The Redwood Technology Consortium had a great presentation by Nancy Dean of the National Weather Service Eureka office Thursday night. She offered a historical look at the local office which began in the 1880s and led in to summary of the current status of the service. The presentation was fun and filled with lively questions and answers. Of course, it got kind of geeky, going far beyond weather questions and in to the various ‘products’ of the NWS such as xml feeds.
If you haven’t visited the NWS web site recently, I think it’s worth a look. There are some very intersting a fun tools that go way beyond whether it will be raining or shining over the next couple days. This page, for example, has a great map which allows you to switch between temperature, dewpoint, wind conditions, wave hight, cloud cover and other conditions. Rolling over an element automatically makes the map change. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The range of products is imprressive.