There's nothing more comforting than keeping up to date on your local forecast by NOAA's team of forcasting robots. I'm sure others have noticed but they actually have different robot voices too. Regardless, it always seems that everything has an air of urgency, sunny skies or 3 feet of sleet. I was gifted an old weather band radio from a buddy of mine as an early Christmas gift, a Radioshack gem from the seventies. I remember my dad always having the NOAA forecast on in the kitchen growing up. I mean, I'm not wild about lugging a bunch of "stuff" out into the backcountry, but in certain situations, definitely useful. Situations like chilling in my apartment, pretending I'm somewhere else. I love 'em.