The Weather Channel Companies Acquire Weather Underground
ATLANTA & SAN FRANCISCO, Jul 02, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The Weather Channel Companies (TWCC) today announced an agreement to acquire Weather Underground, a leading provider of Web based weather data. The transaction, terms of which were not disclosed, was announced by TWCC chairman and CEO David Kenny and Weather Underground president Alan Steremberg and is expected to close in several weeks.
“Everyone in the weather space is familiar with the strength of Weather Underground and its innovative method of presenting weather data. Weather Underground will add a great complementary, brand to our portfolio, a brand with a distinct, loyal, and active user base that will enable us to reach a unique segment of users,” said Kenny. “Most importantly, this acquisition will grow the weather expertise that is central to everything we do and will result in better forecasts and weather data for users on all of our platforms.”
“Becoming a part of The Weather Channel Companies will enable us to strengthen what our users love about wunderground.com, our apps and our blogs,” said Steremberg. “We see this as a great opportunity to grow.”
Weather Underground’s popular site wunderground.com and its portfolio of mobile applications will continue to operate and its employees will become a part of TWCC, furthering the company’s place as the leading provider of the most accurate weather data across all platforms serving consumers and business users. In addition, Weather Underground’s San Francisco headquarters will become a regional office for TWCC. Blackstone Advisory Partners L.P. served as TWCC’s financial advisor in the transaction and Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP acted as legal advisor. Weather Underground was advised by Digital Capital Advisors, LLC.
About The Weather Channel Companies
The Weather Channel companies (TWCC) are made up of The Weather Channel(R) television network, The Weather Channel digital properties, and WSI. The Weather Channel is based in Atlanta and is seen in more than 100 million U.S. households. TWCC also operates Weatherscan(R), a 24-hour all-local weather network; The Weather Channel Radio Network; and The Weather Channel HD. The most popular source of weather news and information, TWCC properties reach 60 million monthly Web consumers (weather.com and Desktop) and 30 million monthly mobile users (mobile Web and applications) and offers the second most popular mobile app on all smartphones. WSI, headquartered in Andover, MA, primarily provides business-to-business weather services, particularly for the media, aviation, marine and energy sectors. TWCC is owned by a consortium made up of NBC Universal and the private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. For more information, visit www.weather.com/press .
About Weather Underground
The world’s first online weather service, Weather Underground is committed to delivering the most comprehensive, reliable weather information possible. In addition to serving free weather data to millions of unique users every day on its website wunderground.com and across other digital platforms, Weather Underground delivers custom-designed weather solutions to an array of businesses and media partners such as Google, The Associated Press and CBS. The company’s state-of-the-art technology monitors conditions and forecasts for locations across the world. With more than 24,000 users contributing local observations from personal weather stations, Weather Underground is able to provide up-to-the-minute weather conditions and forecasts for the most finely targeted areas.
SOURCE: The Weather Channel Companies
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Between Jeff Masters and Weather Channel views on AGW, I expect on-air temperatures to rise and viewership to fall.
h/t Joe D’Aleo
Yikes. I saw that Jeff Masters is using Skeptical Science on his website to teach public about global warming.
We’ll have to apply the Fire trUCK principle to this…
I go to the weather underground for the local weather station info and radar maps.
I read Jeff Masters and Richard Rood for the inane pro-AGW slant on anything weather related. It’s also informative to read the delusional mindsets of the pro-AGW posters
Temperatures EXPECTED to rise??? Howza about guarenteed? The eco-cultists will stop at nothing until gubermints come to their senses and start jailing these fraud artists and confiscating ALL their assests and the next 3 generations of their offsprings assests. Nobody ever heard of RICO?? This isn’t a business transaction.It is money laundering underl the scam of save the kiddies and the Gaia
“Weather Channel absorbs Weather Underground, on-air temperatures expected to rise”
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We can probably expect past record highs and lows to change also.
I hope someone does some data backup, just in case history “changes”
I stopped going to wunderground.com a few months ago; I decided I was no longer going to support any environmental wackos. I ceased going to the Weather Channel years ago — could not stand the idiot talking dolls and clowns.
I like the Wunderground coverage of unofficial temps and winds. There is no official measurement station in Spokane, and ‘microclimates’ can be quite distinct.
Since mergers always destroy the junior partner, we can assume the Wunderground specialty will disappear soon.
This is unfortunate. Wunderground has always been the go-to site for weather data and interactive radar. I fear they will dumb-down the data and/or make it inaccessible. The weatherchannel site is worthless. I had come to tolerate Jeff Masters despite his trying to spin every weather event as proof of AGW. He has quite a few fanboys in the comment section who parrot the party line.
As a cricket fan, I am interested in weather information for locations across the world.
weather-forecast.com has the best forecasts and meteo.com the best radar and satellite data.
I’m an Intellicast convert – oh, about a year and a half now – thanks to recommendations from a few of the regulars here on WUWT. Weatherunderground was getting a little preachy.
Hopefully there’s a name change in the works so people will stop wondering why the old terrorist group of Obama mentor Bill Ayers started raising funding by doing internet weather news.
TWCC is owned by a consortium made up of NBC Universal and the private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital.
With Obama busy trashing Bain Capital for being good capitalists that specialized in trying to turn around troubled companies, it’s possible the pushing of the CAGW meme will lessen. GE currently owns 49% of NBC Universal, their TV ads have already lost the “global warming is death” tinge in favor of only mentioning their innovation and quality. While no longer the majority owner, they certainly won’t want their investment risked by NBC Universal backing a crashing belief with failing public support.
Plus I doubt The Blackstone Group is happy with the revealed Green=Red “climate justice by social justice by economic justice from wealth redistribution” mindset either.
What are our choices now? Accuweather? I don’t know much about them. What else is there?
“a brand with a distinct, loyal, and active user base that ” … may be moving on soon … though with their recommendation of SkS that movement has probably started already. Time to send Piers Corbyn a few pennies, maybe. He won’t be recommending SkS.
I find the National Weather Service forecasts are much better than AccuWx, or Weather Underground, and much better than the Weather Channel.
I use AirNetUSA, they have local doppler , western satellite coverage and zip code forcasts. Gave up WU a while ago.
looks like the Weather Underground couldn’t resist to go down into the liberal corporate whirlpool, and the public may get even further brainwashed into this CAGW nonsense, and that’s going to make sites like this more vital for discovering the real truth behind this scam. Though, it is funny to look at the twisted and upside down world the people on Master’s blog live in. But, i guess that’s another reason why the weather is always warmer underground.
My station uploads to Wunderground,,just pulled the plug till I see what’s going on.
Wow, looks like more CAGW propaganda going to try and brainwash the public, sigh……
Several years ago I noticed that the private station that I was displaying in my (wu) web widget consistently showed temperatures much higher that I was seeing 7 miles south. I complained about it several times to no avail so I went back to using KMLE which is a little farther away.
I have no idea what the problem is or was although I recall thinking the pattern was consistent with a kitchen exhaust fan or maybe a “heat pump”.
” WE ARE THE WEATHER CHANNEL (BORG), YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED (ABSORBED)! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!”
TV meteorologists are considered a hot properties as “trusted messengers” for “strengthening and deepening public concern about climate change in critical, local markets” according to Climate Central’s new “TV Mets” program as it rolls out “first to 10 markets in 2012, 25 markets in 2013, and finally to 100 markets in the next five years, where we will be able to reach the majority of local news markets around country.”
The initial fellowships at Princeton are filled this year: http://pace.princeton.edu/fellowships/high-meadows-fellowships/climate-central-research-analyst-multimedia-journalist
but with Climate Central’s broad funding from all the usual 1%er private grantmaking sources plus NASA, US Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Department of Energy,
http://www.climatecentral.org/what-we-do/funding/
there should be no shortage of cash for their mission “designed to make Americans feel the power of what’s really happening to the climate” and “inspire Americans to support action to stabilize the climate and prepare for a hotter world.”.
The rapid reaction team which aims to tie local events to “Climate Change” is already in action in Canada (cross border philanthropy!) where Andrew Freedman “climate expert” was given the podium on CBC national Canadian radio this morning to lay the blame for the eastern US heatwave on Global Warming.
Climate Central’s Social Science Research unit monitors different techniques for effectiveness and “whichstories that stick and move the debate” then “We aggressively promote our work to mainstream and social media, targeting areas that are most affected.”
With “Forecast the Facts” simulating consumer demand, TV Mets offers a tempting array of pre-cooked ready to broadcast newslike content with “feature stories, columns, blogs, podcasts, and interactive graphics aimed at showing Americans why climate change matters and how it affects them in their own backyards.”
http://www.climatecentral.org/
Why cook at home when you can get free home delivery?
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:0XT4_PTJ5bUJ:ccimgs.s3.amazonaws.com/HeatIsOnReport.pdf+&hl=en&gl=ca&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESggcuR6HjP_EKn2Dan_H06-yf5-3pnNwCMMweolTsVqW_8ON-FfQH0p0NYaiIeSfPQwkEESmtRCjpfWO067WaeEQLjPysxOoYYcZGErTs_MVNRFDZ7vu1KTki71NUd1a9Kk2MvH&sig=AHIEtbS5TiXe8SgoOMhjvcHkCLNO4Qs3xQ&pli=1
I hope they don’t screw up Weather Underground, I love using it to track approacing storms!!
I often look at:
http://vortex.plymouth.edu/
The radars aren’t very good, but they have some model forecast animations down the page that are interesting, tho past 5 days the models aren’t very accurate. Intellicast has good radar & rainfall maps.
Dewpoints can be found at:
http://twister.sbs.ohio-state.edu/imagel.php?dispimg=surface/dewpoint&imgname=US+Dewpoint+Temperatures
And:
http://afws.erh.noaa.gov/afws/national.php
has quite a few automated precip gauges in the Appalachians.
And official state NWS stations can be viewed here:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=md&prodtype=climate
That’s for MD — substitute your state’s two-letter abbreviation in the link.
I had to stop using Weather Underground because their high temperature forecasts for my area are often 10 degrees or more higher than any other source. It was like someone couldn’t figure out the difference between actual temperature and heat index…
The other Phil says:
July 2, 2012 at 1:42 pm
I hope someone does some data backup, just in case history “changes”
_______________________________________
It already has at Weather Underground. At about the time Anthony was doing the station project, all the data for my local weather station “Disappeared” except for the last five years. (GRUMBLE) Also the highs for the day are “adjusted up” by 1 to 3F by the next day.
Jessica says:
July 2, 2012 at 5:07 pm
I had to stop using Weather Underground because their high temperature forecasts for my area are often 10 degrees or more higher than any other source. It was like someone couldn’t figure out the difference between actual temperature and heat index
__________________________________________
The last few days here in mid North Carolina have had the forecast change every time I look (up through the 4th). From 104F to 108F to 97F to 95F to 93 F…..
“Between Jeff Masters and Weather Channel views on AGW, I expect on-air temperatures to rise…”
Here in Canada we have theweathernetwork.com who have bought into the hysteria. A few years ago, I emailed them that their two-week forecast graph always seemed to slope upwards at the end only to be shifted along as time went on and the upturns were seldom realized. I began to make my own forecasts using their data but tilting the graph line back flatter on the end and for several months, on average was a better forecaster than twn.com and I informed them with an email of thier “hopeful” forecasts. No reply was forthcoming. Now they don’t give the relative humidity anymore but rather give the “feels-like” temperature. Even when r.h. is low and the air is very comfortable. they will take the temp of 27C and say feels-like 29C – anything to report warmer temps. Many days, I’ve sensed that the actual temp feels like a couple of degrees cooler than they say. I’m afraid we are going to need an alternative to letting foxes baby-sit our chickens.
Bain Capital. This is not a good development. Romney is a carbon tax supporter. No Apology by Mitt Romney p262. He wants worldwide carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas reductions agreements. Wikipedia. June 2011 statements.
Elect a good congress. For president write in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Do not give either of these Romneycare/global warming scammers a mandate to mandate.
Weather Underground now is going to bring the alarmist hype back into the mainstream, and probably will help to contribute to TWC’s demise and ratings plunge. A blogger above mentioned the fact that Jeff Masters gets his AGW BS from John Cook and skeptical science, that’s not good now that it will become mainstream and onto weather.com. It will be interesting to see how the public responds to all of this. Hopefully, if this winter turns out to be cold, and severe could be a big blow to alarmism,….. at least for a few months, but I’m sure they’ll make up something.
Weather Underground’s popular site wunderground.com and its portfolio of mobile applications will continue to operate and its employees will become a part of TWCC, furthering the company’s place as the leading provider of the most accurate weather data across all platforms serving consumers and business users. In addition, Weather Underground’s San Francisco headquarters will become a regional office for TWCC. Blackstone Advisory Partners L.P. served as TWCC’s financial advisor in the transaction and Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP acted as legal advisor. Weather Underground was advised by Digital Capital Advisors, LLC.
The CEO of the Weather channel is a AGW skeptic/realistic. Wunderground is clearly bought in to AGW. Some of these comments confuse me.
Zeke,
Consider the alternative. Does that help clarify matters?
Romney can probably be persuaded due to the cost/benefit analysis. Not so his opponent, who is worse than Julia Gillard — doubled and squared.
There is WeatherSpark (beta). Unfortunately it is Flash based, but hopefully they will get an HTML5 version out before too long.
Smokey says:
July 2, 2012 at 6:35 pm
Zeke,
Consider the alternative. Does that help clarify matters?
Romney can probably be persuaded due to the cost/benefit analysis. Not so his opponent, who is worse than Julia Gillard — doubled and squared.
_____________________________
SO we get the pseudo choice of a Democrat/marxist or a Democrat-lite. I really really wish we had something to vote FOR just this once. Especially this time around when it is so critical. None of the idiots in the republican race were worth much.
I wish it too, Gail. But we play the hand we were dealt. And remember that no vote, or a throwaway vote = a vote for the anti-American. I don’t like it. But that’s the way it is.
Smokey, I know you don’t need to consider what Romney’s positions are in reality.
You make it clear every time that you do not need to know Romney’s positions, record, statements, or policies on AGW and energy, and it is sufficient for you that he is not Obama.
However, I have provided his positions (though not the half of them) so let the facts be submitted. Some but not all of his open actions and positions as a candidate and governor include: worldwide emissions reductions agreements, carbon tax, extremely strict co2 emissions reductions standards for cars, 2o billion in spending for “car technology,” ghg reductions agreements in the NE states, abundant funding from Goldman-Sachs who is targeting 40 billion in spending on worthless renewables, praise from Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Ted Turner, and George Soros. Bain Capital is even invested in a company called Styron which makes smartmeters for homes worldwide. And he is also planning to keep key components of Obamacare. It’s a trap. He is a flaming liberal and a global warming advocate. Ask Aussies how they like their carbon tax.
But do I look Australian to you? Do I look European to you? We can now see the destructive power of renewables and mandates and ghg regulations. And Romney is a politician who has been and is deeply involved in energy and health mandates. He just thinks you can set up a “free market solution.” Is that capitalism? No it is not. It is breaking the window and forcing you to buy another. And you just bought a healthcare program from the gov’t so you don’t have the cash for Romney’s exchanges or his green cars and renewables. I am so sorry that reality is not important to you in this election but it is to me.
The other Phil says:
July 2, 2012 at 1:42 pm
I hope someone does some data backup, just in case history “changes”
====================================================================
Here are a few from the NWS for Columbus Ohio. Record highs. The first were listed in 2007. The later in 2012. There are 20 or so more adjustments for the record highs. I haven’t compared the record lows but i have them.
Newer-’12 Older-’07 (did not include ties)
6-Jan 68 1946 Jan-06 69 1946
9-Jan 62 1946 Jan-09 65 1946
4-Feb 61 1962 Feb-04 66 1946
19-Apr 85 1958 Apr-19 86 1941
16-May 91 1900 May-16 96 1900
30-May 93 1953 May-30 95 1915
11-Aug 96 1926 Aug-11 98 1944
Zeke,
You missed my entire point: you play the hand you were dealt.
I don’t like the lesser of two evils. But that is the only real choice. It’s between a guy who might steal your car, and one who will kill you and your family. Bad choice. But there it is.
And as weak as the 2012 choice may be, it’s a lot better than last time, with Mr. ‘Bi-Partisan’ McCain. It could be better. But it could certainly be worse. So think positive.☺
A ‘word’ from altered reality …
.
GEE ZEKE, DON’T YOU THINK ITS A LITTLE LATE FOR THAT NOW? Oh, sorry, caps key was stuck (WHO did you monetarily etc. support during the PRIMARY?) …
.
Smokey, you are not acknowledging what I am saying about Romney’s positions on ghg regulations. If the science is bad, the policies are even worse.
And thank you: I am doing much better work than thinking positive. I am thinking precisely, and communicating accurately and truthfully. And may I suggest to readers that for this election, you choose the smaller weapon: truth. A committed Congress may do the job nicely. The presidency is not necessary.
Zeke,
Read what Jim said. The die is cast, the choice is clear. It’s either Romney or Obama. That’s it. In 4 years you’ll get another choice.
But not voting, or voting for someone who doesn’t have a possibility of winning, is a solid vote for Obama. I don’t think that’s what you want, is it? Do the right thing. If not for yourself, then for the country. Because Obama is certainly not pro-American.
Trying not to get too much into politics here but let’s just say that the presidency is necessary unless you can get super-majorities in both houses of Congress. That just isn’t going to happen, so the president will just veto everything. The only plus side is that matters may not get worse due to gridlock, but that isn’t going to solve anything either. We need a president AND Congress who will then get out of the way and let the American people solve their problems as we’ve always done; through hard work, innovation, and ingenuity.
Jeff Masters: the same happened to Joe Romm… LOL
In Mass. Mitt Romney passed the expensive, way over-budget Romneycare health mandate, and his other cheif executive experience as governor was a regional ghg emissions reduction agreement between the NE states. Incidentally, simultaneously he was involved in persecuting and shutting down at least one coal plant. He now says Romneycare is a good plan for his state, apparently not concerned with the fact that it is running 50 billion dollars over budget, ER visits are up, and waiting times have increased.
But Smokey and _Jim think the right thing to do is just elect him so you can find out what he will do.
I’ve heard that before. Pass the bill to find out what’s in it.
As an owner of a PWS that is uploading to WeatherUnderground I’m thinking that this cannot be good.
Bring on the page killing adverts.
Larry says:
July 2, 2012 at 2:22 pm
“What are our choices now? Accuweather? I don’t know much about them. What else is there?”
Go to http://www.intellicast.com. That site works very well for me. I quit “wundergound” a long time ago. No need to give Jeff Masters any more money – especially since he’s using the misery of others (e.g. the Colorado fires) to further his political agenda.
To give you an idea of Dr. Master’s viewpoint, he posts the following statements:
“…John Coleman has no influence at the TWC anymore. The new CEO is committed to providing science-based climate change information now. I would not have supported this deal otherwise….”
and
“…My wife’s not too happy with the sale, for some of the reasons y’all have expressed here. But change is the only constant in life, and after 17 years, I’m ready to be done managing the company. I want to focus on reaching as many people as I can with the message that we have pushed our climate to a new, more dangerous state. We’d better start taking strong action to prepare for what’s coming…”
and
“…My non-compete clause specifically allows me to be a weather and climate science communicator for a non-profit entity…”
Even with all that (the ability for Dr Masters to continue his pro-CAGW statements), he seems kinda clueless as to what he’s letting WU get in bed with:
“…I haven’t watched more than about 20 minutes of TWC per year over the past ten years or so; we don’t have cable at my house. I’m ordering it this week – time to take a look at their programming and see if I can offer some suggestions on how it can be improved…”
Lots of people have already made suggestions on how TWC can be improved – one thing would be GET BACK TO WEATHER REPORTING. And if Dr Masters thinks they’ll listen to him on how to “improve” TWC, he’s really lost it.
All in all, it will still come down to money (and the ad money).
Dr Masters agrees.
Comment from blogger (Chicklit): The danger I think is if TWC tries to hush the global warming information because certain corporate sponsors threaten to pull their ads.
Reply: “…Based on conversations I’ve had with TWC, I don’t think this is an issue. The advertisers are happy to advertise on a site that has climate change science…”
Comment from blogger (HurricaneHunterJoe): Like maybe clean coal commercials?? or how fracking is the way to get us off foreign oil?
Reply: “…Good point, I need to be proactive about keeping clean coal ads off of our climate change pages…”
Once again, if he thinks he’ll have something to say about who TWC takes ads from, he’ll be really disappointed.
All in all, I think we’re seeing the beginning of the decline for WU. This time next year, after their fees are raised, and you have to have a facebook account to post, and the Al Roker blog appears, their “viewership” will tank.
But Dr Master’s CAGW message will go on.
@Zeke Romney is go along to get along. Work hard and elect a Congress that reflects your POV and hold their feet to the fire to stay that way, and at the end of the day, the odds are that president Romney will go along to get along. It’s our best chance and certainly better than four more years of Obama.
Total hubris from AP (via Drudge Report) linking forrest fires to AGW and weather to climate
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120703/D9VP9J681.html
Frank K, the last I checked Intellicast is part of TWC group.
So, Zeke, you want another 4 years of the disaster we have now? Why?
Try Foot’s Forecast. It’s a collaboration of meteorologists and high school students. The winter of 2010 when the big snow storm was bearing down on the mid-atlantic, they were spot on with the predictions and way ahead of corporate weather.
http://www.footsforecast.org/
Oh and an FYI, that was an El Nino year, so here we go again!
I want a committed Congress fighting a visible, unpopular, hated enemy: Obama and his Czars, carbon dioxide regulations, and Romneycare/Obamacare.
The system of separated powers given to us in the Constituion is what I believe in; I have decided it will work, and stake my future on the ability of Congress and the States to fight the Federal Government.
I beleive in 100 people like this: Gov. Rick Scott: Florida Won’t Implement Medicaid Expansion of Obamacare: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/scott-obamacare-implement-florida/2012/07/02/id/444247?s=al&promo_code=F5E2-1
It will work. People like this governor and some committed Senators will work for us. The 3 branches and the States will work against the Feds. It is similar to the way that WUWT and a few blogs have revealed the truth about the billion dollar industry of the climate science fraud.
I could not possibly agree more. All I need is a better suggestion.