Appendix
Internet Resource Directory
In This Chapter
Finding out more about weather
W eather-related Web sites, newsgroups, e-mail discussion lists, and other services are an enormously large presence on the Internet. Thousands of servers are devoted to the subject, offering everything from live pictures from webcams, digital video cameras perched outside of television stations and other buildings around the world, satellite and radar images, output of numerical forecast models, and raw climate and weather data intended for professionals.
This list of Internet resources is by no stretch of the imagination intended to be comprehensive. Instead, the list contains a relative handful of Web sites that can serve as major portals to other material throughout cyberspace. Good luck!
Government Web Sites
The Internet has become an important communications tool for real-time weather and climate information by federal agencies. That means you and I get access to official weather data and information that used to be transmitted across the country in ways we could see. It’s all there to look at now: the real-time warnings of severe weather events around the nation, the forecasts, the output of numerical models, climate predictions — the works. For a weather enthusiast, it’s a feast!
National Weather Service
A good, noncommercial place to begin is Weather.Gov, the home page of the National Weather Service’s Interactive Weather Information Network. This Web site is a launch pad to some of the coolest weather stuff on the Internet, including dazzling satellite images and other weather graphics as well as National Weather Service warnings of weather hazards around the United States that are updated every five minutes.
This site includes a link to the National Weather Service home pages, which open the cyberspace door to the regional U.S. weather servers as well as links to all the NWS Aviation Weather Center, Climate Diagnostics Center, Climate Prediction Center, National Hurricane Center, National Severe Storms Laboratory, and the Storm Prediction Center.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Another especially interesting government Web site is the home page of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent agency of the National Weather Service, which offers a wide range of climate and weather information.
The NOAA Web site also offers links to authoritative discussions providing background and official updates on such topics as tornadoes, hurricanes, fire weather, El Niño, and drought. The NOAA weather page also gives easy access to satellite and radar images and forecasts.
University Web Sites
Good Web sites at research universities around the nation and the world are so numerous it is almost unfair to single out any. There is some very interesting weather research underway, and universities continue to expand their internet sites to describe this work. Consider this a mere sampling of what’s out there, and check them out for links to other great Web sites.
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
UCAR is a nonprofit corporation formed in 1959 by research institutions with doctoral programs in the atmospheric and related sciences. UCAR was formed to enhance the computing and observational capabilities of the universities, and to focus on scientific problems that are beyond the scale of a single university.
At the UCAR site, check out the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the real-time weather page provided by the Research Applications Program:
This site provides ready access to some of the computing and observation products available at the research center as well as an interesting page of links to other weather sites.
University of Michigan Weather
cirrus.sprl.umich.edu
UM Weather, as this Web site is called, has the Net’s largest collection of weather links. UM Weather’s famous WeatherSites page is worth stopping by to check out. This page provides access to over 380 North American weather sites.
Pennsylvania State University
weather.psu.edu/weather/home.html
Penn State has a famous weather Web site that provides data for some serious weather watching. The site provides access to current upper winds observations, the output of the major numerical forecast models, as well as an interesting set of answers to frequently asked questions about meteorology.
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
The Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has developed an extensive weather Web site that includes an innovative tutorial of internet-based teaching. In addition to its wide variety of resources, check out its World Weather 2010 Project.
Special Resources
Two documents available on the Web are famous for the amount of valuable information they provide about weather. Not only to they contain a great deal of information, but they have compiled enormous lists of other resources, including Web sites and books on the subject. They are called FAQs — the internet’s shorthand for answers to frequently asked questions.
Meteorology FAQ
www.faqs.org/faqs/meteorology/faq-intro/
This is a series of FAQ postings for the Usenet newsgroup sci.geo.meteorology. FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. This particular seven-part FAQ is a remarkably comprehensive catalogue of resources available to answer questions about meteorology. The bulk of this FAQ series is about data sources, but a lot of other information has been added.
Hurricanes FAQ
www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/tcfaqHED.html
Research meteorologist Christopher Landsea, at NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division in Miami, Florida, has developed an extensive FAQ about Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Tropical Cyclones. It contains definitions, answers for some specific questions, information about the various tropical cyclone basins, provides sites that you can access both real-time information about tropical cyclones, what is available online for historical storms, as well as good books to read and various references for tropical cyclones.
Commercial Web Sites
Cable television and broadcast networks and commercial weather forecasting companies are a big and valuable source of internet weather information. Virtually all of them offer access to local weather forecasts around the nation and the world as well as frequently updated news and features about weather events making headlines.
AccuWeather, Inc.
www1.accuweather.com/adcbin/index?partner=accuweather
AccuWeather’s Web site provides comprehensive worldwide weather information, including detailed 10-day forecasts, a local ultraviolet index, and the company’s own “RealFeel Temperature” index. AccuWeather offers U.S. radar images and animations and an extensive day-by-day almanac of normals and past weather information. It has many video features as well as up-to-date and helpful background information about hurricanes, severe weather, and winter weather.
Cable News Network
www.cnn.com/WEATHER/index.html
Cable News Network’s Weather Main Page offers a quick look at top weather stories. Its Storm Center page provides easy-access background information and safety tips on major weather threats such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and severe thunderstorms.
Intellicast
Intellicast, a product of Weather Services International, is a highly developed site of current weather information tailored to travelers and other special users of weather information as well as good background. This site’s Almanac feature offers helpful descriptions of month-to-month weather patterns across the nation and among the various regions of the country.
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel maintains a large and hugely popular site for up-to-date weather news, current national, regional and local forecasts as well as an extensive and well-organized collection of helpful background information. Its section How Weather Works is a helpful look at the basics of weather and its Storm Encyclopedia is an extensive presentation of important weather and climate topics. A Weather Glossary defines over 800 weather terms. The site also includes streaming video clips of Weather Channel televised segments.
USA Today
www.usatoday.com/weather/wfront.htm
USA Today has a well-developed site that presents current weather information and forecasts. It’s on-line Weather Almanac feature offers concise compilations of climate data for hundreds of U.S. cities as well as an extensive collection of well-presented historical weather information. It is a highly informative and comprehensive site.
Newsgroups
If you’re willing to put up with the off-subject “noise” and the sometimes rude “flaming” arguments that occupy so much of the Internet’s Usenet newsgroups, a lot of helpful information and news of current weather events is available. Others may prefer more organized e-mail discussion lists devoted to weather.
Sci.geo.meteorology is probably the most active newsgroup among several newsgroups devoted to discussions of weather events and issues. Others include
Alt.talk.weather
Bit.listserv-wx-chase
Bit.listserv.wx-talk
Clari.news.weather
Ne.weather
NCAR.weather
E-mail List
E-mail discussion lists are an easy and interesting way to share your interest in weather with other enthusiasts and experts around the world. Here’s how to get started with two leading e-mail weather lists:
WX-TALK, an active, broadly based e-mail discussion list devoted to weather, is maintained by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For information about the e-mail discussion list WX-TALK and other specialized weather-related lists, e-mail to listserv@po.uiuc.edu the following message: sendme wx-talk.doc.
CASILIST, is an active e-mail list maintained by Jesse Ferrell for the Central Atlantic Storm Investigators organization. For more about this group, and how to join the CASILIST, check out the Web site:
One Final Site . . .
One of the photographers for this book, Jim Reed, has a cool Web site you’ll want to check out as well:
With American Photo, CNN, the New York Times, Popular Science, and the World Meteorological Organization among his credits, Jim Reed is recognized as one of the finest severe weather photographers working today. A professional storm chaser, Jim has spent the past decade documenting more than 100 record-setting storms including blizzards, floods, tornadoes, and the direct strike of four major hurricanes. Enjoy!