When we say you should check out Weather Underground’s website, we are not talking about the ’60s radical organization but rather the meteorological site that can help you plan for inclement weather on your car trip.
The site has a feature called the Road Trip Planner, which overlays a Google map with data from the National Digital Forecast Database to show you what the weather will look like during your drive. You can type in what time you plan to leave, and the Road Trip Planner will calculate what the weather will be like when you reach a certain destination, whether it’s two hours away or eight.
With forecasts roughly every three miles, it becomes easier to see where you might run into a snowstorm, sleet, rain — even tornado and hurricane conditions.
Wheels reports some glitches with the site, but when I plugged in a trip from Chicago to Washington, D.C., and cross-checked the results with Weather.com, the trip planner warned me appropriately of snow and below-freezing temperatures.
I guess you do need a meteorologist to know which way the wind blows.
