WKTV Breaking News: Live Storm Tracker, School Closings & Utica Updates Now

Central New York’s most-watched newsroom is bringing its coverage even closer to viewers’ fingertips. WKTV NewsChannel 2 has rolled out version 8.0 of its iOS and Android mobile apps, introducing a cleaner design, faster load times and a weather experience built for rapid summer storm tracking. What’s new • Streamlined home screen: Top stories, breaking alerts and live video now appear in a single, swipe-friendly feed, letting users jump from Mohawk Valley headlines to Boonville forecasts without extra taps. • Hyper-local weather radar: A higher-resolution interactive map layers lightning detection and futurecast precipitation so residents can see exactly when storms will reach Utica, Rome or Herkimer. • Personalized push notifications: Users can opt in for categories—public safety, school closings, Boilermaker race updates, high-school sports—to avoid alert fatigue while still getting urgent news first. • One-touch video center: Every newscast, from NewsChannel 2 at Sunrise to the 11 p.m. Nightcast, now streams live inside the app, replacing the previous external-player setup that sometimes stalled on weak cellular connections. • Dark-mode support and larger text options: Accessibility upgrades align with Apple’s and Google’s latest guidelines, making long-form investigations and severe-weather blogs easier to read after hours. Why WKTV refreshed the app Station managers say mobile usage now accounts for more than 70 percent of wktv.com traffic, a dramatic jump from 46 percent just three years ago. Coupled with Central New York’s rapidly changing weather—this week’s triple-digit heat index forced multiple school districts to shorten class schedules—the newsroom needed an app that could push warnings and closings in seconds, not minutes. Digital Director Nathan Lehman noted in a release that the overhaul “focuses on speed and simplicity so viewers can open the app, find what they need, and get on with their day.” The engineering team trimmed image sizes and rewrote backend code to reduce data usage, critical for rural valley communities that still battle spotty LTE coverage. How to download • iPhone & iPad: Search “WKTV NewsChannel 2 + Weather” in the App Store or visit the direct download link, then tap update to move to version 8.0. • Android phones & tablets: Look for “WKTV NewsChannel 2” on Google Play; devices running Android 8.0 and newer receive the redesign automatically. The update is free, and user credentials carry over, so saved locations, favorite teams and closed-caption preferences remain intact. Upcoming features WKTV teased two additions slated for late summer: an hour-by-hour air-quality index, responding to last year’s Canadian wildfire smoke alerts, and deeper integration with traffic cameras on the New York State Thruway. A new “submit video” button will also let eyewitnesses send horizontal or vertical clips directly to the newsroom, streamlining the current email-based system. Community impact Local advertisers already see the benefit. Utica Coffee Roasting and Adirondack Bank secured sponsorship slots around the weather section, leveraging location targeting to serve deals to users within a 15-mile radius of their storefronts. For viewers, that means fewer generic pop-ups and more offers tied to the Mohawk Valley. Early reviews Within 24 hours of launch, the iOS version earned a 4.8-star average on the App Store, with users praising the faster radar load and customizable alerts. A handful of Android users reported sign-in hiccups; WKTV says a patch is coming this week. Bottom line Whether you’re tracking lake-effect snow in December or monitoring severe thunderstorms in June, the new WKTV app positions itself as the quickest route to reliable, hyper-local information. For anyone living, working or traveling through Utica and the Mohawk Valley, downloading—or updating—the free app is the easiest way to stay one step ahead of breaking news and rapidly changing weather.