If you find yourself in need of weather information that’s easy to read, this article will give you three websites to check out. The importance of accessible weather sites can’t be overstated, especially when an impending hurricane or other weather danger is coming toward you. The great thing about these websites is that they all work great on any system you happen to be on.
Doubtless there are other accessible websites that I won’t mention here today, so if you have one you like, please let me know in the comments, or just reply to your email and let me know personally. Now let’s dig into the weather!
Derek Riemer’s Weather Page
Derek’s Weather Page is a great page for quickly getting current weather conditions. The first time you visit the page, your browser will ask if you want to share your location. This can make it easier to instantly get your weather conditions without needing to play with your browser or the webpage each time you revisit the site.
Once the website knows your location, it’ll display the current weather conditions in an easy-to-read table. You can also hit a link for hourly forecasts, or the daily forecast. If you’re using a screen reader you can either arrow through the information or use table navigation keyboard commands. The table navigation commands are used by pressing the CONTROL and ALT keys at the same time while using the four arrow keys to move around the table.
The great thing about this site is that it’s quick to load, has no ads, and it’s accessible. Note: this is a personal project by Derek Riemer, so availability may vary.
Weather Street
Next is weatherstreet.com. When you first visit this website, you have a simple text box that allows you to type your city or zip code. Once you do that, you can save that page to your bookmarks for quicker access, or even save it to your desktop or home screen of your mobile device for easy access.
Once you supply your location, you have headings for the forecast and hourly forecasts. You also have a heading for the extended forecast. Weather Street is great if you want an easy-to-read hourly and weekly forecast.
National Weather Service
Welcome to the National Weather Service, weather.gov. This is the ultimate for weather geeks. Because it is a government website, it is also accessible using textual informational products rather than just graphics.
As is typical for weather sites, you can enter your city and/or zip code in the text box provided. You also have a checkbox allowing your browser to save this information for your next visit. Note that the text box has text within it, so before entering anything you’ll first need to delete the data in the box.
The first heading will give you the location of your nearest NWS office. This may not be your city. However, the forecast info you get will be for your city. Directly under the heading for the NWS office are weather-related headlines.
Below that you have links for impact weather update statements and hazardous weather outlooks.
Moving down past these you have the current conditions.
Next you have headings for two forecasts. The first one is a bit more graphical in nature, but the second one has more textual info and explains the forecast in more detail.
Under the Additional Forecasts and Information heading you have a link for the forecast discussion, as well as printable and text-only forecasts. You also have links for hourly forecasts and air quality forecasts.
You also have a link called Text Products, which gives you a large amount of weather info including severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado warnings, flood warnings, fire weather watches, hurricane local statements, and much more. The great thing about this website is that it’s all accessible, but as you can see it may have more info than the average person wants.
FAQ
Which of these sites is the easiest to use with a screen reader?
Derek Riemer’s Weather Page is the quickest and simplest. It loads fast, has no ads, and presents data in clean tables. Weather.gov has the most data but can be overwhelming.
Do any of these sites have ads?
Derek Riemer’s page has no ads. Weather.gov is a government site with no ads. Weather Street may have some ads but the forecast content itself is straightforward.
Can I get severe weather alerts from these sites?
Yes. The National Weather Service at weather.gov provides the most comprehensive alert coverage, including severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado warnings, flood warnings, and more.
Rain stopping
Well that’s it for this article. Hopefully this helps make you more weather wise. Who doesn’t need that, right?
Qapla!