Severe weather is in the forecast for our area today, and many of us here in the office have been interested in better ways of keeping an eye on the weather. I’m a big fan of the National Weather Service and Oklahoma’s own Mesonet. They’re easily the best, and geekiest, sources of weather information in Oklahoma. Today I’d like to write about a few of my favorite services from these great agencies, and I hope they help you stay safe while feeding your inner weather geek!
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service is a taxpayer-funded government agency, and they’re easily the geekiest government agency out there, always exploring new technologies to keep us informed and safe. They may not have the fanciest graphics, but they are easily the most up-to-date and detailed source of weather information.
- Norman Forecast Office Home Page
- Tulsa Forecast Office Home Page
- Norman Forecast Office Enhanced Weather Page
- Storm Prediction Center
- NWS Stillwater Forecast
- NWS Tulsa Forecast
- NWS Oklahoma City Forecast
Mesonet
The Oklahoma Climatological Survey, operators of Mesonet, is ran by the University of Oklahoma, the premiere place to study meteorology, along with their partner, Oklahoma State University. It’s an excellent example of how well our universities can work together.
WeatherScope
WeatherScope is a fantastic tool for those who want to take their weather geekiness to the next level. It’s written by the Oklahoma Climatological Survey and is available for both Windows and Mac OS X. It’s a daunting tool at first, with a wide array of options. Here at InterWorks, we have a popular WeatherScope file that has been passed around the office. Using it is dead simple:
- Download WeatherScope from http://climate.ok.gov/software
- Install WeatherScope
- Download this file and unzip it
- Open the included
interworks-ok-radar.wxscriptfile with WeatherScope
Be patient as it loads. Sometimes it may take a while for WeatherScope to download radar images and other data from the appropriate servers.
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