Weather Watching

The volunteer lightning detection network behind most live strike maps, with raw data and instructions for building your own receiver.

Full-disc satellite imagery of the Americas straight from the GOES satellites, refreshed every few minutes at absurd resolution.

Multi-model forecasts with a meteogram showing how confident the models actually are, which most weather apps quietly decline to admit.

The official Atlantic and Pacific hurricane advisories, cones of uncertainty and discussion notes written in plain prose by duty forecasters.

The thirty-minute aurora forecast as an oval of probability drawn over the poles, which is the only honest way to plan a night out for it.

The US National Weather Service radar, unstyled and authoritative, with warning polygons drawn straight over the raw returns.

Weather model charts for anywhere in the world, fast and free, of the sort forecasters look at rather than the tidied-up app version.

Rain radar for most of the world with a past-and-future loop, which answers the question of whether to leave now in about four seconds.

Raw model output laid out for people who want to read the charts themselves, and the page hurricane watchers keep open all August.

Weather models rendered beautifully enough to watch for their own sake, with layers for wind, rain, snow depth and wave height.

Climate averages for any city as gorgeous year-round charts: sunshine hours, muggy days, wind, and precisely when the good weather ends.

Forecasts built on a network of tens of thousands of amateur weather stations, so the reading is often from somebody on your actual street.

The forecast as an animated map, with wind, waves, temperature and a dozen models to argue between, free and without an account.

The Norwegian met office's forecast, famously accurate across Scandinavia and unusually calm about admitting uncertainty everywhere else.