Editorial policy
The rules this site writes by, set out so you can hold it to them. Where a rule here and something on a page disagree, the page is wrong and the page gets fixed.
A primary source is the body that produced the information: an agency's own dataset, its own published guidance, its own statute or ordinance. Primary sources are what this site cites, and they are the only thing a figure is allowed to rest on.
A secondary source (a news report, a summary page, another guide) is treated as a lead, not as evidence. If a figure appears only in a secondary source, the primary document is found before the figure goes on a page. If it cannot be found, the figure does not go on the page. This is slower and it is the entire reason the site exists.
Where a source is a measurement, it is reproduced exactly as published, in the units published, with the period it covers stated. Where a source is guidance rather than data, it is repeated and linked rather than paraphrased into something more definite than it was.
Every claim that can be checked is written so that it can be checked, which means a link and a date rather than a hedge. Where the evidence is thin, the page says the evidence is thin. Where a number is an average, the page says average. Where something is the site's own judgement rather than an agency's (the activity ceilings in the Heat-Safe Hours Planner, for instance) it is labelled as the site's own judgement on the page, right next to the figure.
Tools describe their method, their limits and their assumptions, in that order, on the page itself and not in a comment in the code. A reader who wants to know why a number came out the way it did should not have to read the source to find out.
Nothing here is written by an outside contributor, sponsored, or published in exchange for anything. Every article carries the same byline.
These pages repeat agencies. They do not advise.
Where a page here touches heat illness, a flood, a dust storm, a trail closure or the law, it follows one rule: state what the responsible agency says, link to it, and stop. It does not extend the guidance to a case the agency did not cover, it does not soften a warning, and it does not give an individual reader advice about their own body, their own property or their own legal position.
Two things follow. First, a page about heat illness will tell you the recognised signs and say to call 911, because that is what the CDC and the county public health department say, and it will not tell you whether your particular symptoms are serious, because that is a question for a clinician. Second, a page about floodwater will state what the county says about driving into it and what Arizona law provides, and will not tell you whether the crossing in front of you is passable, because nobody can tell you that from a webpage.
Where a topic is genuinely time-critical (a warning in force, a closure) the page says what the terminology means and sends you to the agency issuing it. Climate averages are the wrong tool for an afternoon, and no page here is allowed to imply otherwise.
This site does not and will not carry:
- Sponsored posts, advertorials, or paid placements of any kind.
- Affiliate links: no link on this site earns anything if you click it. There is no advertising on the site at present; if that ever changes, it will be disclosed on this page and on the pages affected before it appears.
- Guest posts, link insertions, or "we will write for you" arrangements. The value of a reference page is that nothing on it was paid for.
- Product recommendations presented as editorial judgement. Where a page names a category of equipment, it names the category and what to look at, not a brand to buy.
There are also no testimonials, no review scores, no user counts and no "trusted by" marks anywhere on the site, because there is nothing truthful to put in them. If any of those ever appear, they will be real and they will say where they came from.
Every tool page prints the date its data was last checked against source. Every article carries its publication date and the list of sources it was built from. Where an article is corrected after publication, the correction is made on the page and noted there, and the date stays the publication date.
A date is also the honest way to say that a page may have aged. Climate normals are stable for a decade at a time; agency guidance, utility rate structures and warning terminology are not, and a page that depends on any of those says when it last looked. Where a page cannot be kept current, it says so rather than carrying a date that implies more than it can.
Corrections are made to the dataset a page reads from, so fixing one value fixes every page that uses it. Where a correction changes what a page claims rather than fixing a typo, the page carries a note saying what changed. Corrections are not made silently: a reference that quietly rewrites itself cannot be cited, and being citable is the point.
To report one, send the page, the figure and the source that shows the correct value. The contact page has the address.