I have Free Republic, Drudge, Accuweather (with my local forecast), Google News and a couple other sites automatically load as my home page.
I've been using another tabbed browser for several years. Tabbing is great for websites such as FR.
I have Firefox and am slowing getting used to it.
My current one (Fastbrowser) has a built in computer voice 'speaker' that will read articles to me. That is great for long articles.
Firefox has a similar 'speaking/reading' capability through the extension called Foxyvoice (google it).
Firefox makes Internet Explorer look like kids stuff.
Anyway, re: the weather link, Firefox has a nice plugin that puts the weather forcast in the corner of your browser in the status bar - very cool and out of the way.
Load it up - you will dig it (and have no need for a weather tab!)
Re: Weather in Firefox
There is an extension for Firefox, called 'Foxcast' I think, that puts a small weather ico in the lower right hand corner of the browser. Every once in a while a small window rises with the current temp and conditions. If you put your cursor over it without clicking you get the current temp and conditions.
If you click on it, it takes you to a full forcast page - very good extension! I recommend it highly!