

The radar on the Topeka Weather page got a full rework. It now pulls NEXRAD tiles directly from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet — free, no API key, and no zoom ceiling.

• Zoom in close: at street-level zoom the map switches to the single-site Topeka radar (TWX) in super-resolution; zoom out and it blends into the national NEXRAD composite. Radar stays visible all the way to z12.
• Smooth playback: the old flicker is gone — frames now crossfade on dual tile layers with next-frame preloading, stepping through the real 5-minute scan timeline (~13 frames per hour) with a live ● LIVE badge on the newest scan.
• Basemap options: dark streets (default) or Esri satellite imagery, both keyless.
• Resilient: if the Mesonet is ever unreachable, the page automatically falls back to RainViewer instead of going dark.

No Google Maps key required — the whole thing runs on open data. Check it out during the next storm cell.