Climate context engine

Weather tells you what's happening.
Baseline tells you if it matters.

Ask any weather question in plain language. Get back more than a forecast — historical context, drawn from 35 years of ERA5 climate data, on whether conditions are normal, unusual, or record-breaking.

baseline · live query era5 · 1991–2025
Has this been a dry water year in Casper, WY?
Result
This water year is running significantly drier than normal.
WetterNormal rangeDrier
Rank: driest since 1991 Precip to date: 8.50 in % of normal: 63.0%
Compare snowfall this season: Colorado ski resorts
Result — compare
Ski Season 2025–2026 · Open-Meteo ERA5 archive
ResortSnowfallvs. normal
#1Steamboat Springs63.4 inleast snowy
#2Vail70.9 in3rd least snowy
#3Breckenridge56.9 in3rd least snowy
Source: Open-Meteo Ranked by % of normal, least snowy first
3-day forecast for Jackson, WY — with context
Result — forecast + context
Warm stretch — near or above the 30-year range each day.
Aug 6 86° / 42° near the middle of the 30-year range
Aug 7 88° / 66° warmest
Aug 8 92° / 54° 2nd warmest
Forecast: Open-Meteo Ranking: 1991–2025 daily record

No AI-generated numbers. Every figure above comes from ERA5 reanalysis or live forecast data — a language model interprets your question, it never invents an answer.

era5 reanalysis · 1991–2025 baseline
wmo 1991–2020 climatology standard

Try it yourself

Same engine, your own question

The examples above are real, but they're fixed. This is the live app — ask about your own location and get the same kind of answer.

Opens the full app in place. For heavier use, see API access below.

How it works

Context, not just a forecast

01 · You ask
Plain language. "Was last week hotter than normal in Salt Lake City?" No dropdowns, no menus.
02 · Baseline resolves
Location, time window, and variable are parsed — then checked against 35 years of ERA5 climate data.
03 · You get context
Percentile rank, anomaly, and plain-language significance — you decide what it means for you.
Three ways in

Free where you'd expect it. Paid where volume is.

Telegram

Ask on the go

A Telegram bot for quick questions and saved locations. Currently in development — not accepting new users yet.

Coming back soon
Web

app.baselinecontext.com

The full experience — deeper comparisons, mapped locations, and the same app embedded above.

API / MCP

Build on Baseline

Programmatic access for agents, developers, and integrations. Structured, statistically rigorous, at volume.

For developers

What's in the MCP server

Baseline publishes an MCP server so agents and AI tools can call it directly — no scraping, no prompting a model to guess at climate numbers. Every tool call returns structured, sourced data.

get_climate_context(query)

Ask a weather or climate question in plain language. Returns forecast plus full historical context — percentile rank and anomaly against the 35-year record.

get_context_for_coordinates(lat, lon)

Same as above, for an exact latitude/longitude instead of a place name — for agents working from coordinates directly.

get_water_year_status(location)

Precipitation and temperature status since the start of the water year (Oct 1 US / Jan 1 elsewhere), ranked against 35 years.

compare_to_normal(location)

How unusual current or forecast conditions are at a single location — the "does this matter" question, answered directly.

compare_locations(locations, variable, period)

Rank 2–10 locations against each other by precipitation, temperature, or snowfall — or use a curated category like colorado_ski_resorts.

pip install baseline-mcp · endpoint api.baselinecontext.com — also listed on the MCP registry (Glama, PulseMCP) Get an API key →
API access

Get a key instantly. Help shape what's next.

Early access

Baseline's API is in active development.

You'll get a working key immediately — no approval wait, no card required. This is early: expect some rough edges as we improve accuracy and coverage across locations and time windows.

If you hit something wrong or confusing, tell us. It directly shapes what we fix next — you're not just a user right now, you're helping build this.

No credit card · Free tier: 100 queries/day · Feedback: chadmcnutt@gmail.com
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