Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Republicans Break the Weather
When it comes to summer weather in the eastern half of the country, people either whine about the haze and heat, the humidity and the thunderstorms, or they debate the best free app to track what’s coming next.
Name brands like The Weather Channel and AccuWeather have free smartphone apps for the basics: high and low temperatures, sun or clouds or rain. More advanced hyperlocal alerts and frequent forecast updates or models will cost you. Clime, a newer offering, bills itself as an “all-in-one weather assistant” and offers freebies like current radar maps and seven-day forecasts. But severe weather “Clime PRO” add-ons like lightning or hurricane trackers will set you back $9.99 a week (which they call their “most popular” option) or $99.99 for the year.
For most people, it’s the zero-dollar options that get the highest praise. The National Weather Service (NWS) serves up weather and climate data free of charge for consumers, and for the businesses that create these weather apps. Don’t look for an NWS phone app: The agency doesn’t have one, though it does have a shortcut that takes a user to weather.gov, its portal for forecasts, watches and warnings, and other resources. But the broader effort to design a new mobile-friendly site has been thrown off-kilter: A beta version of that site notes that it has been “deactivated until further notice due to the loss of critical federal staff, which leaves this project without the resources required to continue its development or for routine monitoring and maintenance.”
Despite a treasure trove of public-facing weather intelligence, Americans may be headed toward the day when they have to pay for anything beyond the basics, and where your ability to know about imminent danger depends on how much money you have to spend on it.
Name brands like The Weather Channel and AccuWeather have free smartphone apps for the basics: high and low temperatures, sun or clouds or rain. More advanced hyperlocal alerts and frequent forecast updates or models will cost you. Clime, a newer offering, bills itself as an “all-in-one weather assistant” and offers freebies like current radar maps and seven-day forecasts. But severe weather “Clime PRO” add-ons like lightning or hurricane trackers will set you back $9.99 a week (which they call their “most popular” option) or $99.99 for the year.
For most people, it’s the zero-dollar options that get the highest praise. The National Weather Service (NWS) serves up weather and climate data free of charge for consumers, and for the businesses that create these weather apps. Don’t look for an NWS phone app: The agency doesn’t have one, though it does have a shortcut that takes a user to weather.gov, its portal for forecasts, watches and warnings, and other resources. But the broader effort to design a new mobile-friendly site has been thrown off-kilter: A beta version of that site notes that it has been “deactivated until further notice due to the loss of critical federal staff, which leaves this project without the resources required to continue its development or for routine monitoring and maintenance.”
Despite a treasure trove of public-facing weather intelligence, Americans may be headed toward the day when they have to pay for anything beyond the basics, and where your ability to know about imminent danger depends on how much money you have to spend on it.
https://prospect.org/environment/2025-05-20-republicans-break-the-weather/