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Along these lines, but the other direction and something I've seen developing is niche expert local forecasts. I follow a few, surfing, sailing etc.

Surfline [1] do an excellent (paid) regional analysis, and the best aspect is the long range outlook where they will incorporate any levels of uncertainty or conflict between the various weather models into their analysis. To the lay person there may be "the forecast", but interpreting the different models and incorporating local anomalies is very valuable.

Also excellent is the UK Met office 10 day trend[2], to get an idea of the uncertainty and macro patterns at play.

[1] https://www.surfline.com/surf-forecasts/north-cornwall/58581... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLccinRLccA&list=PLGVVqeJodR...

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In the US we have Area Forecast Discussions (AFDs) issued by regional weather offices. They are a great resource and I wish more people outside aviation knew about them. They will generally include a high level discussion, detailed conversations about each forecast period, as well as aviation and marine (if applicable) considerations. Usually gives some great insight into what, for example “chance of showers” really means.

Example: https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=OKX&issuedby=O...

AI6YR has created a fleet of Mastodon bots that replicate NWS forecasts and discussions. No depdendence on Twitter anymore.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/alternate-alerts-81852206

Great for Mastodon adoption for sure. And even better smarts on NWS for diversifying their alert systems, especially outside of a large corporate-owned platform.

He's operating outside of NWS by taking a converted feed from elsewhere. Iowa State I think. But he's offered to let the government take the whole thing over if they want. It's kind of important that someone does this, glad he stepped up.

You have always been able to roll your own code as well. There are Python libraries to produce verbose readouts of FAA METAR reports, for example.

Good point that the starting point of the data in this case is publicly available APIs, but, and this will sound backwards, centralizing ones main firehose on a decentralized platform seems like a great way to reach the masses, including individuals but also smaller media outlets that don't interface directly with those initial APIs.

Android app that uses the NOAA and NWS APIs. No ads, no user tracking and includes the forecast dicussions and the nowcoast visual.

https://nwsnow.net/

I use a different free app for forecasts, and it typically catches thermal winds like sea breezes with the default model. I still get skunked every now and then and show up at the beach with a board and not enough wind to go fast...

I'd like one of these for snorkeling. The experience depends a lot on weather conditions and micro-geographical factors.

1) underwater visibility around land masses is dependant on precipitation and swell conditions over the previous few days - i.e. the water will be murky if it's been pissing down and blowing a gale for the last 2 days. This is not so much a factor around offshore islands in deep water with strong currents.

2) In hilly areas, it's best to go out when there is an offshore wind, as the land mass shields the water from the wind, making the surface smoother.

3) people have preferences as to the direction and tide (incoming/outgoing/time after low/high tide).

4) It's great when the sun is out, and if you are spearfishing then you want the sun at your back so the fish can't see you.

In short there are a a lot of factors that, in some magical snorkeling forecast system, could all be rolled up into a score out of 10 for a specific geographical spot at a specific time.

The aviation METARs and TAFs are pretty nice, because they give the dew point, which can't usually be found on other weather forecasts. The Met Office and their peers of course use this information as part of their calculations, but it is nice to see it yourself because relative to the temperature it tells you at what altitude you can expect clouds and/or rain to form.

And yes, Windy has dew point as a layer!

PS. Relevant username ;) Windsurfing, traditional sailing, both?

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