Weather selected from your own zip code.
Here are some Web sites worth trying for "weather maps," including surface and upper air charts:
Measurements of the upper atmosphere are called "soundings." They come mainly from weather balloons launched twice a day. A University of Wyoming World Wide Web site is a good place to get this data. The site shows all U.S. weather balloon stations on a clickable map. When you click on a station, you get the data. You have a choice of a table or various kinds of diagrams meteorologists prepare to display upper air data, including "Skew-T" charts. You'll also see various indexes calculated from the data that meteorologists use to judge the danger or severe thunderstorms. The Skew-T plots are also available at:
San Francisco State University has maps of the current jet stream as well as 24 and 48-hour forecasts are available for both the North Pacific and the entire United States. The jet stream position and strength are easily located by looking for the areas shaded in gray. Jet streaks are labeled with an "H". For more information about the jet stream maps, click here. For more information about jet streams, check out USA TODAY's text and graphic explaining what jet streams are and how they affect the weather.
Here are some more links to maps and also technical discussions from the National Weather Service:
USA TODAY's on-line storm systems and fronts index has links to graphics and text that will help you understand the weather systems that maps show.
USA TODAY's satellite images page has links to several sources of current weather satellite images.
Times on weather reports and forecasts are almost always in Zulu time (it used to be called Greenwich Mean Time or GMT.) Zulu time uses the 24-hour, or "military" clock. A USA TODAY file introducing "weather codes" has more about what Zulu time is all about, including how to convert from Zulu to U.S. time.
The NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., conducts research into global amtospheric pollution, global warming, atmospheric ozone, and other topics
The best link to outside aviation weather information is through USA TODAY's online Pilots Home Page.
The term "climate" refers to long-term weather, usually in terms of the averages of temperatures, precipitation and other weather factors over a long period of time. Go to USA TODAY's online climate information index. More information is available on our recent weather records page, our weather history index page and our weather averages page.
USA TODAY's online earthquakes and volcanoes information page has links to several outside sites.
USA TODAY has an extensive hurricane index, which leads to graphics and text covering many aspects of hurricanes.
USA TODAY Online has a tornado index with links to graphics and text on tornadoes. We also have an index to the VORTEX Project stories that we have posted. This index also links to outside Web sites on the Vortex Project.
Probably the best source of links to Web sites with weather and climate information is the University of Michigan's Weathernet, which had links to more than 300 other sites and boasts of "new links added every day."
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