Overlook — US public webcams

Overlook public webcams across the US

More filters

Favorites No location

Click the map where the camera is

Start with a camera source

Overlook keeps your camera library in this browser. Load a public source to fill the map, then build walls of the views you want to watch.

Nearby cameras

Add cameras

Camera

Name Feed URL

Feed type Alternate feed Source page Preview image Location

Paste “lat, lon” or a Google Maps link into Latitude to fill both.

State Place Category Refresh still every

seconds (0 = default) Force fresh image

Tags Notes

Settings and data

Theme Still image refresh

seconds, unless a camera sets its own

Rewind buffer

frames kept per still camera while it's open

Background tabs Pause refreshing when this tab is hidden Check timeout

seconds per camera

Checks at once CORS proxy

Only used for importing camera lists when a server blocks browser requests. Use a proxy you run or trust. Leave empty to connect directly.

Sources in your library

Export

Backups include cameras, walls and settings. API keys stay in this browser and are not exported.

Library tools

How Overlook works

Your library

Cameras, walls and settings are stored in this browser (IndexedDB). Nothing is sent anywhere except the requests to the cameras and sources you load. Use Settings → Backup to move a library between browsers.

Feed types

Still image — reloaded on a timer; Overlook keeps recent frames so you can rewind and play them back.
MJPEG — continuous motion-JPEG streams from IP cameras.
HLS video — .m3u8 live streams, played natively or with the built-in HLS player.
YouTube — video, live, or a channel's current live stream.
Web page embed — players such as Windy's; some sites refuse to be embedded.
Link only — a preview with a button to open the publisher's page.

Map and filters

Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom. Click a state to filter to it (click again to clear). Click a cluster to zoom in. Colors show category; hollow dots are cameras that failed to load. Under More filters, pick an interstate to see every camera along it; routes are read from camera names such as “I-77 at Exit 82”.

Walls

Drag cameras from the list onto a view, or click an empty view and then a camera. Drag a view's title bar onto another to swap. Cycle rotates through everything in the current filter.

Checking cameras

Check loads each still image with a timeout and marks it working or not loading. Video and embedded feeds often can't be tested from a web page; those are marked “can't verify”. Cameras also update their status as you watch them.

Fall colors

The Fall colors chip shows cameras overlooking foliage: the curated foliage cams plus any park, mountain or scenic camera in well-known leaf-peeping areas. “Load fall cams” adds the curated set and, if they aren’t loaded yet, the National Park Service cameras. Most curated cams are YouTube live streams; a stream that was restarted by its owner gets a new address, so if one ends, use Open on YouTube to find the owner’s current stream.

Finding more cameras

Add cameras → “Search catalogs” looks through ArcGIS Online and the Socrata open-data network for public camera layers by topic and state: highways, state parks, national parks, mountains, beaches. Load one to try it; tick “Remember” to keep it with the built-in layers so it refreshes with “Load every no-key source”.

When an import fails

Some servers block requests from web pages (CORS). Open the source URL in a new tab, save the response, and import the saved file; or set a CORS proxy in Settings. If you open Overlook from a website over https, plain-http cameras will be blocked by the browser — open the file locally instead.

YouTube embeds

YouTube may refuse to play embeds on pages opened straight from disk. If a YouTube view shows an error, use “Open on YouTube”, or serve the file from a local web server.

Keyboard

/ search, M map, W wall, L list, A add cameras, ← → previous and next camera, F favorite, Esc close.

Drop to import cameras