Weather Channel Buys Its Crowdsourced Competitor, Weather Underground

Quote :

"After 17 years, Weather Underground is coming aboveground. The Weather Channel announced Monday that it plans to acquire the innovative weather site, whose forecasts draw on data from a network of thousands of home weather enthusiasts. My colleague Farhad Manjoo explained in February how Weather Underground’s crowdsourcing leads to better forecasts. The Weather Channel will presumably try to harness that network to improve the forecasts on its own sites, including Weather.com, the most-visited weather site on the Web. Whether it will entirely replace its own forecasts with Weather Underground’s BestForecast is not immediately clear. The predicitions are often substantially different. Right now, for instance, Weather.com is predicting that it will be 93 degrees in my part of New York on the Fourth of July, while Weather Underground says 99. Weather Underground’s website, wunderground.com, will continue to operate in its current form, co-founder Jeff Masters said in a post on his popular and long-running blog. He’ll keep blogging on wunderground, and his posts will also begin to appear on Weather.com in the coming months. From his post on the acquisition: With a swelling user base around the globe, and with demands for our services to be made available across so many new digital platforms like mobile phones and tablets, the board recognized the need for an even greater injection of resources, and the decision was made to merge with The Weather Channel Companies. The New York Times points out that some hard-core Weather Underground enthusiasts hold “sour views” of the Weather Channel, which is owned by a group that includes Comcast and Bain Capital. But TechCrunch applauds the move from the Weather Channel’s perspective: “This deal will put Weather Underground’s awesome technology to use on a much bigger stage, bringing better information to a large number of people — which is almost always a good thing.”"

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/07/03/weather_channel_buys_weather_underground_its_crowdsourced_competitor.html

Basically, the weather channel knows that their data and forecasts suck and only gives a shit about major markets, so to make up for it, they buy up one of the actual decent sources for weather information. While this may only grieve fellow weather professionals and enthusiasts, it's important for everyone to know that instead of being able to easily access up to date weather information from reliable stations, you'll now get the data that some corporate suit (Comcast and R-money's Bain Capital) deem worthy for you to have. Yes, I know the article says that nothing will change with wunderground.com, but my immediate reaction is "for now". Fuck the Weather Channel.

7/3/2012 7:12:57 PM

i heard this earlier

not sure where i'm going to get reliable forecasts now

7/3/2012 7:16:12 PM

the 10 day forecast pisses me off. shit is just guessing

7/3/2012 7:17:10 PM

WRAL isn't terrible, but it does you little good outside of the Raleigh area. NWS is a viable substitute, but as far as I know, they don't have their own weather app which when you're out and about is when you want reliable weather data the most. When I'm in Georgia on the Appalachian Trail, I don't want the current weather conditions for fucking Atlanta, which is exactly what you get with The Weather Channel...

And Accuweather is another corporate commercial weather venture with a dodgy reputation for accuracy and purpose...

7/3/2012 7:23:29 PM

usually when i want the current weather conditions i just stick my arm out the fucking door

7/3/2012 7:33:52 PM

Right, but you retain an appreciation for understanding the signs of what the weather is and will do by virtue of your connection to the outdoors. This instinct is largely lost on the vast majority of city dwellers.

7/3/2012 7:50:07 PM

you are a goddamn granola-munching nutcase

7/3/2012 7:53:24 PM

I'd love to hear your justification for that sometime. Sadly, despite being placed in Chit Chat, that issue is not germane to this thread.

7/3/2012 7:57:13 PM

^ When the clouds are dark, and it's windy, it's going to rain.

When the sky is blue and sun is burning your skin, put some fucking sunscreen on.

If it feels cold, it is cold.

If it feels hot, it is hot.

If your car is drifting down the street in what appears to be in a makeshift river, you're in a fucking flood plain that has flooded.

If you can't see the sun but the skies are just "gray," then it's cloudy. When it's only like that sometimes, it's partly cloudy.

How fucking hard is this shit?

[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 8:00 PM. Reason : .]

7/3/2012 8:00:07 PM

i just flip over the the WX stations on my VHF if i really need to plan weather-sensitive activities. that and http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/zone/east/mhxmz.htm are all i need.

7/3/2012 8:05:26 PM

^^ I know right? Why the fuck do people bother even getting meteorology degrees anyways!?

7/3/2012 8:08:24 PM

[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 8:11 PM. Reason : you're getting way too worked up over weather]

7/3/2012 8:08:52 PM

that is some terrible trolling

[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 8:14 PM. Reason : merbig]

7/3/2012 8:12:08 PM

This is absolute horseshit.

7/3/2012 8:12:26 PM

could all the "home weather enthusiasts" just start a new site?

7/3/2012 8:15:34 PM

^^^^ YES! I need to get me one of those! That's pretty funny.



[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 8:16 PM. Reason : .]

7/3/2012 8:15:42 PM

^^^^ How is that trolling? Did you read what he even said?

Quote :

"understanding the signs of what the weather is and will do by virtue of your connection to the outdoors."

You don't need a fucking iPhone app to tell you what the weather is if you march your ass outside or even look out the window and use your eyes.

Is it going to tell you what it will do in the next 6 hours? No. But what I posted tells you what it is doing and what it will do in the near future.

If that's trolling, then you're just a God damn overly sensitive idiot who needs to step outside once and a while.

[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 8:19 PM. Reason : .]

7/3/2012 8:18:45 PM

Hopefully that means more folks will be turning to us local TV mets for their forecasts.

7/3/2012 8:21:37 PM

Why even bother when there's a 70% chance of being wrong regardless of who you go to?

7/3/2012 8:26:44 PM

Quote :

"You don't need a fucking iPhone app to tell you what the weather is if you march your ass outside or even look out the window and use your eyes."

NO SHIT, REALLY?

Nobody is arguing against that. A lot of people want to go beyond that, and that's what a fucking meteorologist is for.

7/3/2012 8:27:11 PM

I'd agree that the vast majority of people do just tune in to their local version of our esteemed Stormbone865, but for us people who have a broader read of the weather or are out somewhere that doesn't have a tv, it's nice to be able to rely on a localized forecast/weather conditions that has never been commercially prudent for The Weather Channel juggernaut.

[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 8:29 PM. Reason : .]

7/3/2012 8:28:00 PM

Quote :

"you are a goddamn granola-munching nutcase"

This.

[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 8:29 PM. Reason : AMERICA]

7/3/2012 8:29:10 PM

^^^ read what he fucking said and go sit your ass in the corner.

[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 8:30 PM. Reason : .]

7/3/2012 8:29:50 PM

did he say "will do in the near future" OR "will do in the next 6 hours"?

NO, he did not specify




You see, merbig, if I look outside right now, it's dark and looks like it's going to storm. I would like to know if the storm is going to clear up in a couple hours so I can ride my bike downtown, but without equipment and training, I must rely on a meteorologist to make that prediction.

[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 8:36 PM. Reason : ]

7/3/2012 8:32:12 PM

Quote :

"NWS is a viable substitute, but as far as I know, they don't have their own weather app which when you're out and about is when you want reliable weather data the most."

ie, what the current fucking weather is. So he did specify, dumbass.

7/3/2012 8:36:50 PM

Oh, so weather apps ONLY show what the current weather is? All this time I thought this high temp reading on my phone was a prediction of how hot it's going to get. I guess it just means that it is 2 temps at once!

7/3/2012 8:40:06 PM

^^ Not necessarily. Apps are handy at seeing what the weather has been, currently is and can give particular insight as to what will likely happen in the future. It goes well beyond just "go outside you lazy ass! I find apps most helpful when I'm already outside and it's nice to be able to call up radar and weather station data from sites around in order to make a fair assessment of what's to come. The danger from something like this Weather Channel take over is that smaller stations could be lost because there's no profitable benefit to maintain data from a place like Ennice, NC when they could just say "Here's the data from Boone, deal with it"...



[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 8:45 PM. Reason : .]

7/3/2012 8:42:53 PM

Many of my viewers follow my professional Facebook page, our station's Facebook page, my Twitter, our website and our mobile app when they are out and about. Current conditions are pretty simple to find, but not commonly asked for. If storms are in the area, they want to know where it is headed and if it is strengthening or weakening. If it is quiet, they want to know the weather for the drive home or in the next couple of days.

7/3/2012 8:43:35 PM

There should be a law against monopolies.

7/3/2012 8:45:12 PM

indeed

7/3/2012 8:50:12 PM

^^^^^ Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Go herp your derp in a corner and let the grown ups talk.

^^^^ except your complaint about NWS want that there isn't an app to let you know what the weather will be. Your complaint was that there isn't an app to let you know what the weather currently is.

7/3/2012 8:56:28 PM

Oh good grief. When I go to weather.gov, I can get current data, forecasts and radar/satellite It would be nice if they had it in one, easy to use application. Yes, I could go to wunderground.com on my phone, but having their app makes it all very concise and easy to access when I need it immediately like I often do.

7/3/2012 8:59:42 PM

GOD you are a fucking idiot

[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 9:02 PM. Reason : merbig]

7/3/2012 9:02:46 PM

^^,^ both of you still haven't figured out that I'm not criticizing what you meant, I'm criticizing what you literally said.

Welcome to chit chat.

7/3/2012 9:09:41 PM

Haha, I knew I ran that risk by posting here. I suppose I'm too old school around these parts to figure there was a safe bastion of reasonable dialogue while catching enough eyes to be informative.

7/3/2012 9:13:59 PM

And I do have an iPhone weather app on my phone, though I use it to check future weather or the radar.

7/3/2012 9:23:04 PM

i have to admit I thought this was a cracked.com satire piece till i saw the number "17" used a second time for the age of the group

7/3/2012 9:29:58 PM

Is it the stock weather app (powered by Yahoo!)? Or an actual, legit app? (which excludes the Weather Channel abomination).

7/3/2012 9:31:43 PM

Both.

7/3/2012 9:35:16 PM

you're like the vinylbandit of weather

except lamer

7/3/2012 9:36:19 PM

^^ We need to have a talk... Haha.

I got the question one morning by my now fiancee when the first thing I did was grab my phone and check the weather, she said "Just how many weather apps do you have!?!" (For the record, it's only six, but they all serve various purposes)

^ Praise from Caesar our resident hillbilly.

[Edited on July 3, 2012 at 9:38 PM. Reason : .]

7/3/2012 9:37:56 PM

LOL SIX weather apps??

7/3/2012 10:01:12 PM

^ but they all server various purposes

7/3/2012 10:11:03 PM

I'm bummed because I'm sure the Weather Channel will now find out that I'm downloading decades of METARS/SPECIs from wunderground.com and shut down my awesome research ideas

7/3/2012 10:13:10 PM

You can still get those SPECI/METARS from http://www.aviationweather.gov/adds/metars/ and I'm sure you know to use KRDU or wherever you need.

7/3/2012 10:55:34 PM

yeah, i was scraping decades of historical data for a couple hundred airports from wunderground. Live data is of little use to me

7/3/2012 10:59:17 PM

Have you contacted the NWS Climo office?

7/3/2012 11:01:40 PM

no, I got a python script to work pretty well to create my first database. If I need more I would go through official channels since it was a lot of work to get what I needed.

7/3/2012 11:07:16 PM

That's really cool. I hope that your research works out.

7/3/2012 11:15:41 PM

Thanks, I was looking at severe weather effects on freeways and it has been well received so far.

7/3/2012 11:24:02 PM