Weather Links
Here are some useful links that will help you analyze what is happening in the atmosphere. Meteorolgists use these products to forecast the weather, and you can too!
Upper Air Sources
https://www.spc.noaa.gov/obswx/maps/
This is a link to the Storm Prediction Center's upper-air maps. They cover the mandatory levels from 925mb near the surface up to the 250mb level. Their maps are regularly updated twice a day, usually within two hours of 0000 UTC and 1200 UTC.http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/uamap.shtml
The University of Wyoming provides the same set of upper-air maps as the Storm Prediction Center, but using somewhat different color schemes, and they also display data outside the contiguous United States, providing a broader view of atmospheric conditions. This can be useful in determining exactly how large troughs and ridges are, and where exactly their axes are located.https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/#page=sfc
This section of the Weather Prediction Center provides a surface analysis of the lower 48. It is a convenient balance between displaying most of the surface data along with the frontal boundaries, isobars and other surface features.https://vortex.plymouth.edu/myowxp/upa/
Unlike the previous websites where the maps come ready-made, the Plymouth State University's website allows the user to choose what data to display on a base map of the lower 48. I would recommend using this only if you know exactly what kind of data you are looking for. The number of options can be overwhelming.Satellite Imagery
https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/
From this NOAA website, you can hover over any part of the map and click on it to display regional satellite imagery, either in a loop or single image. You can also choose a region from a list.Sounding Analyses
http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html
This tends to be my preferred source for weather balloon sounding data. You can choose the format of the data from a drop-down list, and then select a station from the map. If you happen to know the station number that you are looking for, you can also type that in and press enter. If you want to see the soundings for Phoenix, AZ, I would recommend going this route and typing in it's station number (74626). It is very difficult to see on the map.https://mag.ncep.noaa.gov/sounding-model-area.php
GFS forecast sounding analyses in Skew-T format, which can be selected from a map similar to the previous website.https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/soundings/
The Storm Prediction Center's sounding analysis page provides perhaps more data than the other two websites, and in my opinion the station map is the easiest to use. The only thing to be aware of is that theirForecast Models
Global Forecast System (GFS): https://mag.ncep.noaa.gov/model-guidance-model-area.php
University of Arizona WRF: http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/?id=wrf§ion=weather
European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF): https://www.pivotalweather.com/model.php?m=ecmwf&p=500h&rh=2020041400&fh=0&r=conus&dpdt=&mc=
College of DuPage NEXLAB Forecast: https://weather.cod.edu/forecast/
Miscellaneous
Storm Prediction Center: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/
SPC Hourly Mesoscale Analysis: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/mesoanalysis/new/viewsector.php?sector=19&parm=pmsl
National Hurricane Center: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/?atlc
College of DuPage Weather Lab: https://weather.cod.edu/analysis/
George Mason University Weather Data: http://wxmaps.org/fcst.php
National Weather Service's Jetstream: https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/