iDamage Severe Weather Report iPhone / iPod Touch app Website

For the purposes of iDamage, Zulu Time (abbreviated Z) = Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) = Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). It is the time in London, England, unadjusted for daylight savings. Zulu Time is 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, and 4 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. Contents

Why use Zulu Time?

Zulu time is used in many technical pursuits because it provides a constant frame of reference. For example, in the Map View, you do not need to worry about what time zone a pin is in, or whether a particular state observes daylight savings. Just compare the Zulu Time at map load (shown next to the "Loaded:" label) to the Zulu Time shown when you touch the pins. No matter where a pin is located, you will be able to determine how long ago an event occurred. In order to assist you when viewing events from the last 3 hours, event age in hours and minutes is presented next to the event's Zulu time. (Note, in the Forecast View, scroll all the way to the bottom to get Zulu Time at page load). Contents

How come the date picker won't advance past "yesterday?"

The date picker is for historical dates ONLY. To view the full current day's data, touch the "Full Day" button in the upper-left hand corner of the main Map View. If the button in the upper-left hand corner of the main Map View has a title other than "Full Day," it means you are viewing all available current day data. Contents

How come I'm not receiving push notifications?

You have to do some setting up before you receive them. Go to the Settings View, choose the type(s) of notifications you want using the switches, and then touch the disclosure arrows to set the areas for which you want to receive notifications. You must have at least one switch set to "ON" and one geographic region listed to receive a notification. Contents

What is the best way to temporarily disable push notification sounds?

From your home screen, touch the "Settings" icon, then touch "Notifications." To disable push notification sounds from a specific app, touch its table cell, and set the "Sounds" switch to "OFF." If you set the switch at the top of the view to "OFF," all aspects of push notification from all apps in the table will be disabled. Contents

Why do some notifications appear to be missing?

iDamage push notifications will not work when iDamage is open and, in the case of multiple notifications, only the first one will be displayed. If there are one or more tornado notifications along with wind and hail, a tornado notification will be displayed. Contents

Why do some notifications appear to be delayed?

iDamage checks for damage reports from the National Weather Service every 15 minutes and issues push notifications. There may be a delay between the time an event occurs, and the time the National Weather Service receives a report and posts it to a server where it is visible to iDamage. Since the iPhone can only display one push notification at a time, it is possible that several new storm reports have been published each time you receive a single push notification. Therefore, you may wish to open iDamage frequently to check for new data. Contents

Why don't tropical or extratropical systems cause notifications?

iDamage will only display events caused by convective systems (i.e. thunderstorms). Although tropical and extratropical systems may generate convective activity inland, iDamage is not typically provided with storm damage reports resulting from winds near the coast at landfall. Contents

How do I filter notifications by hail size?

Touch the "Settings" tab at the bottom of the screen, then touch the "Hail Settings" disclosure arrow and use the slider to set the minimum hail notification diameter. Contents

How do I remove a push notification region?

Touch the "Settings" tab at the bottom of the screen, then touch the disclosure arrow next to the region you want to remove. Touch the "Choose State" drop-down list, select "Remove Region," and touch the "Submit" button. Contents

What is the accuracy of the map pins?

Coordinates downloaded by iDamage only go out to the second decimal place in latitude and longitude (decimal degrees). Therefore, pins are, at best, accurate to a few hundred yards. In addition, when multiple severe weather events are reported at the same location, iDamage introduces a small positional error to every pin after the first one, preventing pins for distinct events from falling on top of each other and concealing the true situation from the user. Contents

Why does auto-location return my general area instead of the city I am in?

Actually, our server only stores general areas, even when you type in a specific city. Severe weather, and resultant damage, is usually a regional phenomenon. Contents

What are the 3 letters in parenthesis at the end of each report?

They are the code for the local (National Weather Service) forecast office transmitting the report. Contents

How can I assist my community during severe weather?

If you wish to contribute to your community by observing severe weather, you will need formal training, and an amateur radio license (morse code no longer required) is highly desirable. You can attend the next meeting of a local amateur radio club to get started. Contents

Can I get directions to the approximate location of a severe weather event?

From the (main screen) Map View, touch the "Table" button, and then touch the table cell for an event of interest to get to its map. If you press the "Maps App" button (located just above the event's map), your device's built-in Maps app will open. Pin placement in the Maps app may be biased toward the nearest road/street address, and may differ from the pin location shown in iDamage. Contents

What were the instructions for the storm total precipitation feature, again?

The storm total precipitation feature allows you to view the latest storm total precipitation radar image as a map overlay. To use it, touch a pin from the current storm event day. Note that radar data resets after no precipitation has been detected for one hour. ***IMPORTANT: hail will typically cause precipitation to be overestimated. The larger the hail, the greater the overestimation. This behavior may, in conjunction with damage reports, help you determine the path of a hail storm. Contents

Why is the multimedia presentation old?

Because new multimedia presentations are only released when there is at least a moderate threat of severe weather somewhere in the Contiguous (Lower 48) United States. Contents

Your Privacy

homedatasheet.com, Inc. takes your privacy very seriously. The following are some points to consider when using iDamage.

Since you will be accessing National Weather Service data, it is possible that your Internet Protocol (IP) address and the types and locations of weather information you have accessed will be recorded on their server logs. See:

www.weather.gov/privacy.php

for more information. (homedatasheet.com, Inc. is not affiliated with the National Weather Service)

iDamage also uses Mapkit, natively coded Apple maps on the iPhone. It is possible your IP address and locations viewed will be recorded on their servers. See:

https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/

for more information.

Similar data is recorded by us, homedatasheet.com, Inc. We will use this data to improve iDamage over time and develop exciting, new products. Additionally, to facilitate push notifications, an identifying token unique to your mobile device is stored on our server. This token contains no personal information or information regarding your location.

When running iOS 6 or higher, legal information for the native maps may be obtained by touching the "Legal" hyperlink in the lower-left corner of the map.

In the unlikely event iDamage crashes, you will have the option to send an anonymous crash data report to us. The report may contain information to help us identify and correct the problem which caused the crash. It does not contain any personal information.

For the homedatasheet.com, Inc. privacy policy see:

www.homedatasheet.com/privacy Contents

Legal/Copyright Notices

Although every attempt has been made to provide you an accurate and reliable product, iDamage should never be your sole means for making severe weather-related economic or personal safety decisions. The availability, accuracy, and timeliness of data displayed by iDamage cannot be guaranteed.

17 U.S.C. 403 statement:
All weather data presented by this app is from the National Weather Service and not subject to copyright protection. homedatasheet.com, Inc. is not affiliated with the National Weather Service.

In the WildFire View, thermal anomaly data is from NASA and public fire reports are from http://inciweb.nwcg.gov

All tab bar icons were created by Joseph Wain (http://glyphish.com). Even though we do not have to credit him under the terms of our license, the icons are so outstanding we're going to credit him anyway.

Thanks for stopping by, and please contact us with any iDamage questions, comments or stories about how you have used our app.