Weather.com Review

How is the weather in your neck of the woods? What is the weather like in the Caribbean? What about India? There was a time when finding information like this was more trouble than it was worth, but the internet has made it easy to obtain immediate weather statistics for locations around the globe. And the first place most people turn for weather data is Weather.com, the online service affiliated with cable television's popular Weather Channel.

Web Site Commentary:

Weather.com is, first and foremost, a tool for finding current weather statistics for the United Sates and around the world. Most people who visit Weather.com come here to find the current weather conditions and forecasts for their local area. Weather.com makes it easy to lookup this information because all it takes is a quick entry of your zip code, in the search box on the main screen. You can also enter the name of a city, but entering a five- digit zip code is the fastest way to go.

Current weather conditions are the main reason people visit Weather.com. Not only can visitors to Weather.com find the current temperature, they can also obtain the humidity level, the heat index (or wind chill), the current conditions, the chances for precipitation, etc. Interactive maps can be accessed that focus on a specific region of the world and one can view the satellite radar and determine if a storm system is nearby and where it is moving.

One feature that Weather.com offers and few are aware is its database of averages and records for different parts of the country. This is mostly trivial information, since it is generally not important to know the record high or low or the average monthly temperatures for a specific location. But I find this part of the site useful for travel. I can access a location where I plan to travel during a certain time of the year and get a good idea what the weather will be like during my stay. It may turn out that the weather is going to be different from what I expected, prompting a change in my travel plans.

Besides information on the weather, Weather.com offers other helpful information as well. One can lookup maps showing current airport delays, outdoor activities (and how the weather may affect them), health maps for flu outbreaks, colds, and allergies, maps showing Fall foliage, and more. I find the allergy maps helpful because I can quickly access a map for tree pollen, grass pollen, ragweed, and mold spores and see where allergy sufferers are most affected. Many people are completely unaware that helpful reports like these exist at Weather.com. Most assume it is a site for finding out about the current weather and nothing more.

As much as I like to visit Weather.com when I need to find weather data, there are a few problems with this online service. What annoys me most is the time it takes for certain screens to load. This problem is most common when trying to load one of the interactive maps (like the ones that show the storm radar, with moving elements) and when trying to view video. Depending on your connection speed, these features can really push your patience level to the limits. They can also cause some computers to lock up, due to the slowness of the load time.

Bottom Line Viewpoint:

Weather.com has many nice features and it helps individuals prepare themselves by providing updated weather information for locations around the world. The slowness with certain map loads and videos can be frustrating and the site needs to work on this problem. But other than that, Weather.com is a very good online source for weather and related information.