How it works

Today's view brings changing conditions and nearby observations into one reading. The Bioscore describes how favourable conditions are. The Nature Activity Index describes how much biological activity is being observed. They are separate because a busy day in nature is not necessarily a safe or comfortable one.

Understory uses the current signals it has, says when a part of the picture is still arriving, and leaves out claims the available records cannot support.

Some facts belong to the day. Others describe the place itself: its ground, terrain, water, habitat, history and long view of the sky. Understory keeps these slower-changing records with the place after they are gathered, so returning readers do not have to wait for the same public services again.

A new place fills in progressively. Available parts appear as they arrive, and a slow or unavailable source does not hold the rest of the page back.

Understory distinguishes a source's record from its own interpretation. Links on the location page lead to the underlying record when one is available. Wider-area observations, mapped estimates and inferred relationships are labelled for what they are.

Fixed rules choose the facts used in the headline and cards. A language model may make a finished sentence read more naturally, but it may not add or remove a fact, alter a number or direction, or invent a link. If that rewriting is unavailable, the rule-written sentence is used.

The most interesting things often appear between separate records. Weather, terrain, water, seasonal timing, flowering and wildlife observations each describe one part of a place. Read together, they can reveal relationships that no single source can show.

Understory brings those signals into conversation and points out connections that may help explain what is happening. It presents them as possibilities, not proof of cause, while keeping each underlying observation distinct and traceable to its source.

Understory keeps a place's past daily readings so it can recognise a streak, a change and a record honestly. The page says how long it has been watching rather than pretending a short history is a long-term truth. Seasonal comparisons use published reference records where they exist.

Returning matters: the aim is not a single dashboard visit, but a growing sense of what is ordinary here, what has returned and what is different today.

The site draws from public scientific, government and community observation records. Their coverage, timing and reliability vary. Understory preserves those limits instead of smoothing them away: a county record is not presented as a measurement at the pin, an estimate is not presented as a sensor reading.

Source links and plain-language qualifications live beside the facts they support. That is the best place to judge any particular claim.

There are no accounts. Saved places and your record of returning live in your browser. Understory stores the place itself so its public records can be gathered once and reused, but it does not build a history of who viewed it.

Public data is not the same as local knowledge. On any location page, “Notice something? Tell us” lets you point to a card, number or heading and leave a correction, question or observation. Notes are anonymous; an email address is asked for only when you want a reply.