Map layers and radar

Open the layers

On iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, tap Weather — the cloud button on the map. Its sheet has radar and its legend, wind and its legend, and weather alerts. The radar timeline opens in Radar options. On iPhone, iPad and Mac it also has traffic, with its legend. On iPhone the map above the sheet still moves and answers taps; on an iPad or a Mac the sheet opens beside the button. On an Android phone it rises from the bottom of the screen, and on an Android tablet it opens as a dialog, as Map, Key and Route options do. Time zones, sunrise and sunset and off-screen pointers are in Route options, which opens from the key on the map.

On the web, tap Layers — the stacked-squares button on the map. The sheet, “What to show on the map”, has the layers, the route colour, the marker style and the map style.

RADAR

Rain and snow: up to twelve hours observed, then twenty-four hours ahead. Off until you turn it on.

ALERTS

Official watches, warnings and advisories from the US National Weather Service, hatched. Off until you turn it on.

WIND

Speed and direction, from the weather model. Off until you turn it on.

TRAFFIC

Live congestion and closed roads, from Mapbox. Off until you turn it on.

TIME ZONES

Where the clock changes. On.

SUNRISE AND SUNSET

Where the light changes on the drive. On.

OFF-SCREEN POINTERS

Chips at the edge of the map that point to hazards out of view. Off.

On iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android radar, weather alerts and wind are in Weather and the rest in Route options. Traffic is in Weather on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and not on Android yet. The web lists RADAR, ALERTS, WIND and TRAFFIC, with clouds marked as coming soon. Official alerts explains what the alerts show.

Radar

Radar shows where rain and snow have fallen over up to twelve hours, in frames ten minutes apart, then the forecast model’s next twenty-four hours, hourly. A key gives rain, snow and a mix of the two their colours, light to heavy. The time of the frame on screen is on your device’s clock.

On iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, turn Radar on, then open Radar options. The same sheet opens from the radar row on the map. Past & now shows observations; Forecast shows future model frames. Playback stays in the selected mode. Live follows new observations automatically; seeking pauses and keeps the chosen time, and Go live resumes following. Forecast updates also preserve your selected time. The hatched tail in Past & now is a visual cue and cannot be selected. The sheet shows update checks, a timeline key and the precipitation color legend. Choose 1h, 6h or 12h in Past & now, and 3h, 12h or 24h in Forecast. Both start at the shortest range and remember their own choice. All options stay available during partial feeds; playback uses only published frames. Observation history accumulates over time, so a long range can contain less data after a service restart or rollout.

Radar is drawn from public weather services, each where it covers best:

• United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Guam — NOAA’s radar network.
• Europe — the EUMETNET OPERA radar composite.
• Elsewhere — a NOAA estimate of rainfall from satellites, and a NOAA forecast model where nothing has been observed.

On iPhone, iPad and Mac, Settings › About lists each radar source and its licence. On the web, Settings › About this app does the same. On Android, the credits are in Radar options, under the radar’s key. In CarPlay, Map options › Weather credits radar and wind. In the United States radar tells rain from snow but has no separate class for freezing rain, so freezing rain shows as rain.

When radar is missing

• “Radar unavailable” — the radar service could not be reached. Try again later; the rest of the map still works.
• “Radar may be out of date” — the newest frames are late.
• Nothing shows — radar is off, or there is no rain or snow in view.

Beta builds from 26 September 2026 and earlier show radar as unavailable until you update the app. The map or radar is blank has more.

Wind

Wind shows which way the air is moving and how fast, as particles that drift with it, coloured by speed: grey when calm, then blue, amber, orange and red — the colours your drive’s ratings use. Under the row, the legend marks where wind starts to count as Caution, Hazard and Extreme: 40, 56 and 80 km/h (25, 35 and 50 mph). On the web a caption on the map names the hour the wind is for and the model run it came from, such as WIND · MODEL · 14:00 · GFS 06Z. On iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android the key on the map names the hour, such as MODEL · 14:00.

With animations turned off on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or Android phone (Reduce Motion, or Remove animations), the wind is a still map of its speed instead of moving particles. Android Auto and Android Automotive always show that still map, for the current hour.

• “Wind unavailable” — the wind could not be loaded. Try again later; radar and the rest of the map still work.
• “No model hour for this time” — the time on screen is more than 90 minutes from any hour the model run covers.

Traffic

Traffic colours every road Mapbox covers by how busy it is: green where it flows, then yellow, orange and red as it slows. A road Mapbox reports closed is dashed. Mapbox refreshes it every few minutes, and it sits under the radar and the map’s labels, so the weather stays on top. On iPhone, iPad and Mac the key on the map gains a Roads row while it is on.

While traffic is on, your drive’s traffic reports sit beside the route: roadworks, a crash, a lane or a road closed, each edged in the colour of the traffic there. Tap one to see what Mapbox reported — the road, the traffic on that stretch when you get there, how many lanes are blocked, when it should end, and Mapbox’s own words. On iPhone, iPad and Mac the reports also show while the route is coloured by traffic, and that colour’s key says whether the traffic is live, as of a time, the usual traffic for when you leave, or over an hour old.

Time zones, sunrise and sunset

Both are on until you turn them off. Time zone chips mark where your drive’s clock changes; sunrise and sunset chips mark where its light changes. The map describes both.

Off-screen pointers

When on, a chip at the edge of the map points toward a hazard that is out of view. It is off by default because pointers at hazards you cannot see make the map harder to read.