Ok, so there you are, getting ready to leave your home or office and it suddenly hits you... what's it like outside? WeatherBug is an application and website that delivers real-time nearly-local environmental information for your PC, your Mac, your phone and even via an RSS feed.
Called the "World's largest live, local weather network", backyard, school co-located and commercial weather stations all across globe deliver real-time observations to the WeatherBug servers. According to the www.weatherbug.com website, "Over 8,000 WeatherBug Tracking Stations bring you the most accurate weather conditions available anywhere".
On the Windows desktop, WeatherBug lives in system tray displaying the current temperature. When the full-client is shown, you can see real-time temperature and wind speed/direction information and the forecast. If you live in an area that has many micro-climates, such as the Puget Sound area around Microsoft, or San Francisco, this can be crucial information... there's nothing like being caught without an umbrella in the pouring rain.
WeatherBug has a free version, a "plus" paid version and a web version that will give you static weather information. The application version gives you real-time temperature and wind speed/direction and, sometimes, a webcam with periodically updated photos from the weather stations.
Finally, if you're a total weather geek, you can even put up your own weather station. Cruise on over to WeatherBug's Product Site for more information.