WeatherBank’s Weather Information Services Get New Weather Products

 EDMOND, Okla., November 30, 1999—Oklahoma-based WeatherBank Inc. announced new products for two of its most popular weather information services today. 

    The company uses proprietary software programming, innovative “push” technology and a new data supply from Unisys to provide unique weather products and information services to businesses, government agencies, utilities and individuals alike. These new product enhancements are a part of WeatherBank’s WeatherBrief^®–Net service that supplies 24-hour weather information to clients via the World Wide Web, and the WeatherBrief^®–Sat service that delivers around-the-clock weather data through a proprietary, single-channel-per-carrier satellite signal. 

    “We aim to revitalize the weather information industry. These new products and services are just the beginning,” said Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Michael R. Root. 

    “In addition, we’re excited about giving our clients even more comprehensive weather information and new data delivery options,” Root added.

    As part of today’s announcement, Root said the company now has composite Nexrad radar images available to clients through its online and satellite-delivered services. Radar data is updated around the clock in six-minute intervals and can be viewed on national, regional, state or customized maps. Root said that maps showing other Nexrad components will be coming in the near future.

    Along with the new radar data, Root said the company now offers several new satellite images that are available through its services, with even more new products to be introduced in the coming months.

    “We now have many new and different perspectives from the Goes8 and Goes10 satellites that we’ve made available to our clients,” Root said. “Different data types are also included, such as water vapor and visual images, instead of infrared satellite images alone.”

    WeatherBank pushes weather information updates across the Web to subscribers of its WeatherBrief–Net service. In this way, WeatherBank keeps users from having to manually refresh Web browser windows to get the latest weather information.

    In fact, Root said recent programming changes allow all of WeatherBank’s graphic weather products to be opened in a separate browser window to display individual images. These windows can then be viewed either as a full screen image, or resized to fit any portion of a computer screen.

    Products automatically update as data is pushed across the Web from WeatherBank’s network. (Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher is required to use this feature. Netscape’s browser doesn’t currently support this technology.) With this new feature, clients can monitor radar and satellite images directly from their PC and always be assured they’re receiving the latest weather information available, Root said.

    “Timely weather information is important to our clients,” Root said. “Using the latest technology to provide accurate weather information in a timely manner is important to us.”

    For more information on WeatherBank’s products and services call 1-800-687-3562 or visit the company’s website at www.weatherbank.net.

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