News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:US Drought Monitor by dekerta on Sunday September 04, 2022 @12:56PM (#32715087)
Windy.com has a neat feature that displays current drought conditions for the entire world:

https://www.windy.com/-Drought-intensity-awp_0_40

Re:US Drought Monitor by sokoloff on Sunday September 04, 2022 @01:18PM (#32715315)
Interesting that windy shows Cape Ann (Gloucester, MA area) as “no drought” and the unl site has the same area as “extreme drought”.
Re:US Drought Monitor by koheripbal on Sunday September 04, 2022 @06:53PM (#32718527)
Yeah, both data sources are very suspect.
Re:US Drought Monitor by StephenSmith on Sunday September 04, 2022 @01:14PM (#32715279)
Why does this not line up well with the linked data, I wonder?
Re:US Drought Monitor by tony_cannistra on Sunday September 04, 2022 @07:01PM (#32718584)
Windy.com uses the "INTERSUCHO" system from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute. Here's the paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/7/913

There's a website (it's in Czech): https://intersucho.cz/

Windy.com, being developed in Europe, often uses European datasets.

Re:US Drought Monitor by ninkendo on Sunday September 04, 2022 @01:25PM (#32715398)
Looks like windy.com is showing short-term trends, perhaps driven by things like “how long since it last rained”, etc. Michigan is showing severe drought, and then you set the date to the 12th and it all clears to normal (there’s rain in the forecast around then.)

It’s a lot different than the long term trends driven by total annual precipitation, snowpack, etc.

Re:US Drought Monitor by kickout on Sunday September 04, 2022 @03:58PM (#32717086)
windy is my favorite website. Absolutely loved it from day1. Wonder if anyone on that team is a HNer
Re:US Drought Monitor by mistrial9 on Sunday September 04, 2022 @07:00PM (#32718573)
great "eye candy" but posts here now are raising questions about the accuracy of the windy data models
Re:US Drought Monitor by UncleEntity on Sunday September 04, 2022 @09:56PM (#32719685)
I’ve found it to be pretty accurate to not drive into potential tornadoes as it uses pretty up to date data which lets me track storm paths.

The difference between “that looks really bad” and “ that looks really bad but will be moved on by the time I get there” is very helpful. Plus being able to text a screenshot of me about to drive into a major storm cell to the owner of my truck is priceless.

Re:US Drought Monitor by kristopolous on Sunday September 04, 2022 @11:21PM (#32720153)
Re:US Drought Monitor by ktzar on Sunday September 04, 2022 @09:19PM (#32719478)
I still prefer ventusky. Nice ux, fast and accurate.
Re:US Drought Monitor by Cthulhu_ on Monday September 05, 2022 @02:32PM (#32727587)
Nice, my neck of the woods is absolutely parched :D. Some rain predicted this week though. I heard France was really bad but it doesn't look too bad in comparison.