Weather Forecasting Resources

This list of sites was compiled by students and faculty in the Texas A&M Advanced Weather Forecasting class.

The ratings reflect the opinions of the authors and do not reflect any opinions of Texas A&M University.

Satellite Images
Web Site	Speed	Flex	Ease	Archive
NASA GHCC Satellite Page	4	5	5	no
This site offers lots of visual options such as zoom, pixel quantity, loop speed adjustment, etc.
RAMSDIS Online from CSU	3	5	5	cases only
Overall the CSU website is very much like NASA's except that it takes a little longer to load.
NOAA's Geostationary Satellite Server	5	3	5	21 days
Fast downloads, comprehensive site. Includes access to full-disk images from around the world.
GOES Project Science	4	4	2	8 days
Good snazzy 2-day cover loop of US. Individual high-resolution tiff images saved and downloadable.
SSEC Images and Data	2	4	3	raw data only
ThereÕs lots here, but you have to do some exploring to find what you want. Check out the GOES derived products.
The Satbilder	4	3	3	none
This meta-website has links to current satellite images throughout the world from a variety of source sites.
University of Washington Loops	4	4	3	2 days
Flexible, large loops for the West Coast, North Pacific, and North America.
Unisys Infrared Satellite Archive	3	1	3	10 years
Good source for old images.

METAR Surface Weather Reports
Web Site	Speed	Flex	Ease	Archive
United States Weather Pages	4	4	3	1 month
I found that this site was probably the best in terms of archived data. You can METARs for any location ( if you already know the call sign) for around a month. The observations are automatically decoded in table form.
TAMU Weather Interface	3	5	4	2 days
This site is very good. You can find the call signs of all the stations in a specific state, which is very helpful. Observations can be either raw or decoded.
NCAR RAP Real-Time Weather	5	2	3	2.5 days
The window for accessing the raw METAR data is on the right side of the web page.
Plymouth State Weather Center	4	2	4	8 years
This particular page is archive-only, but you can obtain an hourÕs worth of observations by state for whenever.

Surface Maps
Web Site	Speed	Flex	Ease	Archive
NCAR RAP Real-Time Weather	5	4	4	1 day
Predefined regions of the US, or use the (slow) interactive Java tool for complete flexibility and access to the raw observations.
Ocean Prediction Center Unified Surface Analysis	5	5	4	14 days
The lost art of surface analysis lives! Maps with data, isobars, and fronts for most of the Northern Hemisphere.
Penn State e-Wall	5	4	3	1 day
US and regional maps, loops, mouseovers, max/mins, and multipanel analyses. And thatÕs just the first row!
Unisys Satellite Surface Map	4	2	4	12 hours
One map with everything: satellite, radar, surface observations, fronts. Use ÔbackÕ button for other options, including a ten-year 12-hourly archive.
Storm Eyes	4	4	3	3
Large surface data plots so you can see all the data.
Hydrometeorological Prediction Center	5	5	5	1 day
This website displays maps with a lot of detail and data for multiple times, and the maps are easy to find.
Oceanweather Inc. Current Marine Data	3	3	3	6 hours
If itÕs wet, theyÕve got the waves and the obs.

Upper Air Maps
Web Site	Speed	Flex	Ease	Archive
?	4	?	?	?
This is the go to site, since most students are aware of it. It gives both analyzed and unanalyzed upper air maps. It does not give any archive data.
?	5	?	?	?
Here you can get archive data, back to 1998. This would be useful for verifying our forecasts. The upper air maps are similar quality to the ucar site.
?	3	?	?	?
The maps on this site are more simple than the previous sites. This could be considered a plus or minus, depending on what you were looking for. Here, you can also get archived data, back to about 1.5 months.
?	2	?	?	?
Good because it gives a broader view of the upper air situation, beyond that of the continental US. The detail of this map can be overwhelming though.
?	1	?	?	?

Upper Air Soundings
?	5	5	5	4
Fairly well known site obviously. Very complete site, with many different options for viewing data. Also includes international sites.
?	5	4	3	4
This site allows the viewer to access upper air data from RUC models, radiometers, RAOB, profilers, and aircraft.
?	5	4	4	4
Fairly good site, although not as easy to use as Wyoming's.
?	5	2.5	4	3
Skew T's only.
?	5	3	4	4
Again, Skew T's only.

Models: United States
Web Site	Speed	Flex	Ease	Archive
NCEP	5	5	4	4
This web site I feel like is the most reliable and has a great speed.
RAP	4	4.5	5	4.5
This website is very easy to use. You can figure out how to get exactly what you want very easily.
Unisys	3	3	3	4
This website I feel is good to use once you understand how to use it. For a first time user I feel it could be confusing, and using the ncep would be easier. The data is harder to see visually on this website.
Fleet Numerical	4	4	4	4
This website has a lot of data, however there are only two models for the united states. The rest are other parts of the world.
Meteostar	4.5	4.5	4	4.5
This website is very easy to you just as the rap website is. Some of the images may not come as clear however.
?	4	3	4	4
This website is very clear and the models are good, but there are no loops on it.
?	5	4	3	5

?	4	5	4	4

?	5	5	4	4

Models: Regional
?	5	4	3	1

?	4	5	4	3

?	4	5	4	5

?	4	3	5	3

?	4	3	5	1

?	4	4	4	3

?	4	3	5	3

?	4	3	4	3

?	3	4	3	3

Models: North and Central America
?	3	5	5	3

?	4	3	3	3

?	5	4	4	1

?	4	4	3	1

?	4	3	3	5

Models: North Atlantic Ocean
Models: North Pacific Ocean
NCEP Models	2	5	3	4

FNMOC Navy	5	3	3	5

Mountain Weather	4	1	5	1

NWS Anchorage Office	2	2	5	1

Canadian Weather Office	4	1	3	2

RAP UCAR	3	5	5	2

Radar Images
Web Site	Speed	Flex	Ease	Archive
?	4.25	?	?	?

?	3.75	?	?	?

?	4.25	?	?	?

?	2	?	?	?

?	3	?	?	?

?	3.5	?	?	?

?	4	?	?	?

?	0.5	?	?	?

?	4.5	?	?	?

Point Forecasts
Web Site	Speed	Flex	Ease	Archive
?	5	2	5	5
By far the easiest site to use to get point forecast data, and it is also easy to find all of the verification data from previous days. Its one major shortfall is that it is of course only for US cities, and is therefore not useful if you are looking for international forecasts.
?	3	3	4	2
This website is the best one that I have found for the international point forecasts, providing a 10 day forecast for most major cities and many smaller ones around the world. However, it does take some time as you must actually type in the city names and countries to get the forecast, there was no map-based interface that I saw to pick a city. The link for "worldwide" at the bottom of the page merely takes you to the WSI homepage. This being said, this site did provide a good amount of information, and once you had your city selected, it displayed the most information with the least amount of digging through other links.
?	2	4	2	4
This site by far had the most information when compared to the other non-NWS sites, but it was also the most difficult to use. There are numerous ads on the pages, which take some time to load, and that doesn't leave a lot of room for information, which means more pages to hunt down. But, the page did have some interesting temperature trend graphs to look at which might prove useful.
?	4	3	4	3
This website provided pretty much the same information as intellicast, but it was presented in smaller chunks, for instance, it defaults to the three day forecast, so you would have to find the 10 day forecast for your particular city, which can get annoying. However, it was much easier to navigate than the accuweather site, despite its smaller amount of information. For quick reference, this was probably the fastest of the non-NWS sites.
?	NA	NA	NA	NA
It lists all of the countries in the WMO, and has links to national weather offices of those countries which have websites.

Watches and Warnings
Web Site	Speed	Flex	Ease	Archive
?	5	5	4	4
Best of all the websites, has a wide range of aspects of severe weather. You can tell that each specfic threat and aspect of severe weather is watched over by a variety of people so that the watches and warnings are put out quickly and precisely. Very fast, easy to navigate and understand, the only part that was somewhat difficult was when trying to use the archive of past watches and warnings.
?	5	4	4	1
The second best choice when looking for watches and warnings. Basically, takes the SPC's discussions and warning boxes and bundles it all together into its own site. Quick and easy to use but the archive only goes 24 hours back.
?	4	4	3	1
Another site that basically takes what the SPC forecasted and places it in a less fancy manner. Quick, relatively easy to navigate around, but hardly any archived information.
?	3	2	1	0
Pretty much only useful if you want to quickly look at what is going on. The graphics seem to try to comensate for the lack of information that the site provides. Not very easy to use and no archived information at all.
?	4	3	2	0
Not much more help than the site above. Shows watch boxes and gives a brief brief explanation behind the watch/warning but isn't really all that easy to navigate and has no archived information.

Ensemble Model Forecasts
Web Site	Speed	Flex	Ease	Archive
Penn State MREF Ensemble Viewer	3	5	4	2
Flexible menu-driven access to many ensembles and superensemble. Focused on US.
Climate Diagnostic Center Ensemble Map Room	4	4	5	1
Limited number of products, but very flexible and global in coverage.
NCEP Short-Range Ensemble Forecasting	5	5	5	5
Very comprehensive site, focused on short range (0-72 hours).
NCEP Experimental Ensemble Products	?	?	?	?
Very comprehensive medium-range site, but didn't work right on my Mac ... too slow, or incompatible?
Canadian Ensembles page	5	3	4	5
Great site, flexible and comprehensive

Potential Vorticity
Web Site	Speed	Flex	Ease	Archive
University of Utah Ð Steenburgh Maps	5	4	2	7 days
Pulldown menus for single images and loops of tropopause pressure, temperature, 315K PV, etc.
University of Washington Model Loops	4	4	4	7 days
GFS loops of analyses and forecasts for Pacific and North America include all standard fields as well as a few isentropic plots of PV.
Tropical Cyclone Genesis from FSU	4	3	5	10 days
Tropical product loops from several models, including 3 levels of isentropic PV.
University of Washington Ð Hakim Maps	4	3	4	7 days
Various hemispheric PV and tropopause analyses, including 7-day loops.
NCEP Experimental Ensemble Products	?	?	?	?
Very comprehensive medium-range site, but didn't work right on my Mac ... too slow, or incompatible?
SUNY Albany Ð Mike Dickinson	4	3	2	15 days
A variety of tropopause and PV maps, but some graphics are broken

Precipitation and Streamflow
Web Site	Speed	Flex	Ease	Archive
USGS - Precip, Streamflow Tables	4	3	3	4

Precip Analysis, River Forecast Center	4	5	4	5

Hydrometeorological Prediction Center - Precip Forecast	5	2	5	1

Climate Diagnostics Center (good for long range forecasting)	4	4	4	2