Welcome to WesternMassWeather.com!

If you feel that I’ve been useful, reliable, or that you’ve learned a few things, please read on about why I’m asking for your support, what’s happening with the website, and what I hope to do in the future.

Because truth be told, I stand at a crossroads in my life.

MY STORY
I started my Facebook weather page sometime back in 2011, and I spent a grand total of 2 whole seconds deciding what the page would be called. ‘Dave Hayes The Weather Nut’ was my immediate thought, so I went with it. About 100 friends clicked “like”, and I was off and running.

There was no thought of growing an audience.

There was no thought of building a website.

And I never imagined that I’d receive any press.

It never crossed my mind that the musings around my passion and love for the weather would ever grow into an audience of almost 10,000 people.

Everything that’s happened did so organically through word of mouth, thanks to you! You must know how much I value your kind words and encouragement around my work reporting on Western Mass weather.

So thank YOU!

FACEBOOK IS GREAT, BUT IT’S NOT EVERYTHING
I plan on keeping my Facebook page active to some degree, but I’ve heard from many people who dislike social media and Facebook. These folks are still interested in my weather reporting and info, and that’s one reason I built the website – to reach other people who aren’t on social media.

Here are some other reasons:
— Curated forecasts will be more visually compelling with weather graphics.
— Forecasts and discussions will have a proper home, and be timely and consistent.
— I can develop more lasting and evolving content sections for educational purposes about different types of weather.
— The website can serve as a central hub for the work I do.

DIVISION OF LABOR BETWEEN FACEBOOK AND THE WEBSITE
Some of my Facebook fans have expressed not wanting or needing the full details of my sometimes long-winded posts. I like to write and interact, what can I say? ☺

Yes, yes, I’m a wordy dude to be sure, but it’s clear that a more haiku-esque simplicity is desired by some. So, I’ve decided to post future forecasts on Facebook in a simple structure.

Forecast posts will consist of a headline, a bulleted summary, and a link to the full discussion with graphics on this website.

This way, fast-moving folks can get the info they need quickly, and those that like the full details, discussion, and graphics can click over to this site, which is mobile-friendly.

SO WHAT’S ON THE WEBSITE?
Because of your enthusiastic feedback this Winter, I’ve developed educational sections on Winter Weather, Severe Weather, Preparedness, and Weather Alert Terms to start.

There are Storm Tributes for high-impact Western Mass storms to honor and respect the power of Mother Nature in our region.

The Cities/Towns pages are sparse for the moment, but present some current weather data for select towns, as well as some key facts and links. These pages will develop over time.

My ultimate goal is to provide you with useful weather information that is as accurate as possible, while being practical and timely so you can optimize your travel plans, work plans, outdoor plans, and your daily lives around potential weather impacts.

FUTURE USEFUL CONTENT
The website today is a baby.

It’s a first draft.

A living document.

I want to share just some of the content ideas and additional resources I intend to develop for you:

CONTENT IDEAS
–Access and use of better maps, graphics, computer models, satellite, temps, humidity/dew point, pressure, and wind, to bring a more visual learning focus.
–“This Month In Western Mass Weather History”
–Tech Talk section about technical weather terms, for weather nuts like me
–An evolving resource on cloud types
–Macro-scale weather pattern discussions
–Further development of the Winter Weather and Severe Weather sections
–More storm tributes, more articles on different aspects of preparedness

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
–A weekly podcast for the aurally-inclined
–Youtube forecasts with voice-over for the visually-inclined
–Special membership sections
–Seasonal reports
–SMS updates

WE GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS
From all of your wonderful and constructive feedback this past Winter, I imagine that the work I’ve done has provided some value to you.

I am grateful that many of you feel my weather reporting information has been helpful and useful to you in some way. That’s very important to me!

I want to continue this work. I love doing it, and want to get better at and do more of it. I want to be MORE of a resource for this community.

Because I’ve been surviving on unemployment benefits this Winter, that allowed me the time to focus on my weather reporting. In that way, the timing was great!

But those benefits end next month, and as I said earlier, I am at a crossroads in my life.

It’s highly doubtful that I can continue being a daily, active resource to you without financial support from folks in the community like you.

SOME COSTS AND EXPENSES
Other than my time and experience, there are (and would be) costs like domain registration and web hosting, personal weather station gear, access to high quality maps for radar, satellite, computer models, wind, pressure, temperature, and humidity, and more.

There is software to help optimize the site to increase organic search engine results, advertising, screen capture software, and more.

All of this adds up to several thousand dollars per year.

CROWD-FUNDING CAMPAIGN
Given my reality, I have decided to start a crowd-funding campaign to try and raise money not only to cover past and future expenses for the website, but to see if the community, together, would be willing to support me as your full-time Western Mass Weather guy.

In my mind, this ask is similar to public radio. Public radio provides a service to the community with its news, music and entertainment programming.

I’d like to continue to provide and grow my weather programming for you.

Any individual, business, or organization that supports me through donations, will have their name posted on my Supporters page on the website, and a number of you who have donated over the past couple years, are already on the site.

Big thanks to those kind folks!

GO FUND ME
I’ve chosen GoFundMe.com as my crowd-funding platform, because they seem to have a more community-friendly vibe, which I feel is in line with the vibe of the Facebook page.

You’ll see the financial goal on the GoFundMe.com campaign page, as one must be set. That would allow me to invest in the tools I need to do a much better job for you, and to support myself in a simple way for a year. Given that my audience is approaching 10,000 people, I feel that it’s a realistic goal.

Any support you can offer me financially, whether it’s $5, $10, $25, $50, or ANY amount is hugely appreciated and will help me to become a deeper and more active resource for weather reporting and education in the Pioneer Valley and beyond.

Thank you so much for considering it!

IF THE STARS ARE NOT ALIGNED
However, if this doesn’t work out, I will be forced to spend my time searching for and securing other non-weather related work so I can pay my bills.

As I said, I’ll keep the page, but I highly doubt it will be like this past Winter, which only happened because I had the time available to me. I just wouldn’t have the time to be on top of things.

So, before I put on the suit and tie and polish up my resume, I thought I’d check in with you folks to see if you’d have me stay for a while.

ASKING FOR SUPPORT IS NOT EASY FOR ME
Whatever you can do to spread the word is so greatly appreciated. It’s very hard for me to reach out for support, as I always try to do things on my own. I also realize this may fail in terms of my desired result, but it’s also a spiritual exercise for me to finally launch something into the world, and ask for support around it so I can do more of what I love.

Nobody gets anywhere if they don’t ask, right?

SHARING IS CARING
So if you feel moved to spread the word, PLEASE let your friends, family, neighbors, and other parts of the community know about my attempt to become a community-funded service, which benefits everybody.

You can share from here, email or phone a friend, or just talk to somebody face to face like the old days.

THANK YOU
I want to thank you very much for following my Facebook page, for all of your interactions, for indulging my nutty musings on weather and more, and for supporting me with your kind and thoughtful feedback about my work and weather reporting.

I am very grateful to all of you who have followed me since this Winter, and especially for those of you that have been with me from the beginning.

IN CLOSING
Whatever amount feels right and fair to you to support my work will be greatly appreciated – whether it’s $1, or a $100 or more.

If you choose to donate to my campaign, you’ll be helping someone in your community who does work that is helpful to the community.

A win-win.

Again, I thank all of you for your time today, and I appreciate your consideration as I reach out for support.

CROWDTILT CAMPAIGN TO SUPPORT DHTWN/WMW:
Dave Hayes The Weather Nut campaign on GoFundMe.com