WCYB StormTrack 5

Review by eFreeware

WCYB StormTrack 5 is a free Android weather app from Sinclair Broadcast Group, the company behind the WCYB station. It has been on Google Play since October 2013 and has passed 500,000 installs, with a 4.7 average across 7,541 ratings. The main reason to consider it is the combination of detailed radar, storm alerts and forecasts in one place, without a subscription or in-app purchase.

The app carries ads, and that is the trade for a free download. Beyond that, the developer's pitch is straightforward: a set of weather tools built around a local station's coverage, including content prepared for mobile users. If you want a quick read on what the sky is doing and where a storm is heading, this is the sort of app that earns a spot on your home screen.

Radar detail and storm tracking

The headline feature is 250-meter radar, which the developer describes as the highest resolution available. For anyone who watches storms move across a county, that level of detail matters: you can see a cell's shape and how it lines up with roads and towns rather than a blurry blob. Future radar extends that by showing where severe weather is expected to go next, which helps when you are deciding whether to move an outdoor plan forward or push it back.

High-resolution satellite cloud imagery rounds out the picture, useful for seeing broader cloud cover rather than precipitation alone. Current conditions refresh several times per hour, so the numbers you see are not sitting stale for long. Daily and hourly forecasts are updated hourly from computer models, giving you a sense of the day ahead and the next few hours.

What appeals to me here is the pairing of now and next. Radar tells you what is happening, future radar suggests where it is going, and the forecast layers add context. That is a sensible arrangement for anyone who checks the weather before committing to something outdoors.

Alerts and saved places

Severe weather alerts come from the National Weather Service, so warnings arrive through a familiar source rather than a proprietary feed. Opt-in means you choose whether to receive them. For households in storm-prone areas, that combination is the part that matters most: a warning you actually see is worth more than a forecast you have to remember to open.

You can add and save favorite locations, which is handy if you keep an eye on more than one place, such as a home, a workplace or a relative's town. An integrated GPS handles current location awareness, so the app can orient itself to where you are without you typing an address. Together, those two features cover both the place you are standing and the places you care about.

The app also includes station content specifically for mobile users, which ties the experience back to WCYB's coverage rather than presenting a generic forecast. If you already follow that station's reporting, the app is a natural extension of it.

What you need to get going

Setup is simple. The app uses GPS to show where you are. If you want alerts, you opt in to push notifications; if you want to follow other places, you add and save them as favorites.

The app is free to download and carries ads. It does not offer in-app purchases, and the content rating is Everyone, so there is no age gate to clear.

One thing to keep in mind is that the app was updated on June 1, 2026, which suggests active upkeep rather than an abandoned listing. That matters for a weather app, where a stale radar feed would defeat the purpose.

Who it suits

This is best for people who live in or travel through the WCYB coverage area and want their weather from a local station. If your routine includes checking radar before a commute, a ballgame, a hike or a day on the water, the resolution and future radar give you more to work with than a simple temperature readout. Parents keeping an eye on a school district, or anyone with family a few towns over, can use saved locations to watch more than one spot at once.

It also fits anyone who wants severe weather warnings. The National Weather Service alerts and opt-in push notifications are the core of that. The ads are part of the deal, and the app's focus stays on weather rather than branching into other topics.

If you want a general-purpose weather app with a wide range of unrelated extras, this one keeps its attention on radar, forecasts and alerts. That narrowness is the point: it does a specific job for a specific region.

A dependable local weather companion

WCYB StormTrack 5 is a focused, free weather app with a strong feature set for its purpose: 250-meter radar, future radar, satellite imagery, hourly and daily forecasts, National Weather Service alerts, push notifications and saved locations. The 4.7 average across thousands of ratings suggests it has found an audience, and the 500,000-plus installs back that up.

I would recommend it to anyone in the station's region who wants detailed radar and reliable storm warnings on their phone, and to households that track weather in more than one place. The ads are the cost of the free download, and the app makes no secret of its local focus. For the job it sets out to do, it looks like a capable choice.