<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">... Of the 20 million to 25 million Internet surfers who visit weather-related Web sites in a typical month, according to the Web research firm Jupiter Media Metrix, roughly half will follow Ms. Keogh's mouse trail to weather.com, by far the dominant site in this category.

There's good reason for weather.com's popularity: the site is comprehensive, easy to use and fairly fast. The other reason for its vast audience, of course, is the site's exposure on the Weather Channel's broadcasts, which provide companionship to tens of millions of weather fans.

But there are lesser-known Web sites worth checking — particularly for travelers, once they realize how user-friendly these sites have become, and how invaluable a recently updated forecast can be when scheduling a trip, packing the suitcases and road-prepping the car ...</font>