When I was 9 years old I was visiting my Grandparents and we experienced a massive storm that produced 3 of the 6 tornadoes ever reported in my NC mountain county. My Grandma bought me a pocket weather guide afterwards and since then, I've answered the same question thousands of times: "What's the weather going to be like?"
The answer was always complicated. Rain in Hendersonville, heavy snow in Asheville. Shorts weather in Gatlinburg, hot chocolate and a jacket at Kuwohi. The Smokies area doesn't have a weather—they have dozens of microclimates stacked on top of each other.
Armed, at first, with my weather book, a sandwich bag full of colored and cutout L's, H's, fronts and my US States puzzle, I began explaining this to my family, my schoolmates and... my pets. Re-creating the tornadic event, giving forecasts, explaining the mountain area weather. Snow cutoff lines, cold air damming, the systems that brought the storms.
Our area's unique weather needed something that would tailor forecasts to topography, elevation, all the nuances that can sometimes drastically affect plans, safety and preparedness. So I built it.
Smokies WeatherNet is a comprehensive weather intelligence platform built specifically for the Great Smoky Mountains and surrounding counties. It's designed to be a one-stop resource for residents, visitors, weather enthusiasts, and researchers—eliminating the need for hopping between multiple sites for area information.
Conditions can vary by 25°F+ across our coverage area. We monitor all three zones in real-time:
At the heart of Smokies WeatherNet is our Threat Calculations Dashboard©—a proprietary system that processes 52 elevation-specific parameters from the RAP model every 20 minutes, calculating real-time threat levels for 10 weather categories across all three elevation zones.
Every parameter, calculation result, and predicted threat level is saved to our database—building a comprehensive archive for validation, research, and continuous improvement. This isn't a generic forecast borrowed from somewhere else. It's intelligence built specifically for Smokies terrain.
50 live stations (ASOS, APRS, RAWS, ECONet) across 11 counties, updated every 20 minutes
Threat dashboard, research radar, lightning detection, storm reports, SPC outlooks
Activity scores, weather-based suggestions, travel conditions, printable plans
Stargazing conditions with real-time sky representation, aurora alerts, ISS passes, meteor showers, interactive sky map
Live traffic, route weather, road conditions for gateway cities and destinations
Trails, waterfalls, campsites, overlooks—all searchable with weather context
Stream gauges, trout waters, access points, gamelands with live conditions
Full database archive, analysis tools, event logging for algorithm validation
Max is our AI-powered guide—a friendly intelligence built to understand and intelligently navigate the unique microclimates of the Smokies. On our Intelligent Planner, Max processes real-time data from across our network to score conditions, suggest activities, and help you make the most of your time regardless of weather.
Rain in the forecast? Max will suggest indoor alternatives. Perfect stargazing conditions? He'll point you to the Night Sky page. Planning a hike at elevation? He'll tell you what to pack based on conditions at your actual destination—not just the valley below.
Smokies WeatherNet is actively growing. Our roadmap includes:
This is weather intelligence built by someone who has lived and worked in these mountains for five decades—and we're just getting started.
Smokies WeatherNet is currently in beta testing. We're actively collecting feedback and refining the platform before our public launch. If you'd like to help shape the future of Smokies weather intelligence, we'd love to hear from you.