Where Bloggers Live: Favorite Weather Website

Welcome back to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live! I am lucky to have joined a terrific group of bloggers who give a peek into the places and spaces where they spend their time.

Today's topic is Favorite Website...and despite me having all kinds of time to think about this topic, it was a difficult one for me. I blame February for being officially 28 days but in reality only about 8 days. Am I right? There is clearly some kind of temporal conspiracy going on with the month of February.

When I shared this dilemma with my husband, he said that he didn't even know what my favorite website is based on my revealed preference...economist-speak for "based on what website I spend the most time on." But this observation was actually helpful to me as I realized that I don't spend as much time on websites as I used to!

But instead of focusing on where I spend my time as a definition of favorite, or which website I enjoy the most/makes me happiest, I thought about what website I use routinely, depend on, and would be unhappy if it went away. Then there was a clear winner: Weather Underground! I check in on the weather forecast multiple times per week, and the 10 day forecast is what I rely on for my weekly outfit planning. I can't actually speak at all to the accuracy of the forecasts compared to other sources, but I really like the layout and the information included on this view. (A significant part of my job is data analysis and visualization so it's no surprise that this aspect of the site is important to me!)

Data source: wunderground.com 3/9/23

Random fact: In junior high, I considered becoming a meteorologist when I grew up. I did a science project in which I compared the accuracy of the 3 network news weather forecasts in town across various metrics. I wrote a paper for class about the history of weather forecasting, and I have a very strong memory of sitting in the central library utterly fascinated by a book that described the early use of weather balloons. But by the time I was in high school, I had determined that I just wasn't interested enough in the foundational sciences of physics and chemistry to be an atmospheric scientist.

On the weather front...we had snow on Thursday in St Paul, and I took some photos in the morning while it was falling. March might feel late for snow depending on where you live, but snow in "spring" is very common for us. I would say that the snow season officially ends here on April 15, as that's the last day that many rules about winter plowing, parking, etc., are in effect.

St Paul, Minnesota - 3/9/23

St Paul, Minnesota - 3/9/23

St Paul, Minnesota - 3/9/23

Even though winter is still fully underway, I do like to start subtly changing my outfits in a more spring-like direction on March 1, which is the beginning of my Winter/Spring sartorial season. I don't completely change my color palette (and I do wear all colors in all seasons), but I like to change which colors I emphasize and what colors I wear on average, if that makes sense.

For neutrals, I tend to start adding more grey, ivory/cream, olive/moss, and burgundy into my outfits, and to begin pulling back on black. For accent colors, I reduce my emphasis on jewel tones and start introducing more pastel colors.

My WFH OOTD is a good example of an early March outfit. It's still based on the winter colors of dark teal and black, and it's a classic sweater + skirt/tights + scarf outfit formula, but I have lightened it up a bit with a lighter scarf (in weight and color), a white underlayer t-shirt, and smoking flats instead of boots.

OOTD 3/9/23

I had actually planned to wear the scarf around my neck, obscuring the white underlayer top, but when I saw the way the stitched down pleats of the round-neck top looked under the V-neck sweater, I thought it was kind of an interesting effect to display! So I wore the scarf long and loose instead.

I chose my black Alice headband and my green/teal eyes to coordinate with the outfit.

I put together a new daily bracelet stack from pieces (all DIY) that I've worn many times before but never in this combination. I chose the mint/grey/silver set consisting of the paper tube bead, the striped paper bicone bead, and the mint/silver aloe bead bracelets. Then I added a dark grey hematite bead and teal glass bead bracelet to finish it off. I like how the teal looks with the mint!

I think a lot of people find tight + shoes, as opposed to tights + boots, a combination that's difficult to figure out. My basic guide is that I prefer to stick to shoes that (1) are made from materials that feel substantial and autumn/winter-like (e.g., suede, leather) rather than lightweight and spring/summery, (2) are darker in color rather than lighter, and (3) provide decent foot coverage (not a sandal!). There's always somebody sporting black tights with flimsy white sandals in an amazing street style look, but that's a pretty extreme look that is not what I am going for stylistically. I personally do not at all like the look of dark tights with light colored shoes. A bright shoe like red works for me as long as it is a mid-to-dark color, but not light colors like pale pink, gold, white, etc. This is not any kind of Fashion Rule that I expect anyone else to follow, but it's how I roll. These teal suede smoking flats felt just right in this outfit.

Thanks for joining me in sharing my favorite weather website along with some March snow photos and a winter-to-winter/spring transitional outfit of the day!

Next month's topic is A Day in the Life: Weekend...which has me laughing already.

In the meantime, visit these lovely bloggers as they share about their favorite websites:

Bettye at Fashion Schlub

Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks

Em at Dust and Doghair

Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings

Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style

Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After

Anyone else out there who took an interest in meteorology in their youth? What did you want to be when you grew up?

Blogs I link up with are listed here.