Terms of use

What this is for

ClimateSearch compares preferences you enter against published climate records and ranks cities accordingly. It is intended for general interest, curiosity and early research — the stage where you are wondering which parts of the world might suit you, not the stage where you are signing a lease.

What it is not

It is not a weather forecast, not a relocation service, and not professional advice of any kind — not financial, legal, medical, real-estate or travel advice. A high match score says a city’s climate record resembles what you told us you like. It says nothing about whether you should move there, visit there, or buy property there.

Do not use ClimateSearch for any decision where being wrong matters: aviation, marine, agricultural or construction planning, emergency preparedness, or anything where an authoritative forecast is required. For severe weather, follow your national meteorological service.

About the data

Scores are computed from climate normals — long-run averages of the recent past. Averages describe typical conditions and cannot tell you what any particular day, month or year will be like. Any given year can and will depart from them.

Where the app shows future climate projections, those are model output under an emissions scenario, not predictions. Where it shows median home values, those come from public census estimates for the area around a city and are a rough indicator, not a valuation. Where it shows live forecasts, they are supplied by a third party and carry that party’s own uncertainty.

We take accuracy seriously and document every step, but we cannot warrant that the data is complete, current or free of error. Our methodology page sets out exactly where each number comes from and what it can and cannot support.

Using the site

You are welcome to use ClimateSearch for personal and non-commercial purposes, to share your results, and to quote our rankings with attribution. Please do not scrape the site or automate requests against our API at a rate that degrades it for others — the public endpoints are rate-limited, and persistent abuse may be blocked. Please also do not present our output as an official forecast or as the work of anyone other than US Stormwatch.

The site’s design, text and scoring method are ours. The climate data belongs to the institutions named above and is used under their terms.

Availability and changes

ClimateSearch is provided free and as-is. We may change, suspend or withdraw any part of it, and the dataset is periodically rebuilt, which can change scores. To the fullest extent the law allows, US Stormwatch is not liable for any loss arising from reliance on the information here.

Nothing in these terms limits any right you have that cannot be limited under the law where you live.

Contact

Questions about these terms, or a correction to report? Email stormwatchcolin@gmail.com. We would genuinely rather hear about a wrong number than not.