What's the temperature on your street?

Weather data is usually collected from government stations set up near airports instead of areas where the majority of residents live. So it's always been hard to get accurate forecasts for an exact location, until now.

Weather Underground, the first Internet-based weather service, launched a new weather forecasting system called BestForecast, which combines data from weather enthusiasts, the National Weather Service and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to get accurate weather forecasts for each neighborhood.

Discovery News reports:

"According to Weather Underground, that amounts to 16,000 weather stations run by local people in the United States and another 8,000 around the world. That's in addition to the 26,000 stations run by NOAA and the 1,000 stations the NWS runs."

All of the data collected will help the BestForecast system show better longer-range forecasts and can serve as a tool to predict patterns in the weather.

The downside is that Weather Underground will rely on data from anyone, without checking if their equipment is set up properly. The hope is that crowdsourcing data will smooth out any problems along the way.

And if BestForecast turns out to be as accurate as Weather Underground predicts, you'll be prepared for any weather situation, no matter what street you're on.

Accurate Weather Forecast For Your Street   [Discovery News]

Photo via Weather Underground

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com