For radar, I just use GR Level 3. I was tired of the slowness of the web. I add shapefiles for mPING, lightning, NWS watches, NWS convective outlooks / mesoscale discussions, etc. Great piece of software, and lots of shapefiles available on the Internet to extend it.
For forecasting, I use the College of DuPage forecast tools: https://weather.cod.edu/forecast/. There is a learning curve, but the "simulated reflectivity" is a prediction of where it's going to rain. It predicts what a radar mosaic would look like at the forecast time. I like HRRR for "today" and NAMNST for "tomorrow". GFS is also a classic for longer-term predictions, but I don't have a good enough memory to tell you how accurate it is. (HRRR is some good tech, though. Predicting the future is tough, HRRR does a pretty good job.) These models also have decent surface predictions; temperature, dewpoint, winds, etc. If you're willing to step through some pretty pictures in a very nice web interface, you can get some great ideas of what the weather is going to do. Well worth a visit.
On NAM and some other models, you can also long-press on a point to see a forecast sounding. This is probably in the realm of too much information for the average person interested in weather (and using models to make your own forecast probably is too), but hey, they have some neat software and you should play with it.
Finally, I like the SPC's site for situational awareness of thunderstorms in the summer: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/. Their forecast tools are also excellent: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/. Specifically, the mesoanalysis graphics can be interesting for anticipating exceptional events.
Anyway, I used to be a heavy user of Weather Underground. They got bought, then their parent company got bought, and now they have no actual weather information and just clickbait videos. It's very sad, but you can cobble together some tools that are freely available on the Internet and be aware of the current and upcoming weather, without being served a single ad!
Otherwise, iOS has a thing you can turn on that notifies you when it thinks it's going to start raining.
For radar, I just use GR Level 3. I was tired of the slowness of the web. I add shapefiles for mPING, lightning, NWS watches, NWS convective outlooks / mesoscale discussions, etc. Great piece of software, and lots of shapefiles available on the Internet to extend it.
For forecasting, I use the College of DuPage forecast tools: https://weather.cod.edu/forecast/. There is a learning curve, but the "simulated reflectivity" is a prediction of where it's going to rain. It predicts what a radar mosaic would look like at the forecast time. I like HRRR for "today" and NAMNST for "tomorrow". GFS is also a classic for longer-term predictions, but I don't have a good enough memory to tell you how accurate it is. (HRRR is some good tech, though. Predicting the future is tough, HRRR does a pretty good job.) These models also have decent surface predictions; temperature, dewpoint, winds, etc. If you're willing to step through some pretty pictures in a very nice web interface, you can get some great ideas of what the weather is going to do. Well worth a visit.
On NAM and some other models, you can also long-press on a point to see a forecast sounding. This is probably in the realm of too much information for the average person interested in weather (and using models to make your own forecast probably is too), but hey, they have some neat software and you should play with it.
Finally, I like the SPC's site for situational awareness of thunderstorms in the summer: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/. Their forecast tools are also excellent: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/. Specifically, the mesoanalysis graphics can be interesting for anticipating exceptional events.
Anyway, I used to be a heavy user of Weather Underground. They got bought, then their parent company got bought, and now they have no actual weather information and just clickbait videos. It's very sad, but you can cobble together some tools that are freely available on the Internet and be aware of the current and upcoming weather, without being served a single ad!
Otherwise, iOS has a thing you can turn on that notifies you when it thinks it's going to start raining.