Once again, it seems I didn't fully explain my thought, which is a habit I need to break! I'm a big fan of weather.com and my NOAA All Hazards radio, and trust those to help me plan day to day. My thought on learning what the weather may do over the next several hours is in situations where one may be hiking in the backcountry and something happens to extend the trip unexpectedly. I would assume that any ETSer would have checked weather forecasts for the expected duration of their trip, but I'm thinking of accident or injury that may make the trip longer than expected.

I'm wondering if people who spend time away from urban areas practice these kinds of skills.

As an aside, I learned recently that our local weather people on the news re-report NOAA information...the NOAA radio we have started talking, and then about two minutes later, the people on the news said the same thing.