Every number has a source.
The tools on TimeForViews don’t invent their numbers. Each one uses official records, published equations or the organizer’s own page, says which, and links to it.
Weather by month
For places in the United States we use NOAA’s official 1991–2020 climate normals for the nearest main weather station: average highs and lows, rain, the number of days with at least 0.1 inch of rain, and snowfall. For other countries we average NOAA’s monthly station records over 1991–2020 where a station has them (in Greece: Athens, Heraklion and Corfu), and say how many years of records there are. Where no good station series is available, as in Costa Rica, rain comes from NASA’s POWER climate data (2001–2025) and temperatures from the national weather service’s own summary.
Cloud cover everywhere comes from NASA POWER. Daylight and hours of darkness are computed for each place.
Months are rated for a warm, dry trip by a simple rule, shown under every table: “Best” means highs between 68 and 90 °F and less than 2.4 inches of rain. Climate averages describe a typical year, not the weather on your dates.
Sun, golden hour and viewpoints
Sunrise, sunset and the sun’s direction are worked out in your browser with the equations NOAA publishes for its solar calculator. Sunrise and sunset are when the sun’s center is 0.833° below a flat horizon; golden hour is the sun from 6° above to 4° below the horizon, and blue hour from 4° to 6° below. There is no single official definition of golden or blue hour, so other sites may differ by a few minutes.
Viewpoints and what you see from them are placed with coordinates from Wikidata, which are free to reuse. The planner works out bearings and distances from them, and where the sun is at each moment. It assumes a flat horizon, so ridges and buildings can hide the sun a little earlier.
Northern lights
The aurora forecast is the planetary Kp index from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, loaded live when you open the page. What each storm level means, and how far south the aurora has been seen at it, comes from NOAA’s Space Weather Scales.
Seasons and events
Each card in the Nature Calendar gives the window its official source gives: the park service, NOAA, a tourism board, the event’s organizer or the American Meteor Society. Where the source names a peak, we mark it; where it warns that dates vary, we say so.
Bag sizes
Every carry-on and personal-item limit comes from the airline’s own baggage page, linked next to it, with the date we last checked. Airlines change their rules, so we check them every month, and the airline’s page always has the last word. The numbers in our tools were last checked on Oct 18, 2026.
Maps and live views
Our sketches are drawn from the coordinates above. A “Live view” button opens Google Street View in Google Maps; nothing loads from Google until you click it.
Independence
We aren’t affiliated with any of the organizations we cite, and none of them reviews or endorses this site. Naming a source means we used its published figures, nothing more.
Found a mismatch?
If a number doesn’t match the source it cites, tell us. We check it against the source and correct the tool.