Mission
Built so people are informed and stay safe. Off the road during storms. Out of the path of wildfire. Public safety is the standard.
Forecast engines
Open-Meteo serves the spine forecast plus an 8-model ensemble: ECMWF, ECMWF-AI, GFS, ICON (DWD), JMA, GEM, UK Met Office, and CMA. NOAA HRRR refines the next 18 hours at 3 km resolution. NWS gridpoint data layers in NDFD probabilities and active alerts from api.weather.gov.
Composite Thunder Score formula
Per-hour ensemble mean of CAPE, Lifted Index, CIN, and precip probability across GFS, GFS-HRRR, ICON, ECMWF, and Météo-France. Score = CAPE (0–40 pts · J/kg ÷ 62.5) + Lifted Index (0–30 pts · −LI × 5) + Precip Prob (0–20 pts · prob × 0.2) + WMO storm codes 95–99 (+30 pts) − CIN suppression (0 to −20 pts · CIN ÷ 10). Capped at 100. Then modified by the Heavy Logic Engine: humidity charge × lapse rate × trigger × bulk shear. Confidence strip below the chart shows CAPE spread across models — narrow = agreement, wide = uncertainty. Refreshed every 30 minutes.
Composite Precipitation Confidence
Model probability is fused with local PWS observations and upstream confirmation along the reverse 500 mb steering current. Each hour gets one of five labels — CONFIRMED, OBSERVED, WATCH, MODEL, or CLEAR — so you know whether a forecast is just numbers on a screen or actually being seen on the ground.
Local Sensor Network
Live observations come from the NWS station chain (primary), MADIS, NDBC marine buoys (when coastal), and Synoptic Data API (when a public token is configured). Coverage expands automatically (50 → 100 → 150 → 200 mi) when the local network is sparse. Median delta vs the model becomes the network bias correction applied to the next 6 hours of forecast.
Wildfire Intelligence
~1,200 ALERTCalifornia cameras (PG&E + UCSD), live NIFC incidents, CAL FIRE active perimeters, and NASA FIRMS satellite hotspots. Smoke direction is cross-checked against local wind alignment so you see what's coming before the official evacuation order.
Road Intelligence
Caltrans CWWP2 District 3 chain control plus 30+ live highway cameras across I-80, US-50, SR-89, SR-267, SR-28, and US-395. CHP traffic incidents and MagnifEye aggregator round out the road picture. Chain control tiers (R0/R1/R2/R3) surface at the top of the page when conditions warrant.
Ski + Avalanche Intelligence
Live mountain webcams from 25 ski resorts (Tahoe basin + Eastern Sierra + national destinations) plus regional avalanche forecast centers — Sierra Avalanche Center for Tahoe, CAIC for Colorado, NWAC for the Pacific Northwest, and others. 5-tier danger scale: Low → Moderate → Considerable → High → Extreme. Banner alerts fire at Considerable or higher, always with a "View ski cams →" link.
Crew Callout Brain
Every 15 minutes the brain consumes everything above and decides GO / STAGE / STAND-DOWN for snow ops and excavation ops separately. Wildfire ALERT pushes excavation to STAGE; R3 chain control pushes both to STAND-DOWN; HIGH avalanche danger surfaces a coordination advisory with Palisades patrol. Built so the foreman knows before the crew is mobilized in the wrong direction.
Caching + reliability
Every API call is cached with sensible TTLs (forecast 15 min, ensemble 60 min, archive 24 hr). A three-stage rate-limit fallback keeps the page useful even when an upstream API is throttled. Everything is location-agnostic — drop a pin and the entire page reforecasts.
