CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: INTERNET OFFERS LATEST WEATHER TECHNOLOGY UPDATED IN REAL TIME

Are you a weather nut? Via the Internet, you can actually see the color weather radar those radio stations brag about. And you don't have to wait for the evening news to check out the Doppler and Nexrad or even fly through the weather.

First stop is

http://www.earthwatch.com

Peggy: Here you can find weather on demand or your weather on your schedule. EarthWatch was the first company to develop 3-D weather visualization for the broadcast and film industries. Now that same cutting-edge imagery is available to anyone via the Internet.

Joni: When you open the page, a radar reading and storm watch of the whole U.S. greet you. You can also find weather headlines, storm watch, forecasts, satellite and radar. We're going to click on satellite and radar.

Peggy: Most weather pages don't show live radar or satellite feeds. But most are updated on the hour.

Joni: This is the place for WeatherFlight, which offers a virtuality ride from a space shuttle cockpit view. It's a first on the web. Warning: downloading the images takes time, but a weather connoisseur at our office thinks it's worth the wait. The images are QuickTime.

Peggy: You have four flight patterns to choose. We chose a view from the Gulf Coast through the central United States.

Joni: We have a fast Internet connection and downloading took 3 1/2 minutes. But it's still faster than waiting until 10 p.m.

Peggy: The movie is small on your screen, but that's to cut down on the download time. You can press a button and let the movie play, or you can advance the image frame by frame if you want to study the weather. Rain and clouds are easy to spot.

Joni: Amaze your friends. Insert your name and you can have Joe Smith's weather.

Peggy: You can click Storm watch and see who is under a watch or warning.

Joni: You can get local, state, national and international forecasts. I would think this would be very handy for travelers. I don't really need to know what the weather is like in Paris, unless it's terrible there and nice here. There has to be some fairness.

Peggy; We didn't have much luck on the local forecast. But you can click on hourly data, which comes from the National Weather Service. At 2 p.m., the temperature was 69 degrees and skies were mostly sunny. You can also find out the humidity and barometric pressure.

Joni: You can find a really classy weather page at

http://www.intellicast.com.

Peggy: This is a division of MSNBC, the MicroSoft-NBC online news organization. You can see Nexrad radar. The closest site is from St. Louis. Nexrad stands for Next Generation of Weather Radar.

Joni: They have a national travel forecast video, updated daily. You can ask Dr. Dewpoint your weather-related questions. You can get the four-day forecast, monthly averages and an almanac.

Peggy: Regional radar and Nexrad radar are updated hourly. And you can also look at NOW radar for precipitation. You can also get ski reports if you are planning a vacation.

Joni: What were the weather extremes Sunday: 95 degrees at Thermal, Calif. and minus 4 at International Falls, Minn. Makes you appreciate Cape Girardeau weather after all.

Peggy; Basically, anything you need to know about weather you can find here. But if you still haven't satisfied your weather needs, try

http://www.weather.com

Joni: They have a pretty snooty address. Obviously they got their application for a site in early.

Peggy: The nice thing about The Weather Channel is that you can get forecasts and reports specifically for Cape Girardeau. Other sites with specific forecasts in the region are Farmington, Kennett, Poplar Bluff, Rolla and West Plains.

Joni: Let's click on Cape Girardeau and see what we get. It gives us the weather today and a five-day forecast. It offers us Doppler weather readings that cover Cape Girardeau from either St. Louis or Memphis.

Peggy: You could easily bookmark this site and come back to check the forecast.

Joni: The radar is in color. Yes, it's color weather radar. The site also gives you information on how to interpret and use Doppler weather radar data, and they have a glossary of weather terms in case you are scratching your head while you listen to the weather guys.

Peggy: You can also get weather news, international and national weather maps and a bunch of weather links.

Joni: Another popular site, which boasts of the Internet's largest collection of weather links is WeatherNet. It's sponsored by the weather underground. The address is a little convoluted, but someone else already has their namesake address.

http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet

Peggy: It gives you a fast forecast for your city. We found the temperature, humidity and forecast for the rest of the afternoon, overnight and tomorrow.

Joni: When submitting the name of your city, don't use quotes like the example shows. You'll get a message claiming you have entered "bogus" information. No doubt college students were involved here.

Peggy: Is it snowing or raining? You can submit your own weather observations to an online weather database. You can also read the observations of others.

Joni: You can also find forecasts and warnings, radar, maps and weather cams, dozens of weather cams.

Peggy: Travel the country from your desktop. That's my kind of vacation. Well, that's the only kind of vacation I'm taking right now. I can dream about a tropical vacation while checking out the weather in places I'm not visiting. They also have ski conditions for more than 200 resorts.

Joni: One more weather stop

http:// www.accuweather.com

They are beta testing personalized Accuweather. It offers free, customized service with the latest local forecast, Doppler radar, 10-day outlooks, satellite images, surface maps and more, updated in real time. The site is available in frames or nonframes.

Peggy: You can download software free, and you get five hours free. After that you'll have to pay.

Joni: What's your favorite weather site? E-mail us at click@semissourian.com

See you in Cyberspace.

~Joni Adams is managing editor and Peggy Scott is graphics editor at the Southeast Missourian.