READINESS IS A PRACTICE. START HERE.INDEPENDENT PREPAREDNESS // EST. 2026
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ABOUT BEFORETHEOUTAGE.COM

Prepared, not scared.

Useful tools. Clear sources. Practical steps you can take before you need them.

A global starting point

Beforetheoutage.com helps households connect everyday preparation with the hazards around them. We cover emergency power, basic supplies, and a growing library of disaster guides. No website can cover every situation. Your local emergency services and official warnings come first.

Coastal storm footage by Eren Ataselim, via Pexels, used and edited under the Pexels license. Animated radar graphics are decorative, not live radar. The conditions desk labels actual data separately.

Data you can trace

The local power outlook uses free National Weather Service forecast grids and point alerts, with a temporary US ZIP-code lookup through Zippopotam.us / GeoNames. Its concern levels are transparent weather indicators, not calibrated outage probabilities. See the full method, sources and limitations. Current California and Maryland county outage reports appear when available, with official utility links for address-level information.

  • Weather: global forecast data from MET Norway, licensed CC BY 4.0. We select periods, round values, and convert units. Local conditions includes up to ten calendar days, detailed near-term hourly charts, and six-hour steps later in the outlook. Temperature ranges are derived from available forecast values; partial days and missing data are labeled. Chart time defaults to the selected place’s timezone, with a UTC option. Sun and moon estimates use that same place and its local calendar date. These are forecasts, not observed conditions. Forecast responses are reused in the open page until the provider’s expiry time. No forecast location or ZIP code is saved in browser storage.
  • Air quality & UV: Local conditions uses EPA AirNow PM2.5 and ozone area categories, with the higher available category and each report’s time displayed. These are interpolated area estimates, not address-level measurements; missing and older reports are labeled. Clear-sky UV estimates come from MET Norway / Copernicus, with the highest available forecast sample over the next 24 hours. UV estimates do not account for cloud cover.
  • Planet View: a MapLibre globe with OpenFreeMap / OpenStreetMap city and road maps with public weather and ocean data from NOAA CoastWatch ERDDAP and NASA GIBS. Each layer identifies its source and valid time. The globe samples global grids and uses approximate interpolation for a broad overview. See software licences and data credits.
  • Space View: NASA CCMC DONKI observations and experimental research models, with original illustrative transit animation. Published arrival estimates are not confirmed impacts. See sources and methodology.
  • Warnings: National Weather Service point alerts where US coverage is available. Other locations link to WMO and national warning services. No displayed warning is not a declaration of safety.
  • Earthquakes: USGS past-day M2.5+ reports, plus location-based searches of the USGS earthquake catalog for the selected history, radius, and magnitude. The local forecast dashboard searches nearby catalog reports for the past 24 hours, with optional 7-day, 30-day and one-year history. History loads when opened. Smaller events are not comprehensively detected globally. Reports are preliminary and do not predict earthquakes.
  • El Niño: an evergreen explanation linked to NOAA’s current ENSO discussion. Read that official discussion for the current phase and outlook.

Storm tracks use NOAA’s National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center active-system feed and forecast advisories. The centre-line forecast is not the storm’s size, wind extent or flooding area. The storm list checks for updates every five minutes while visible; its coverage is the Atlantic and eastern/central North Pacific. Official advisories and uncertainty cones are linked beside each storm. Guides cite government and public-health sources. Articles distinguish explanation from live information. We do not claim affiliation with these institutions or that they endorse this site.

No saved household profiles in the application

The application does not run visitor analytics, build profiles, accept notification subscriptions or save plans, areas, priorities or preferences in browser storage. Planner and kit choices exist only in the currently open page and disappear on reload or navigation. Print a copy yourself if you want to keep it.

Weather tools accept a US ZIP code or a preset public place. Your ZIP code is sent directly from your browser to Zippopotam.us to find an approximate area. We do not send the ZIP code to our application server or save it in browser storage or a visitor database. The returned area is used only while this page is open to retrieve forecasts, maps and reports. GPS is not requested. The hosting service records traffic metrics and receives connection information such as IP addresses. External map/weather providers also receive connection information and may keep operational logs under their own policies. This is not a promise that no data is processed anywhere.

Previously stored application warning subscriptions and usage counts have been removed from the live application database. When this version loads, it attempts to clear this site's old ep: browser keys and retire the old push registration. We cannot remotely clear an offline browser or guarantee removal from hosting backups. If cleanup is blocked, use your browser's site-data and notification settings.