The Wonderful World of Weather

Finding current metorological data on the Internet is something of a challenge for the Houston area. The National Weather Service is timely and Netcast is not too bad, but none of them provide realtime coverage of developing weather events. The best we can usually expect is an hourly update of Intellicast's Nexrad or maybe The Weather Channel's national Doppler radar. However, there are ways to tell what the weather is like near Rice and near my home, courtesy of Automated Weather Source Online.

There are lots of great sites on the Internet to get different types of weather data. I find WeatherNet, the Unisys Weather server (formerly Purdue Weather Processor) and Weather World 2010 to be the most useful places to find satellite data and other weather products. You can also find a staggering amount of resources via theAllentown Weather Center.

Violent weather is of interest to me as well. I am most interested in Tornadoes, and have a collection of the Tornado Project's books and videos, which are "must haves" for anyone interested in the subject. I'd love to be a Storm chaser like Charles Edwards, but unfortunately don't have the time or resources to do it. The National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma has some good information on meteorological research and I find the Hurricane/Tropical data page at Unisys facinating. If lightning is your thing (and who doesn't love a good thunderstorm?) then the amazing photos at Striking Images should keep you busy for a bit. Want to know what the weather is like someplace else? Check out the Weather-cams site at the University of Michigan.