If you find yourself in need of weather information that is 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 will not 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 of choice will ask if you want this page to get your current weather 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 will 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 is quick to load, has no ads, and it is accessible.

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, but I find that the table they use to display the info isn’t as usable with screen readers as I’d like. Weather street is great if you want an easy to read hourly forecast 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 will 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 will give you a large amount of weather info. Below is a list.

• Coastal Flood/Hazard Message
• Severe Thunderstorm Warning
• Fire Weather Watch/Red Flag Warning
• Severe Weather Statement
• Hurricane Local Statement
• Special Marine Warning
• Local Storm Report
• Special Weather Statement
• Marine Weather Message
• Tornado Warning
• Marine Weather Statement
• Watch County Notification
• Non-Precipitation Weather Products
• Wind Chill Watch/Warning/Advisory
• Daily River and Lake Summary
• Flood Statement
• Drought Information Statement
• Flood Watch
• Flash Flood Statement
• Flood Warning
• Flash Flood Warning
• River Statement
• Flood Potential Outlook

The above isn’t even a complete list. 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. If you want current weather conditions, a short-term/long term forecast and have current weather alerts that are active in your area this will do it, and then some.

Rain Stopping

Well that’s it for this article. Hopefully this helps make you more weather wise. Who doesn’t need that right? 😉

Qapla!