For forecasters
Independent meteorologist software and tools
Model data · publishing a moment · verification · audience
You are working outside an institution. No NWS budget, no station contract. This page lays out the stack - the model viewers, what is free, and where the gap is for a meteorologist who wants to do something with the forecast they form.
The weather
How much
Your note
Layer 1: model data and analysis
This is the layer the independent meteorologist community has solved reasonably well. Several platforms give you serious ECMWF and GFS access at personal-tier prices.
Free options that deliver
Tropical Tidbits
The most trusted free model viewer in the indie community. ECMWF ensemble, GFS, NAM, interactive soundings.
WX Charts
European-origin, growing US audience. ECMWF, GFS, UKMET, Icon at no cost. Good for multi-model pattern analysis.
College of DuPage
Academic resource with Skew-T soundings, severe weather parameters, NAM/GFS/RAP. Dated interface, solid data.
NWS NOMADS
The source itself. Raw model access is public; the barrier is visualization, not availability.
Paid options worth evaluating
Pivotal Weather
$9.99/moInteractive click-anywhere soundings, modern interface, ECMWF 6z/18z. The default for serious hobbyists.
WeatherModels.com
$14.99/moDeeper ECMWF ensemble: 46-day EPS, ptype for all ensemble members. For extended-range winter specialists.
WeatherBell Premium
$29.99/moLong-range products, historical analogs, expert editorial content from named forecasters.
Layer 2: publishing a moment
Every model viewer helps you read what is developing. None of them help you do anything with the forecast you form. A thread has no structure; a newsletter has no map; a personal site has no readers waiting. Forecaster HQ turns the moment itself into the form - the one drawn above.
An edition is a moment, a call and a note
Tonight’s game, a town’s snow day, a storm on the tracker, a warning in effect. The template opens pre-filled with the data the page shows, asks for two or three taps and a note, and locks when the moment arrives.
It appears where the readers already are
On the moment’s own page, next to what the page says, with a mark for how your call sits against it - agrees, stronger, softer, differs. On your page. In your followers’ email, with the picture on the share image.
Layer 3: verification - what you said, next to what happened
The storm map is the older tool, and the one a verification needs: regions with ranges. After the storm’s window closes, Forecaster HQ pulls National Weather Service station observations and Local Storm Reports and draws them inside your regions. The comparison stays on the forecast it belongs to; it is not rolled into a score or a rank.
Layer 4: audience
The model data tools and the publishing layer only compound in value if people can find you and follow your work.
Followers
Readers follow your page. When you publish, they get an email. Your audience grows with every edition.
Your own page
Every edition you publish sits on your page, under your name, with the readers who followed you. Nothing on it is graded.
Readers who came for the moment
An edition on a game, a town or a storm appears on that page, next to ours. The readers who came for tonight's game see your read of it before they have heard of you.
Shareable OG images
Every edition gets a share image with the picture on it - the field, the track, the map - for X, Instagram or Bluesky.
The stack, side by side
| Layer | What you need | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| Model data | Access the models, run analysis | Tropical Tidbits (free) / Pivotal Weather / WeatherModels.com |
| Publishing | Editions: your call on a game, a snow day, a storm or a warning, on the page people came to | Forecaster HQ |
| Verification | Close the loop - the storm map next to what was observed | Forecaster HQ |
| Audience | Followers, and the readers already on each moment's page | Forecaster HQ |
The first layer, the indie community has figured out. The other three are all Forecaster HQ - and all free.
Who Forecaster HQ is for
- Working meteorologists who left institutions or are building a parallel independent presence
- NWS-trained forecasters going independent, who need a page under their own name rather than an office's
- Serious hobbyists who make real predictions and want them kept, with a timestamp, beyond the forecast week
- Emerging forecasters building credibility in a specific niche - tropical, severe, winter, agricultural
Start free. Keep what you build.
Your page, your editions and your followers are yours. No paywall on publishing. No lock-in.