Weather

1. Weather.gov
For really specific info, Big Brother is still the best for everything from small-craft advisories to freeze watches to the projected gust speeds tomorrow at 9 a.m. at your favorite backcountry skiing location. Tip: For any highly weather-dependent sport, we like to cross-reference NOAA with a few local sites—like your yacht club’s or region’s specific avalanche-conditions page—that we learn about the old-fashioned way: by asking friends.

2. iMapWeather.com
If you’re already getting text messages from NOAA.org, bookmark this new site. It went live just before we went to press, so we didn’t have time to play around on it, but the beta version looked promising: It’s aiming to be the first socialnetworking/weather Web site, where you can share photos, videos, and mini-blogs with other climate geeks (or skiers or paddlers or hikers) about what the weather is doing out their window this very moment.

3. UmbrellaToday.com
This site is brilliant in its simplicity. You type in your zip code; it tells you "yes" or "no"—the answer to whether you should take an umbrella with you that day. You can also sign up for a daily service that will you text you a reminder on days you might need one.