Best Websites

[Michael Rogers]

Hey guys. Sorry if something like this has been posted before. I did a search and didn't come up with much.

I was just curious as to what your favorite FREE weather related websites/programs are. As the season approaches, I'd like to explore new resources to help with everything from forecasting to nowcasting and just general information. Also, what are your favorite sites to use for radar and satellite? While I generally use wunderground.com for radar, I can’t help but think there is something better.

Basically, anything weather related. It doesn't even have to do with forecasting or severe weather at all. Just some good solid websites which are weather related. Feel free to post your own website if you think it's worthy (I don't believe this is against the board rules - correct me if I'm wrong mods). Thanks for the help!

Oh, and please don't post weather.com.

 

[Nick Parker]

Well, I'll chime in on the radar part.

www.grlevelx.com
I use this one personally and love it. It automatically pulls fresh radar slices as they are available. It has just about every product you could think of and you can customize practically everything. And its not just a radar program. You can find free placefiles all over the place to get METAR stations, SPC Outlooks, LSR's, etc. Also, Tyler Allison with Allisonhouse.com also has a seperate radar feed along with more advanced placefiles for a small fee per month. GR3/GR2 have a 30 day trial period and cost 79.99 after that. GR2Analyst has a 21 day trail with a $250 tag after that. (One time purchase)

www.interwarn.com
Stormlab is a nice program also. It has many features and levels of customazation. I've never really used it much but i've heard its a good one. It also has a trial period with different purchasing options. (One time purchase)

www.swiftwx.com
I never used this one, but reviews are that it is also quite a contender in the radar market. Only thing is with this one is a constant cost.

I know these aren't exactly "free", but you will come to enjoy having a self-loading, customized radar program. I don't know exactly how I got along before I purchsed GR3, but I know i'll never leave home without it!

Free WX Model Sites I use:
http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod/analysis/
http://weather.cod.edu/forecast/
http://weather.unisys.com/mos/index.html

Satellite
http://www.goes.noaa.gov/

SPC Site from CoD (good backup for when the SPC site goes down)
http://kamala.cod.edu/SPC/

Nick

 

[Susan Strom]

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/http://www.spc.noaa.gov/

 

[Bill Tabor]

Here's some of my fav free primary sites:

http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/mesoanalysis/
http://weather.cod.edu/
http://kamala.cod.edu/spc/
http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/GOES/
http://www.stormchaser.niu.edu/machine/
http://www.orbit.nesdis.noaa.gov/smcd/opdb/goes/soundings/html/fields.html
http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/fcst2.html
http://wwwt.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/mmb/mmbpll/cent4km/v2/
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/
http://www.wxcaster.com/

Tons of good stuff in those links above. Enough to keep you busy for a long time.

 

[Gerrit Gulden]

Lightning Map, They Just Added a New Better looking Map
https://thunderstorm.vaisala.com/tux/jsp/explorer/explorer.jsp

Another Lightning Map, USE the CHANGE TYPE for different products.
http://wwwa.accuweather.com/maps-lightning.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&zipcode=

Intellicast
http://www.intellicast.com/IcastPage/LoadPage.aspx

NWS Radar Website
http://radar.weather.gov/

Another Radar Site
http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/radar/

 

[Morgan Palmer]

This link list by Troy Kimmel mainly has to do with Central Texas, based out of Austin.

http://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/kimmel/kimmelforecastlab.html

 

[david diehl]

My personal favorite for radar program is Swift WX.
I have used the program for about 5 years now and it works great as long as you have an active internet connection to your computer.
For Forcasting I use the Bufkit program.
I have only used it one year so far, and I am still trying to figure out all the fuctions, but I got the basics down, and I am happy with it.

 

[Ben Baranowski]

I couldn't resist a shameless plug for the website I helped create. Only about 1 year old, but has (and will continue) to increase products focused on the SPL.

http://hoot.metr.ou.edu

 

[Brandon Sullivan]

Good Sources of Forecast Models

Does anyone have a real good and easy model site??

I personally like COD www.weather.cod.edu
Also, I like Earl Barkers Model Site http://www.wxcaster.com/models_main.htm

Does anyone have any sites that they really like? Just want to have some backup sites and try some new things.. Thanks.

 

[Morgan Palmer]

Frankly, and I have looked at many sites, I have not been able to find anything that exactly matches the Animator feature on the Accuweather Pro site.

It's just very easy to use and so easy to compare models and/or different runs of the same model side by side. And if you're looking at an 18Z here and comparing to a 0Z there, it'll match up the times...

Anyway, I have been a very happy Accuweather pro subscriber for years now. The radar features are worthless however, but I only use GR2 and 3, so like most folks here, it doesn't matter.

Lots of video blogs and discussions. I'm the kind of person who, once I make my forecast, wants to hear what everyone has to say. They're really myopic on the northeast, however.... it's always about the I95 corridor.

MP

 

[John Olexa]

To get my local radar

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=20646

And I enjoy these ones to name a few.

http://www.wunderground.com/severe.asp

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/

http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/

http://www.noaa.gov/

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/

 

[Charles Kuster]

Does anyone have a real good and easy model site??

I personally like COD www.weather.cod.edu
Also, I like Earl Barkers Model Site http://www.wxcaster.com/models_main.htm

Does anyone have any sites that they really like? Just want to have some backup sites and try some new things.. Thanks.

The primary web site that I use for model forecasts is this one from NCAR/UCAR. http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/model/

I also just found this website from the University of Nebraska. It does not look too bad, but I have not actually used it during a chase yet.
http://weather.unl.edu/WX/html/index.php

 

[Michael Rogers]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It'll take me a little while to sift through all the sites you posted, but there are several that I've never seen before.