[RB note: I've cleaned up the formatting on this article. The table didn't display completed on the blog page.]
I've been interested in weather since I first watch Don Kent on Channel 4 in Boston. Kent was Boston's first TV weatherman and, for a long time, was synonymous with weather forecasting in New England. (A friend tells the story of riding a bus in Boston. The forecast had called for a nice day, but a surprise snow squall dumped a bunch of inches of snow on the city. A woman got on the bus, shook the snow from head, and said, "Damn you, Don Kent."
One of these days, I may invest in some weather reporting gear and become an official, trained weather-spotter. (Here's a bit more about being a trained weather spotter.) In the meantime, I'll look out the window. At both home and camp, we have good views of the northwestern sky. Most thunderstorms come from the northwest. (Although they're called Nor'easters, big winter storms come at us from the southwest. The name of the storm refers to the direction of the wind, northeast, that delivers the damage.)
The following table outlines some of the weather-related resources available on the web.
Weather UnderGround
Cost: Free (with ads)$10/year (ad-free)Email updates: Yes
Specials:
- Lots of custom stickers that you can add to your web site.
- Personal weather stations - You can get detailed reports from other weather geeks in your area.
National Weather Service
Cost: Free (Your tax dollars at work.)Email updates: Not really. You can subscribe to tsunami warnings and space weather forecasts. You can get text message alerts.Specials: All weather forecasting services start with data from the Feds.
Notes: If you stray from the forecast pages, it's easy to get lost, in part because of the site's design, but, more importantly, because there's so
much interesting stuff to see.
Weather.com (aka The Weather Channel)
Cost: Free (with ads),$24.99 (ad-free)Email updates: Well, kinda, but not really. You can have alerts delivered to your phone and desktop.
Notes:
- It did not recognize Phillipston as a valid location. (Phillipston doesn't have its own ZIP code; it shares one with Athol.)
- It can suffer from feature-overload by providing too many options.
Accuweather
Cost: Free (with ads),$7.95/month, $79.95/year -Premium (no ads, extra features.),$24.95/month, $249.95/year, Professional (no ads, even more features)Email updates:Yes
Specials: Lots of gadgets.
Notes: Accuweather provides forecasting services for many radio, TV, and other media. (See WBZ, for example.) As a result, the paid services, while more expensive than others, give you access to big league forecast information.
Local radio and television sites
Cost: FreeEmail updates: Yes
Specials: WCVBhas an interactive radar feature that lets you zoom in to theneighborhood level to see how much its raining. (You could also lookout the window, but, if you have a computer, why would you use a window?)
Notes: The features and resources are typically tailored to meet local needs.
Features in common
All of the weather services have these features in one form or another:- You can specify a location - You can then bookmark that page and be able to get a weather forecast with a single click.
- If your cell phone has a web browser, you can see customized views of these sites on your phone. You can also have text messages sent to your phone, messages such as forecasts, severe weather alerts.
- National and international weather - You can browse weather reports and forecasts for most regions of the world. The amount of detail is dependent on the weather services in that area.
- Weather history and almanac - You can find out when the moon will riseor temperature averages and precipitation totals.
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