What am I looking for?
I'll delve into 3 main categories: radar, forecasts and observations/past weather.
Radar
If you want to have some simple tools to help you predict the weather, this category is where I would start. Learning to interpret radar imagery is very easy to learn and will be very useful in day-to-day life.
Radar imagery is basically a map of precipitation and many other variables, simply displaying where it's raining, whether it's snowing or raining, where a potential tornado could be, etc. Once you learn to use radar, you will be able to determine exactly when and where it is going to rain, how hard it will rain, and much more.
Recommended: RadarScope - $10 (iOS, Android)
Radarscope is the best option out there, and relatively cheap as well. The app is easy to use, responsive, and has very high-resolution data.
The mobile version will provide all the features you need, but if you have to have it on your computer, you will pay $30, even if you have already purchased it on your phone.
Radar.weather.gov - Free (Desktop Website)
This site is probably the best desktop site for beginners, as it is very easy to use and pretty high quality.
WeatherNerds.org - Free (Desktop Website)
If you want to have radar on your computer, and don't want to pay $10, WeatherNerds has a radar feature comparable to RadarScope, although only including a couple of parameters.
NEXRAD also has a pretty good radar system, even with a few more parameters than WeatherNerds.
MyRadar - Free (iOS, Android, PC)
If you need a free radar app on your phone, MyRadar is pretty good for being free. It doesn't provide nearly the same level of detail as RadarScope, but is easy to use and great for beginners.
Forecasts
This will probably be a pretty long category, as there is a LOT to talk about.
There are a few main types of weather forecasts: short range, medium range and long range forecasts. These are defined differently according to different people, but generally speaking, short term forecasts predict the weather up to 3 days out, medium range represents 3-7 days out, and long range is anything past this. Short range forecasts are the most accurate, and they will usually be quite accurate. Medium range forecasts are not as accurate, and are useful for short term trends and general patterns, such as upcoming temperatures, but not exact values. Long term forecasts should NOT be interpreted as realistic predictions, as they are simply too far out to paint an accurate picture. Long range forecasts are useful for long term atmospheric trends and patterns, such as general cool/warm trends.
I'll start off with some simple sources and list the in order of amount of features.
Simple Forecasts:
Weather.gov - Free (All devices)
This is the U.S. government's forecast sight, and will generally be the most accurate one out there. It displays 7 days in the future. Use this site if you want to know if it will rain tomorrow, or something of the sorts.
To use this site, enter your location into the box on the left side of the screen.
The Weather Channel - Free (All devices)
The Weather Channel is also considered to be pretty accurate, with more details such as hourly forecasts and normal forecasts out to 10 days. That said, beware of extended hourly forecasts and forecasts past 7 days, as these will cease to be very accurate.
TWC also has a radar feature, but it is not very high resolution.
Forecast Maps, Meteograms, etc.
Pivotal Weather - Free, $100 for premium (Desktop)
While I recognize that a lot of people won't be able to afford the premium version, I had to put it first on the list because of its value. Pivotal will fulfill the majority of amateur meteorologists' needs (even with the free version), including data from every major forecast system (GFS, ECMWF, NAM, HRRR, WRF, GEM, ICON, ensembles, etc.), providing you with a comprehensive suite of tools for forecasting. You can look at many different models and see what these models think will happen.
The free version will probably give you what you need; if it doesn't, the pro version will likely fulfill your extra needs.
WeatherBell - $240 per year (Desktop)
The vast majority of people reading this will not buy this - and you don't need to unless you are seriously getting into meteorology. It is ridiculously expensive, but is also the holy grail of weather information. There is no other site that comes close to the level of detail that WeatherBell provides, although some other sites try, which I will list below.
It is one of the few sites that allows you to look at every member in an ensemble (if you don't know what this is, look here), as well as adding countless parameters to nearly every model. Definitely a must have for professionals and very involved amateurs.
Weather.us - $80-$160 (Desktop)
Weather.us and weathermodels.com (both made by the same company) are, as far as I know, the only other sites that offer ensemble data and extra parameters similar to those that WeatherBell does. Weathermodels.com costs $159 yearly outside of a sale and is 25% off during holiday season. If ensemble data is what you are looking for, then these 2 sites are your best alternative to WeatherBell. Weathermodels.com has significantly more ensemble data, so I would recommend this over weather.us, but obviously $159 will be too much for many people.
What can I get for free?
A lot of the above options cost money, and they generally have the best features, but you can also get a lot of stuff for free. The first free one is Pivotal Weather, which I already mentioned, but what else can you get for free?
This section will be formatted as more of a quick list, with short descriptions for each source.
TropicalTidbits.com
Tropical Tidbits is very widely used, and for good reason. It has many parameters, zooms to regions of the U.S., and appealing graphics. It also has Euro data, albeit reduced parameters, and ensemble maps (not plume or member charts unfortunately).
NEXLAB
Created by the College of DuPage, NEXLAB is a great resource that provides many parameters for multiple models, excluding some like the ECMWF and EPS. There is practically no way to get Euro data for free, as any site that wants to display it's data has to pay a very high price in order to keep the forecast funded.
RAMMB
This site provides beautiful, top quality and quick loading loops of satellite imagery across the world. This is very useful to see location of precipitation, storms, cold fronts, and so much more. Also, it's just really fun to look at.
WXcharts.com
This site has a good amount of features - zooms to regions of the US, meteograms for cities, ensemble data in the form of a plume chart.
UW models
These models, developed by the University of Washington, are highly accurate models for the region. In addition to normal model maps, there are also adjustable ensemble plumes. There's a lot of stuff to explore in here.
SCP tools
Created by NOAA, this site has a lot of great forecasting tools, focused on NCEP models. It includes HRRR, multiple ensemble models, upper air maps, etc.
MeteogramGen
This site isn't perfect, but if meteograms are what you're looking for, then this has some. It's created by Iowa State University. To use it, enter your site (for Washington, K and then the 3-letter airport code), and select from a couple different models and parameters to generate meteograms.
Weather Nerds
Similar to other sites on this list, and it also includes a decent quality radar, as mentioned above in the Radar section.
Climate Prediction Center
The NWS will publish daily outlooks for temperature and precipitation, ranging from 6-10 days, 8-14 days, all the way out to 3-month outlooks. They also publish storm probabilistic outlooks.
Observations
This section is dedicated to past weather and current weather conditions, instead of speculating on future weather.
NWS Climate Data
The National Weather Service provides an almanac of weather records. You can find all-time records, the last time a certain event occurred (e.g., last time Seattle had a high of 32 or below), averages, etc.
Ambient Weather
Ambient Weather is a database of Personal Weather Stations that you can set up at you house for highly accurate, localized weather data. I would highly recommend checking out the WS2902 station if you are interested in this kind of thing. Regardless of if you own a station, you can look on the Ambient website and find the nearest station to you to get a more localized weather reading.
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