Intellicast
A member of this forum, DaveO, gave me a great site for info. They have a realtime doppler radar loop. The weather channel has a doppler radar too. Between the two of them, I can keep on top of what's happening. The real secret is knowing what all the lines on the weather map mean, and being able to interpret the data yourself. Low pressure lines, high pressure, cold fronts, it all adds up to what will happen. Knowing your local conditions helps too. For instance, the NWS and others give forecasts for Newark, NJ. There's an airport there. The temps they give as "current" are always at least 10 degrees warmer than where we plow, 5 miles north west of there. Newark turns over to rain, and it keeps snowing where we plow.
On the local note, we always get intense storms from the west, but they always lose intensity crossing a mountain range before they get to us. Ocassionally they stay strong, so I have to keep up on the current radar.
Using the national radar doppler loop on intellicast, you can see the path and pattern of a storm. Watching the weather channel during a few snowless winters in the past, I learned quite a bit about weather. I think weather education plays a big part, as well as what the forecasters say. Everyone is always saying "the weather guy was wrong", so we all have to learn as much as we can ourselves.
I also mounted a thermometer in the bed of my truck, on the wooden sideboard, so I can see just what the temp is. This is a BIG help. The NYC radio stations are no help, because it's typically 10 degrees warmer there too.
So I use these resources:
National Weather Service Home Page
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/
Intellicast
http://www.intellicast.com
The Weather Channel
http://www.weather.com/weather/maps/
~Chuck