A service, not a business
Dave's Sweater is a free, daily accountability project for Boone weather forecasts, and a small case study in what happens when public data gets handed back to the public.
The short version
Every day around midday we capture what each forecaster predicts for Boone. The next day, the sky settles the question, and everyone gets graded on the same open 100-point rubric. The scores, the raw files, and the math are public. Nothing here is gated, subscribed, or sponsored, and the scoring is documented down to the tolerances.
The name
Ray's Weather. Dave's Sweater. Say them fast, and that's the entry fee of the joke. But the sweater earns its place. Nobody owns the weather — not us, and not anyone selling it back with a résumé attached. What you can own is the sweater. Whether the morning calls for one is the single part of any forecast that's actually about you, which is why our index answers that question first and leaves the meteorology jargon out of it.
(The Realest Dave's Sweater Quarter-Zip exists, and it is, fittingly, the only thing around here with a price on it.)
Why it's free
This site costs about $12 a year to run, which is the price of the domain. The data behind every forecast we track is public — satellites, models, and stations your taxes already paid for. Charging for access to it would be the very thing this site exists to needle. So there's no subscription, no ad slot, no premium tier, and no plan for any. If the scoreboard saves you one soggy hike or one unnecessary layer, it has paid for itself.
Held to the same standard
The rubric that grades Ray's Weather grades every source we track, including the ones we like. When our own weather station goes up in Boone, its readings join the same page, under the same math. Every claim on this site traces back to a file you can download and re-run. If we're wrong about something, the scoreboard will say so in public, which is how we'd want it said about anybody else.
Beyond the weather
The same habit — find the public data, vet it, hand it over — built the Fourth of July fireworks report and the Highland Games planner. More of that is coming. If there's a High Country question that public data could answer and nobody has bothered to, Dave wants to hear about it.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Ray's Weather. Satire, with receipts.