What dataretold is
dataretold is a small, independent portfolio of single-purpose web tools built on top of live public datasets. Each tool answers one specific everyday question — for example, "is anything notable approaching Earth this week?" or "is now a good time to go outside?" — and tries to give a clear, honest answer rather than a wall of raw numbers.
The site is run as a personal project. It is not affiliated with NASA, the European Space Agency, Open-Meteo, or any of the other data providers it relies on; it simply pulls from their public APIs and presents the results in a more focused way.
Who runs it
dataretold is built and maintained by Mark Hibbins, an independent software engineer. Day-to-day operation is a one-person effort: design, code, content, and upkeep. You can reach the site via the contact page.
Why it exists
Most freely available scientific and environmental data lives on dashboards aimed at experts, or behind paywalls aimed at professionals. The goal here is the middle ground: take the same authoritative sources, surface the parts that matter to a general reader, and remove the bits that don't.
The site supports itself through unobtrusive advertising and, on some pages, affiliate links to genuinely relevant products. There is no editorial trade with advertisers — they don't see content before it goes live and have no influence on what's published.
How the data is sourced
Every tool lists its primary data sources at the bottom of the page. In summary:
- Asteroid tracker — close-approach data from NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies via the NeoWs API, with sky-position ephemerides from JPL Horizons.
- Go Outside Guide — hourly weather, UV, and air quality forecasts from Open-Meteo, with location lookup via OpenStreetMap Nominatim.
Data is fetched on a schedule (typically hourly) by a server-side worker, cached, and served to your browser from cache. The "last updated" timestamp on each page reflects when the cache was last refreshed.
Editorial approach
A few principles shape how the tools are built:
- Show the source. Every page links back to the upstream data so you can verify the numbers.
- Don't manufacture drama. "Potentially hazardous" on the asteroid page means what NASA defines it to mean; nothing is upgraded for clicks.
- Prefer clarity over completeness. If a piece of detail isn't actually useful for the question being asked, it's left out.
- Keep tools maintained. A page that goes stale loses trust and rankings — upkeep is part of the project, not an afterthought.
Corrections
If you spot a number that looks wrong, a link that's broken, or a description that's misleading, please get in touch via the contact page. Corrections are usually live within a day or two.