WeatherAbout This Site...
Why use this site?
It's run locally for anyone living in or around West Omaha, NE, particularly the Trendwood neighborhood. You'll receive accurate, real-time weather.
Speed! Our pages are lightweight and our web host (Liquid Web) is top notch.
We have no ads or external tracking scripts that collect or sell your activity.
This site will run on any modern device (fully responsive) and a host of older ones too.
Security! Featuring 256-bit encryption and no 3rd party content by default aside from NWS forecast icons. The site even retains basic functionality with JavaScript disabled.
Exclusive features include: real-time conditions including solar readings, city normals/records, daily & monthly departures, user-configurable pressure, and keyboard navigation.
Conditions
Current conditions are measured near Trendwood Park at 132nd & Pacific. All sensors are currently at ~2.5 meters (8 ft) above ground level. Our measurement location has a relatively open exposure to the prevailing winds.
Specifications:
Temperatures are within +/- 0.5°F.
Humidity is usually within +/- 2% except at 90% or above which should be +/- 3%.
[Humidity Disclosure: Due to a known defect in our ubiquitous humidity sensor, we use a correction algorithm that corrects a dry bias starting in the upper 80 percentiles. It also corrects a wet bias between 10% to 86% with a custom calibration curve (max correction: -10%).]
Pressure is measured indoors using a Davis Vantage Vue console. Variance from true station pressure during stable conditions is typically within 0.01" of mercury compared to our NIST-certified reference gauge.
[NOTE: If you have an analog barometer (usually a dial display) or a smartphone barometer app you're trying to calibrate, go into Settings on our home page and switch the "Pressure Formula" to "Altimeter".]
Wind speed is within +/- 2mph or 5%, whichever is greater. Wind direction should be within 10° (accounting for sensor spec of +/- 3° as well as pole movement). We've noticed that south winds tend to vector toward the southeast because of nearby structures focusing winds through a space that runs SE to NW.
The Davis UV sensor only produces readings on the website in the warm season. It comes from the factory "calibrated against a Yankee Environmental Systems’ Ultraviolet Pyranometer, model UVB-1, in natural summer daylight." The accuracy is +/- 5% full scale (0 to 16 but 11 is the de facto max for our latitude). Drift can be up to +/- 2% per year. The sensor is level and aligned to true north.
The Davis pyranometer (solar radiation sensor) comes from the factory "calibrated against a secondary standard which is calibrated periodically against an Eppley Precision Spectral Pyranometer in natural daylight." It should be accurate to within 5% of full scale (0 to 1800 W/m2). Drift can be up to +/- 2% per year. The sensor is level. However, there are trees on the western horizon which can interfere with readings in the afternoon.
Routine checks and calibrations are performed using a variety of calibrated instruments as well as comparisons to nearby weather stations to be sure all sensors are operating optimally.
Updates:
Conditions are pushed to your device every 60 seconds although you can adjust the interval to your liking (from 3 seconds to 10 minutes). The home page reloads automatically every 10 minutes to grab the latest forecast and almanac (unless you disable reloads in page settings -- see upper right of home page). If you leave the home page open but minimize it or select a different tab, when you return -- assuming more than 10 minutes has passed -- a complete refresh will occur. Otherwise, only the conditions will update. Alerts from the National Weather Service are updated every 60 seconds and when present appear on the Home, Area, and Radar pages. The Weather History page is updated every 5 minutes (no auto refresh).
Forecasts
The National Weather Service provides us a grid forecast covering our portion of Omaha. It should be generally applicable to nearby neighborhoods. The further from Trendwood you are, the less accurate it will be. If you live outside Omaha but within eastern Nebraska or southwestern Iowa you can visit the Area page where you will find a regional forecast (weather story graphic).
We track the accuracy of temperature forecasts appearing on the home page. When the weather starts changing -- spring especially and autumn -- the accuracy tends to decline. When patterns stabilize in the winter and summer, accuracy improves.
Radars
Our featured radar option is seen at the top of the Radar page: a full-service weather widget that defaults to the latest NEXRAD radar image. It offers a loop of recent radar activity, among other things.
Design
At night, the site automatically displays a dark theme that's easier on your eyes and your device's battery. You can override the default theme by scrolling to the bottom of any page on the site and selecting "day" or "night".
Compatibility
This site is designed to perform well with mobile and desktop versions of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Edge browsing apps released within the last 5 years. If you are using older software, the site will either "gracefully degrade" (content remains readable but certain features are inactive) or completely breakdown (ancient browsers will do that!). Beware that outdated browser software is a gateway for hackers to gain control of your computing device.
Providers
All forecasts are provided by the National Weather Service. NWS also provides all the content seen on the Area page. The radar widget on the Radar page comes from Windy. We thank each of them for making these resources available to our free, community-based, science education endeavor.
Channels
We feed conditions to the following organizations:
- CWOP (ID: GW5534)
- Weather Underground (KNEOMAHA1257)
Privacy Policy
Upon entering the home page of this website, assuming Javascript and cookies are enabled in your browser, a cookie (or local storage object if available) is set indicating the start time of your visit. That cookie exists only so the home page can automatically refresh after 10 minutes. You can disable auto refresh in the page settings (wheel icon, upper right of home page).
Settings on the home page and theme settings sitewide are preserved in cookies on your device. We do not analyze the usage of these preferences nor are they seen by any 3rd party.
If you choose to disable cookies, the site will operate properly but with reduced functionality on the home page. For instance, you will no longer receive automatic updates or have access to enhanced radar views.
If you fill out the contact form, we will not sell or distribute your email address for any reason.
We collect non-personally identifiable data via open-source analytics software called Matomo to better understand our audience and the effectiveness of this site. Among the data collected is: device type, browser software, approximate location (city, state, country), pages visited, time spent, and IP address. A cookie on your computer helps gather this information which is ultimately transmitted to a database on our hosted server. We also retain backup copies in case the primary database is corrupted, deleted or unavailable. No 3rd party is provided access to any of this information.
Disclaimer
This website is intended for informational purposes only. The administrator, John Wright, is an educated weather enthusiast not a meteorologist. Current & past conditions are provided by a privately operated weather station. All official weather records for Omaha, NE, are recorded at Eppley Airfield. For decisions regarding the preservation of life or property, please visit the National Weather Service Omaha or tune into local radio and television stations which are required, by law, to alert the public in the event of an emergency.
Reach Out
Questions? Comments? Please contact me.