Quickies April 28, 2008

The Dirty Secret Of Weather Forecasters Everywhere: NOAA.GOV

Gear Diary The Dirty Secret Of Weather Forecasters Everywhere: NOAA.GOV photo

Here’s a dirty secret of many online weather services. I’ve also seen this secret used by TV and RADIO weather forecasters for many years. Timely United States weather forecasts are distributed primarily from one organization. And they’re available online, for free and without any annoying banner advertisements or user registrations.

The site is NOAA – short for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For several year’s I’ve noticed that many weather sites seem to scrape the forecast from the main NOAA.GOV site.

When NOAA updated, so did these weather sites. Some of which sell online memberships.

And NOAA also operates a WAP site where you can access their current forecasts on your cell phone. The forecasts are all text based so they’re very fast to download and give you only the information you need (aka – NO Advertising!).

To check weather for any US location, enter in the zip code:

Gear Diary The Dirty Secret Of Weather Forecasters Everywhere: NOAA.GOV photo

Here’s the resulting forecast. If you cross check the wording shown here to some online pay weather sites – you may notice that they feature nearly identical forecasts – updated with the same frequency as NOAA.GOV.

Gear Diary The Dirty Secret Of Weather Forecasters Everywhere: NOAA.GOV photo

Certainly some of the pay sites offer additional features such as alerts and daily weather emails that may make them worth subscribing for. However in a pinch, when all you need is an updated forecasts – you can’t beat the NOAA site!

Link: NOAA Weather – Via Web Browser
Link: NOAA Weather – Via WAP (formatted for your WAP cell phone – text interface)
Link: NOAA Weather – Via Basic HTML (iPhone and other html capable phones)

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About Wayne Schulz

View all posts by Wayne Schulz

Wayne is a diehard Blackberry user and consultant specializing in Sage MAS90 Accounting Software. He lives in Glastonbury CT with his two children. When not helping them with their homework or pushing the latest school fundraiser off on his co-workers, he is active hiking, Scuba Diving and investigating all manner of technology.

http://www.clintonfitch.com Clinton Fitch

Great post Wayne. I’ve actually used the NOAA site on my WinMo phone for several years now and have found it to be a huge help. Living in “Tornado Alley” you often loose television/dish/cable when a big storm is rolling through. Using my phone I can keep up with what is going on outside and take precautions as needed.
http://www.geardiary.com Allen Hong

Thanks for sharing this Wayne! The weather info they provide is everything I am interested in. And so cool that the mobile interface is friendly with my smart phone.
Dave P

NOAA is one of my favorite weather sites.

For some of the best visual forecasts, check out the National Digital Forecast Database at the lower left. As you move your mouse over the categories the map changes to reflect that part of the forecast:

http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/graphical/sectors/

Also check out the Additional Forecast pages at the lower right. I especially like the hourly graphs which show what the weather has been and from which you can see your own trends:

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Arlington&state=VA&site=LWX&textField1=38.8787&textField2=-77.1019&FcstType=graphical

Unfortunately, they still can’t do anything about the rain we’re having.

Dave