Hurricane tracking built for island communities

Real-time risk assessment for 9 Caribbean island groups. Know when to prepare. Know when to relax.

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Built for the Caribbean

Island-Specific Forecasts

Not regional averages. Each of 9 island groups gets its own risk assessment tailored to its location.

Real-Time Storm Tracking

Distance, category, wind speed, closest approach — updated every 30 minutes directly from NHC advisories.

Smart Notifications

Storm formation, category changes, warnings, approach alerts. Choose your notification level — from critical-only to comprehensive.

Watch Multiple Islands

Set your home island, watch others. Get red and purple alerts for any island you care about.

Apple Watch & Widgets

Risk level on your wrist and home screen. Live Activities on Dynamic Island during active storms.

Privacy-First

No account. No login. No tracking. No ads. Just weather data when you need it.

How Leeward Works

Data Sources

Leeward pulls directly from the National Hurricane Center — the same source used by emergency managers and meteorologists.

  • Tropical Weather Discussion checked every 15 minutes
  • 5 storm advisory feeds checked every 30 minutes
  • Storm detection uses deterministic parsing — position, winds, pressure, movement extracted via pattern matching, not AI

The Role of AI

We use AI to explain what's happening, not to decide what's happening.

  • AI (Google Gemini) writes the human-readable narrative summaries
  • All storm detection, risk levels, distance calculations, and warning matching are deterministic
  • AI cannot override safety-critical data — if NHC says a hurricane warning is in effect, that's what you see
  • The AI makes the data accessible, not the decisions

Infrastructure

  • Hosted on Google Cloud for reliability
  • Data refreshed automatically on a schedule
  • Cached per island group for fast response times
  • Built on open data from NOAA — no proprietary weather models

About

During the 2025 hurricane season, I spent my nights doing what a lot of us do — refreshing NHC, scrolling through VI Weather Lady's updates, trying to figure out if the latest tropical wave was something to worry about or not.

I'd wake up at 3am to check the forecast. I'd see the same anxiety playing out across Facebook groups — "Is this one coming our way?" "Should I start boarding up?" "What does this cone mean for St. Thomas?"

I'm a software engineer by trade, and I realized I could build something that would help. Not to replace NHC or the incredible work of local forecasters like VI Weather Lady — but to make that information easier to access and understand.

Leeward exists for three reasons: to give something back to the island communities I'm part of, to help all of us stress less during the quiet stretches when there's genuinely nothing to worry about, and to help people prepare earlier when something real is on the way.

This is a free app. No ads, no premium tier, no investor pressure. Just a tool for the community, built by someone who understands the anxiety of hurricane season.

— John Appleby

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Completely free, no ads, no premium tier. This is a community project.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC), part of NOAA. This is the same data source used by emergency managers, the Coast Guard, and professional meteorologists.
Weather conditions are checked every 15 minutes. During active storms, storm-specific data is updated every 30 minutes from NHC advisories.
Yes, but only for writing readable summaries. All storm detection, risk levels, distance calculations, and warning matching are deterministic — no AI involved in safety-critical decisions. Read more in How It Works above.
Yes. No account, no login, no personal data collected. Push notifications use an anonymous device identifier only. We don't track your location, browsing, or usage. See our full privacy policy.
Nine groups: Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Northern Lesser Antilles, Windward Islands, Hispaniola, Jamaica & Cayman Islands, Bahamas, and Bermuda.
No. Always follow official guidance from your local meteorological service, the National Hurricane Center, and local emergency management. Leeward is a complement to official sources, not a replacement.
Choose your level: Storm Only (critical alerts), Storm Alerts (warnings and significant changes), Peace of Mind (daily summaries and all updates), or Verbose (everything). You can also customize per event type.
Not yet. Leeward is iOS-only for now. An Android version may come in the future.

Support

Have a question, found a bug, or want to give feedback?

support@leewardapp.com

Official Weather Resources

National Hurricane Center VI Weather Lady Ready.gov Hurricane Preparedness

Coming to the App Store