Topeka Weather v2: Any City, Nowcast Radar, SPC Risk & Air Quality

The weather page just had its biggest upgrade yet — five new capabilities that turn a single-city dashboard into a real severe-weather tool.

1 · Any US city. A search box now lets you point the page at any American city. Every data source follows — current conditions, NWS forecast, and the Doppler radar automatically re-targets to that city's nearest NEXRAD station (search Lawrence and it correctly locks onto the Topeka radar, not Wichita). Your choice is remembered between visits.

2 · “Are you in the warning area?” A one-tap location check tests your exact position against every active NWS alert boundary (point-in-polygon). During a storm you get a pulsing red banner if a warning actually covers where you are — the difference between “there’s a warning out there” and “you need to move now.”

3 · Radar nowcast. A new toggle layers in 15 minutes of forecast radar (RainViewer nowcast), so you can see where a cell is heading, not just where it’s been. Tagged “FCST” and capped at the composite zoom since that’s the only keyless nowcast source.

4 · SPC convective risk. The Storm Prediction Center’s Day-1 categorical outlook now shows as a color-coded risk badge (Marginal through Extreme) for the selected location — proactive risk, not just reactive warnings. Critical for tornado alley.

5 · Air quality. A new US AQI card (Open-Meteo) covers the wildfire-smoke days that push Kansas into Unhealthy territory — the kind of thing a weather page should show but didn’t.

Everything remains keyless: Open-Meteo, NWS, IEM, RainViewer, and NOAA/SPC. Try it.