Dan Robinson
EF5
I find that I get into a rut in the weather data sources I use, and so I often miss new things that come onto the scene. It is hard to keep up with these even if you try to stay up-to-date. I thought it might be nice to get a refresh on all of the new sources that are useful for chasing.
I'll list my current go-tos. I know some of these are going to be out-of-date with better options available, which is what the purpose of this thread is. I'm excluding all of the obvious ones like the SPC, NHC and so on that everyone already knows.
Models:
HRRR, RAP, NAM NEST, GFS, GEFS, Euro:
The College of DuPage site has been my preferred one for these primary models. I like the ability to do point-click soundings and to have all of the frames load on the same page with the slider to move forward and backward. The issue is sometimes COD's model imagery comes in later than other sources, and many of the newer models are missing (RRFS for instance). Despite those relatively minor issues, I find COD's site easier to use for quick perusing of the main models.
ECMWF:
While COD's site is the one I primarily use to get a look at the Euro charts, the weather.us site has the most comprehensive data sets for this model. The drawback here is that only the 12z and 00z runs are shown, and the runs are significantly more delayed than other sites. Does anyone know which site has the fastest-updating Euro runs? I know that you have to pay to get the full Euro data set - which I'm willing to do. Any recommendations?
RRFS-A:
It appears that Pivotal Weather is the only third-party site with this model. I have run into the main NOAA RRFS site (rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/RRFS/) not updating while Pivotal Weather is. The NSSL site's charts are also only available as "Full Domain" with nothing zoomed in closer. Are there any better options for this model?
HRW/NSSL MPAS/WOF:
It appears that Pivotal Weather is the only other option for the NSSL CAMs (HRW/MPAS) other than the main NSSL site cams.nssl.noaa.gov/comparisons. I also am not aware of any other WOF (Warn-on-Forecast) displays other than the official NSSL one at cbwofs.nssl.noaa.gov/forecast.
Others?
Are there any other new(er) models I didn't list here? At the least, any that have shown any usefulness for chase forecasting?
Realtime data (Radar/Satellite/Obs/etc):
Satellite:
COD's satellite viewer has been the far superior one over anything else I know of. The ability to get zoomed-in views with realtime data & mapping overlays is something I don't think you can get anywhere else on a free site.
Radar:
I again use COD's in my web browser as my first go-to for radar. On a chase, I use GRLevel3 and Radarscope on my laptop along with COD radar running in browser tab(s). RS super-res is the best, but I have always had an issue with the lightning data going out after 5-10 minutes, requiring closing and re-opening the program to get it back.
Surface Obs:
My go-to for this has always been the UCAR charts. I like things like this, quick easy GIF image that requires no zooming or javascript. I also have a placefile pulling surface obs/METARs in GRLevel3, but I have had this stop updating a few times during a chase.
Lightning:
Blitzortung or RS, though the RS data has not been reliable on my PC or laptop. I have tried the GR lightning data placefiles that use Blitzortung data, but find that the icons are too large for each strike and they often overwhelm the display.
Warnings:
RS and GR both have this info, but I prefer GR as I can easily get the full text. I only read those to see what the storm speed is.
Soundings:
I've always used the UCAR site for observed soundings.
Tropical
I don't have a lot of these, but here are my main ones:
NCAR track and intensity guidance
Satellite floaters
I'll list my current go-tos. I know some of these are going to be out-of-date with better options available, which is what the purpose of this thread is. I'm excluding all of the obvious ones like the SPC, NHC and so on that everyone already knows.
Models:
HRRR, RAP, NAM NEST, GFS, GEFS, Euro:
The College of DuPage site has been my preferred one for these primary models. I like the ability to do point-click soundings and to have all of the frames load on the same page with the slider to move forward and backward. The issue is sometimes COD's model imagery comes in later than other sources, and many of the newer models are missing (RRFS for instance). Despite those relatively minor issues, I find COD's site easier to use for quick perusing of the main models.
ECMWF:
While COD's site is the one I primarily use to get a look at the Euro charts, the weather.us site has the most comprehensive data sets for this model. The drawback here is that only the 12z and 00z runs are shown, and the runs are significantly more delayed than other sites. Does anyone know which site has the fastest-updating Euro runs? I know that you have to pay to get the full Euro data set - which I'm willing to do. Any recommendations?
RRFS-A:
It appears that Pivotal Weather is the only third-party site with this model. I have run into the main NOAA RRFS site (rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/RRFS/) not updating while Pivotal Weather is. The NSSL site's charts are also only available as "Full Domain" with nothing zoomed in closer. Are there any better options for this model?
HRW/NSSL MPAS/WOF:
It appears that Pivotal Weather is the only other option for the NSSL CAMs (HRW/MPAS) other than the main NSSL site cams.nssl.noaa.gov/comparisons. I also am not aware of any other WOF (Warn-on-Forecast) displays other than the official NSSL one at cbwofs.nssl.noaa.gov/forecast.
Others?
Are there any other new(er) models I didn't list here? At the least, any that have shown any usefulness for chase forecasting?
Realtime data (Radar/Satellite/Obs/etc):
Satellite:
COD's satellite viewer has been the far superior one over anything else I know of. The ability to get zoomed-in views with realtime data & mapping overlays is something I don't think you can get anywhere else on a free site.
Radar:
I again use COD's in my web browser as my first go-to for radar. On a chase, I use GRLevel3 and Radarscope on my laptop along with COD radar running in browser tab(s). RS super-res is the best, but I have always had an issue with the lightning data going out after 5-10 minutes, requiring closing and re-opening the program to get it back.
Surface Obs:
My go-to for this has always been the UCAR charts. I like things like this, quick easy GIF image that requires no zooming or javascript. I also have a placefile pulling surface obs/METARs in GRLevel3, but I have had this stop updating a few times during a chase.
Lightning:
Blitzortung or RS, though the RS data has not been reliable on my PC or laptop. I have tried the GR lightning data placefiles that use Blitzortung data, but find that the icons are too large for each strike and they often overwhelm the display.
Warnings:
RS and GR both have this info, but I prefer GR as I can easily get the full text. I only read those to see what the storm speed is.
Soundings:
I've always used the UCAR site for observed soundings.
Tropical
I don't have a lot of these, but here are my main ones:
NCAR track and intensity guidance
Satellite floaters