Where do you get your weather? I find that each place I look, weather.com, accuweather, etc seem to have different forecasts. Which one do you find is Most accurate for your area?
I use weather.com, and find it’s mostly accurate for 24-36 hours out, at least as much as I need it to be (will I be able to run outside tomorrow morning? Do I need to send my child to school with the heavier coat?). Weather Underground is a little bit better for storm tracking.
Weather is extremely important for my profession (aviation) in different way — will the clouds be too low or the wind too strong in the wrong direction — and even those forecasts, made by professionals every 4-6 hours, can be off a bit, and are really just educated guesses. We do a lot of comparing actual conditions to forecast conditions to see if it’s better or worse, did that front slow down, that forecast scattered layer actually turned out to be solid overcast, etc. Looking at those trends makes it a little but easier to predict what will happen in the next few hours. I think most weather apps try to do that for us, but the difference lies in how they do that interpretation.
I use weather.com, too. I think it has been the most accurate, on average, for storms. For the past few days, it’s been predicting our area would get 12-18” tonight through tomorrow. My husband swears by AccuWeather, which just updated to match weather.com. Just yesterday morning it was saying we’d get fewer than 6”. Our local news is predicting almost 16” for our area as of this morning. Weather.com for the win!
I usually most listen to local meteorologists. I follow them on FB, and I find that compared to my Weather Channel app, they are usually a bit more accurate on things like snow totals, etc., at least a little bit farther out. But I do also check the Weather Channel app, especially if I'm just looking to see what temp it will be that day as I'm getting dressed in the morning.
I follow a local twitter account that specializes only in two counties. They are the most accurate. Just a couple of guys that are amateur meteorologists.
Post by penguingrrl on Dec 1, 2019 10:05:11 GMT -5
I generally use weather underground for the most part. For storm info I follow weather nj on Facebook. The guy running that has actually historically been the most accurate, at least for my area.
I use weather.com for most info, but like wind finder for more specific maps of air currents, wind and cloud coverage patterns. (I use it with purple air and fire maps to figure out when the air is likely to be breathable.)
Post by StrawberryBlondie on Dec 1, 2019 12:57:37 GMT -5
Depends. On a computer or on my tablet, I use weather channel. On my phone, however, weather channel gives me wildly inaccurate information. Like last winter when it was -20 outside, it'd say it's 35 and sunny. So on my phone I use weather bug.
Post by One Girl In All The World on Dec 1, 2019 13:00:58 GMT -5
Local meteorologists are a better bet imo. They can go beyond algorithms and interpret the modeling based on localized knowledge and Typical patterns for the area.
Post by underwaterrhymes on Dec 1, 2019 18:47:34 GMT -5
I follow Illinois Storm Chasers. They tend to be the most reliable, IMO, for longer-term forecasts in our area. I also have tornado alerts on my phone.
Post by alleinesein on Dec 1, 2019 20:17:30 GMT -5
What is this weather thing that you speak of? We don't have that here! But seriously, if I do need to check the weather, I just use the google weather widget on my Pixel home screen. Its pretty reliable for real-time weather but can sometimes miss the mark with more long term stuff (yeah, still bitter that it was 94F the weekend before thanksgiving when the forecast was for the low 80s).
I find accuweather is more conservative and usually more accurate when it comes to snow storms. I usually check weather channel, get my hopes up for snow, then accuweather to adjust my expectations. 😄
I get mine from a local weather blogger. Their reports are far more accurate. The thing about Accuweather and TWN is that those models are often well beyond a 5 day report. As a result, the forecasts change quite a bit.
I follow a local meteorological service. They are always way more accurate than local news or the bigger companies. If you search #<state>wx (#inwx, etc) you should find some to follow.
Post by shortcake2675 on Dec 3, 2019 18:35:37 GMT -5
I live in the middle of nowhere, with microclimates, but our National Weather Service office is as on as anyone else is. Their webpage goes down occasionally, so I cross check with weatherbug. During storms, the NWS forecasts for the valleys and the mountains, so the forecasts are far more precise than Weatherbug, who only pays attention to elevation and the snow levels if there’s an alert.