Maybe it's because I'm from the Midwest, a world-class
weather arena. Maybe it's because I'm a news type.
I'm not so far gone that my main TV diet is The Weather
Channel, but I am interested in all sorts of weather
phenomena. Aren't we fortunate there's so much Web weather? A brief selection:
The best site I found during the amazing 1995 hurricane
season is WeatherNet's Tropical Weather Products. It's
got everything from plain, easy-to-read graphics to
technical discussions of eyewalls and computer modeling. Currently featured: Tropical Depression Sebastien. It's the 18th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, the most since the 1930s.
For native Midwesterners, tornadoes are the anti-cyclone
of choice. They're random, unpredictable, capricious
and unimaginably destructive. A lot of weather scientists
and people who like to get pounded by hail are hot on the trail of Dorothy Gale, and you can take
a look at some of their work on the Stormchasers Home
Page. Have any personal experience with tornadoes or
funnel clouds? A colleague of mine from the San Francisco
Examiner, Keay Davidson, is at work on a book about
tornadoes (timed to hit the stores about the same
time Spielberg's "Twister" will hit the screen
next spring). Keay, a terrific science writer and an
all-around OK guy, would like to hear by e-mail from
people willing to share their twistered experiences. Now, a few other weather sites:
- For weather everywhere in the United States, tryThe Lighthouse,a service of MIT's student daily, The Tech.
- The NOAA/PMEL/TAO El Nino Theme Pageis a compendium of research on all that odd warming and cooling going on out in the Pacific (and elsewhere) that weather scientists insist explains weird weather.
- NJOnline Weather. Does Christine Todd Whitman need an umbrella today? Check it out. Actually, the best thing about this page is that it brings the Old Farmer's Almanacto the Web.
- SlugVideo at The Dream Inn is a must-see. Weather and oceanographic researchers stationed a camera atop a beachfront hotel to make live observations of coastal conditions. They put the feed on the net. More than 100,000 hits later, we must conclude that this is the Web at its serious (lots of info about what those scientists down there are doing) and frivolous best.
- What does the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalkhave to do with weather? Well, the SlugVideo camera looks over at it sometime. Also, there's a ride called the Typhoon, I'm pretty sure. Be sure to waste lots of time downloading the QuickTime movie of the Giant Dipper ride.
- Las Vegas Blown-Dry Weatherman.Come on, isn't this what the Web is all about? See blond prognosticator Randy Rauch and check on his forecast for Las Vegas. Like it matters what's happening outside in Vegas, Randy.
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