If you're looking to get the latest forecasts for snow in the area, or just want to know whether you need to wear your winter coat on a certain morning, there are many sources of information out there. We'll openly admit that Odenton Patch is not the ideal go-to place for this information, as our weather reporting generally consists of sticking our head out the window. 

For reliable forecasts, we turn to a number of different online sources. Here are five of our favorite weather websites. 

Weather.com – Ok, this one seems kind of obvious. But the Weather Channel’s official site does have all the basic forecast features we need, including animated maps. The hourly forecasts are always helpful, and Weather.com will post any relevant weather alerts.

Washington Post Capital Weather Gang – If the Post’s weather team believes a foot of snow is coming, they’ll let you know and give a great, plain-English explanation as to why. The Gang will be honest about what they know – and more importantly, what they don’t know. The only drawback to this site is that it tends to be a bit D.C.-centric.

Liveweatherblogs.com – If you really want to get into the nitty gritty of weather models, the blogs on this site – supplemented by some savvy commenters – will often give you amazing detail. The site doesn’t always offer information specific to this area, but if there’s a big storm coming, the team of bloggers will be on top of it. One word of caution: the bloggers are often weather geeks that root openly for big snowstorms, so take everything with a little bit of salt.

Foot’s Forecast – It started out a few years ago with just a few weather-obsessed students in Baltimore County. But it has since grown to include 35 college and high school forecasters in 12 states. Its forecasts are generally on point and presented in a way that leverages the power of the web and social media.

CBSBaltimore.com – All of the TV stations in Washington and Baltimore do a pretty good job, but WJZ-TV’s Tim Williams and Bernadette Woods are very good about blogging and offering some deeper analysis about weather patterns. They are both meteorologists as well as TV personalities, and it shows. Plus, WJZ has more newscasts than almost anyone in the area, so viewers will often get more frequent updates. (Full disclosure: We openly admit some potential bias here, as the editor of Odenton Patch is related to a WJZ employee.)