Noble from Chicago asks:
I know there are a lot of weather websites, but I’d like a quick look at the weather without going to a site. Do you have any recommendations?
You’re right Noble, there are about a gazillion ways to check weather on a computer. However, some are better (and easier) than others and Forecastfox Weather is one of them. This free and customizable extension for Firefox and Chrome places current weather and weather forecasts–from AccuWeather.com–in a convenient location in your browser. Of course, unlike desktop weather gadgets, your browser has to be open to use this feature.
To begin setup, click here, select your browser, and follow the installation instructions.
When installation is complete, options are presented. First, select a location, and it will immediately become the default and will be added to the Previous Locations list. Clicking any from that list will change that to the default. If you’d like to rotate between multiple locations, check the switch locations box and set a time to automatically switch between locations. Below Locations, select a unit of measure.
Then, choose preferred icons.
More customizations are found in the Toolbar Display and Weather Data sections.
Any changes can easily be undone, by scrolling to the bottom and clicking the restore all defaults button.
To edit these options later, click Add-ons under the Tools menu. Or, Add-ons can be accessed with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+A.
Under the Extensions tab, clicking the Options button will again reveal the selections described earlier.
Drag the icon to a convenient location. After taking the screenshots, I moved mine to the Add-on Bar at the bottom.
Mouse over the icons for detailed weather information.
Radar
Current weather conditions
Next day’s forecast
Future forecasts (up to six days)
Severe weather alerts
Click any icon to receive details from Accuweather.com.
This is a screenshot from Forecastfox in Chrome. Clicking the tabs on the left provides the same information that hovering over the Firefox icons offers. Click the options link at the lower left to set preferences.
With Forecastfox, everybody will still complain about the weather and still, nobody will be able to do anything about it. But at least they can be prepared.
For a look at some other weather options from AccuWeather, click here.
Thanks for the question, Noble.
~Kevin
I could not get Forecastfox Weather to load on Chrome for me.
This was a great and very helpful tip. I’ve been using WeatherBug, which I can’t say I’ve been unhappy with, but I like all the options and features of Forecastfox. The biggest reason I like it over WeatherBug is the fact that you can view two different cities’ weather. I’m planning a move after the first of the year from Alabama to Nebraska. Needless to say the weather couldn’t be more different. So it is great to be able to see the weather I’m living in now as compared to the weather of the city I’ll be moving to soon. Maybe this will change my mind ? Again, thanks for yet another very helpful tip. (Not that they aren’t all helpful.)