I’ve mentioned in the past that my weather technology business has been hit hard by the current economy and that from time to time I would be using WUWT to announce new products or product reviews that might interest readers. Here’s my latest invention that turns any LCD monitor or TV into a private “live” weather radar channel by simply attaching this appliance to the rear and plugging it in. A number of customers for our regular StormPredator software have done similar setups with spare PC’s to provide radar displays at their home or office, but until now, there was never any simple and affordable way to just add the radar channel to an existing monitor or TV.
The cool part is that there is no subscription fee to get any of this imagery. Coverage is USA nationwide with 155 NEXRAD radar locations available.
StormPredator Radar Appliance for Desktop or Wall mounted LCD monitors and TV’s
Above: the StormPredator Radar Appliance automatically updates and loops the radar imagery.
Click image to see larger image showing terrain and storm detail.
What is it?
The StormPredator Radar Appliance is a small, self contained automatic appliance that connects to any LCD monitor or TV with a SVGA port or HDMI port and turns it into a dedicated 24/7 weather radar display.
It mounts directly to the rear of the LCD monitor/TV using the included VESA mount. Once setup, the StormPredator Radar Appliance will run continuously and unattended to provide live radar coverage of the area you select. It uses a special version of our popular StormPredator desktop software designed for unattended continuous operation.
A typical setup is to use your big screen TV normally with CATV or satellite, but to add this unit into a spare HDMI input or the SVGA input if your TV has one. You can easily switch back and forth from that input and live TV or if your TV offers a “picture in picture” feature, you can have a small radar window onscreen with live TV.
What else is it useful for?
Anywhere needing storm tracking at a glance. Unlike watching a cable TV channel like “The Weather Channel” you don’t have to wait for them to get around to showing your area of interest. For example: Radio stations that offer live weather reports can benefit by having “live doppler radar” to refer to at any moment.
Is the radar imagery really free?
Yes! Our system takes freely available raw radar data from NOAA’s National Weather Service and combines it with our stunning terrain imagery to produce a high quality presentation.
There are no fees for the data – ever. All you need is a working wired or wireless Internet connection to receive the data and start displaying your own radar channel.
Other applications include:
- Interstate truck stops, rest areas, and restaurants that cater to travelers
- Dispatch centers where weather is a factor in planning operations
- Hotels/motels that want to offer a lobby display
- Airports that want to add live radar to the flight schedule displays
- Local or in-house cable TV channels that wish to offer a live local radar channel
- Radio stations that report live weather, but who cannot afford a radar or radar service
- TV stations for offering a live local radar on a secondary HDTV channel
- Golf courses and other outdoor recreation facilities that need to track weather for safety
- Agricultural operations that have workers in the field
- Utilities that need to track storms in operations centers
What are the advantages of the StormPredator appliance?
- Works with your existing network, wired or wireless WiFi
- Setup in minutes, no special skills or tools required
- Operates like a web browser silently fetching and updating images
- Intelligent updater updates only images that change – low bandwidth impact
- Uses the NOAA national NEXRAD network – public data – NO subscription fees
- Nationwide coverage including Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico
- Continuous unattended 24/7 operation
- Near silent operation (cooling fan at 26 decibels), internal automatic housekeeping
- Small, thin, low power – mounts anywhere – mounting hardware included
- No user interaction or mouse/keyboard input required
- Gives radio stations the ability to have their own live Doppler Radar Weather
- Custom basemaps with additional towns/locations can be imported
- Will automatically export the radar image as a still or animation to your web page
- Images are brandable as your own local radar service with your text/logo
- Customizable to send email/pager/cell phone alerts on severe weather detection
- Can also be operated interactively for tracking if desired, has all the interactive features of our desktop application available when used this way.
Want one? See more specs and order it here
Fathers day is coming up, which is a perfect excuse to buy one for yourself since you really didn’t need another tie anyway.
Oh, and no, I don’t have a radar appliance that tracks Al Gore…yet.
Above: the StormPredator Radar Appliance automatically updates
and loops the radar imagery. Click image to see larger image
showing terrain and storm detail.
What is it?
The StormPredator Weather Appliance is a small, self contained automatic appliance that connects to any LCD monitor
or TV with a SVGA port or HDMI port and turns it into a dedicated 24/7 weather radar display. It mounts directly to the
rear of the LCD monitor/TV using the included VESA mount. One setup, the StormPredator Radar Appliance will run
continuously and unattended to provide live radar coverage of the area you select. It uses a special version of our popular
StormPredator desktop software designed for unattended continuous operation.
What is is useful for?
Anywhere needing storm tracking at a glance. Unlike watching a cable TV channel like “The Weather Channel” you don’t
have to wait for them to get around to showing your area of interest. For example: Radio stations that offer live weather
reports can benefit by having “live doppler radar” to refer to at any moment.
Above: Example of the StormPredator Radar Appliance on an LCD TV in a live radio booth
Other applications include:
- Interstate truck stops, rest areas, and restaurants that cater to travelers
- Dispatch centers were weather is a factor in planning operations
- Hotels/motels that want to offer a lobby display
- Airports that want to add live radar to the flight schedule displays
- Local or in-house cable TV channels that wish to offer a live local radar channel
- Radio stations that report live weather, but who cannot afford a radar or radar service – see below
- TV stations for offering a live local radar on a secondary HDTV channel
- Golf courses and other outdoor recreation facilities that need to track weather for safety
- Agricultural operations that have workers in the field
- Utilities that need to track storms in operations centers
What are the advantages of the StormPredator appliance?
- Works with your existing network, wired or wireless WiFi
- Setup in minutes, no special skills or tools required
- Operates like a web browser silently fetching and updating images
- Intelligent updater updates only images that change – low bandwidth impact
- Uses the NOAA national NEXRAD network – public data – NO subscription fees
- Nationwide coverage including Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico
- Continuous unattended 24/7 operation
- Near silent operation (cooling fan at 26 decibels), internal automatic housekeeping
- Small, thin, low power – mounts anywhere – mounting hardware included
- No user interaction or mouse/keyboard input required
- Gives radio stations the ability to have their own live Doppler Radar Weather
- Custom basemaps with additional towns/locations can be imported
- Will automatically export the radar image as a still or animation to your web page
- Images are brandable as your own local radar service with your text/logo
- Customizable to send email/pager/cell phone alerts on severe weather detection
- Can also be operated interactively for tracking if desired, has all the interactive features
of our desktop application available when used this way.
Above: The StormPredator Radar Appliance mounted on the rear of a 27″ LCD TV
Above: The StormPredator Radar Appliance mounted on 27″ LCD TV, top front view showing
WiFi antenna and power switch/power indicator light
StormPredator Radar Appliance Specifications:
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Interesting. Will it download and show on my (BMW) display screen which has a smart phone interface? For example it would be very useful to have visual storm track info as we traverse Kansas in tornado season.
REPLY: Our software does that upon alert status, check the features at http://www.stormpredator.com
Pamela Gray says:
May 8, 2010 at 5:08 pm
I’ve noticed that Doppler radar centered near Pendleton does not sweep into Wallowa County
Pamela,
I always use the Boise ID radar for up here in Enterprise. The Pendleton radar is blocked by the mountains.
OT
Remember how the 2035 Himalayas gaffe was just an innocent error that somehow got by lead authors?
Well, think again. Look what Hans von Storch has uncovered:
http://klimazwiebel.blogspot.com/2010/05/himalaya-claim-significantly-used-by.html
Is it a pure appliance, running from an image – or – does the opportunity exist to make some modifications?
Eric Dailey says: May 8, 2010 at 7:49 pm
“This is very handy but if you want to increase your intelect 27.3% then kill your TV.”
There used to be a knob on televisions labeled ‘brightness’, I tried turning it up, it didn’t work.
OT: just don’t get it….. its freezing everywhere (see COLA temps) but AMSU is off the planet surface temps! Please explain (BTW NO, El Nino does NOT explain) it is not a strong El Nino
http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/execute.csh?amsutemps
Do agree about the platform choice. I prefer Macs for work and home because on average, most applications are ok for my purposes and preferences, from doing stuff in Python, to making diagrams in OmniGraffle, to recording satellite TV.
But when you’ve basically got a need for just one appliance to do one job well, then by all means balance all the requirements and pick the best solution available. Nobody cares what it runs. If the thing overheats or crashes or is too expensive or too awkward in use, then something was specified wrong. But if it plugs in and you can forget about it and it just works, then all the choices were right.
Probably no need for this question:
Will the WIFI system handle WPA, WPA-2, etc?
REPLY: Yep
Have you considered live streaming the content on an internet channel for Roku or Crackle TV?
Any VAR (Value Added Resale) or OEM private label distribution opportunities available?
REPLY: Yes, we can.
Anthony,
“Dispatch centers were weather is a factor in planning operations” needs to be corrected to “Dispatch centers where weather is a factor in planning operations”.
Also, there is something on this webpage which is causing the CPU usage to operate at 37% to 100%, and it stops churning like that upon leaving the Webpage: WIN XPSP3.
REPLY: It is the animated GIF at the top. I suspect you either don’t have enough memory to run it (and you are getting disk swap) or you have a graphics card issue of some sort, like a driver problem. -A
That’s brilliant. It looks great!
Found in: kadaka (KD Knoebel) on May 9, 2010 at 2:42 am
All hail Norton Utilities, that which really makes Windows work! 😉 It can (almost) be fun watching how many times Crash Guard pops up while Win is doing… just about anything.
But the virus charts kept saying the same thing, the bug writers were focused on XP and that type file system (NT?), and ME either wouldn’t get infected or, sometimes, the virus would be “loaded” but do nothing. XP was too bloated for my P2 (besides the virus issue), so I rode out the “planned obsolescence” until upgrading to a used P4 with no OS. Now I suffer from “Linux senility,” I can hardly remember what a PC OS crash is!
Which elevation scan … the 0.5 degree elevation scan?
As the more astute readers are aware, the NWS NEXRAD WSR-88D (and follow-on product) scans, depending on RADAR mode selected, scans it’s area at a number of ‘elevation’ angles in order to create a suite of RADAR imagery products …
Anthony, I haven’t checked, but your Level III (or II) data source should have those other elevation scan angles available, and, you could pull in the full suite of elevation scans and create a ‘composite’ display of precipitation (as some I-net sites e.g. the NWS do).
A good review of WSR-88D Radar Coverages owing to terrain may be found here:
http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~jzhang/radcov.html
Cutting to the chase, the map in the link following gives RADAR coverage at 5 kilometers (above ground level) and it would seem to indicate that for Wallowa County, Oregon the better choice for RADAR coverage is not the closest RADAR (Pendleton, OR Radar) but rather Spokane, WA Radar and/or the Boise, ID Radar:
5km AGL coverage: http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~jzhang/radcov/US_lamb.radcov_5kmagl.jpg
At 10 km they all provide coverage (although at this height RADAR reflectivity data may be of limited value):
10 km AGL coverage: http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~jzhang/radcov.html
.
.
D. Patterson May 9, 2010 at 8:38 am says:
“Also, there is something on this webpage which is causing the CPU usage to operate at 37% to 100%, and it stops churning like that upon leaving the Webpage: WIN XPSP3.”
Probably not AW’s webpage – this really old computer, 198 mg mem., 450MHz, running ZA, AVG, Ad-Aware, windows defender, and Firefox 3.6.3 with WUWT and 4 other tabs (and taskmanager) open uses only 13% with gusts up to 48%. Try cleaning with Crap Cleaner and Glary Utilities, use the services tab in the administrative tools to turn unnecessary things off. Would recommend regedit, too, but only if you’re very careful and backup first to an external drive (in case you have to replace your computer). Programs above are all freebies, btw, but really good. Sorry if this is too long and off-topic but a churning computer is frustrating.
Nice to see the Aspire Revo used for this product. I do hope it is running Ubuntu!
this is not free
BUY The StormPredator Radar Appliance
#WXSPRAPP StormPredator Applicance $399.95
REPLY: Nobody ever implied that it was, the data is free, hardware costs money, what part of that don’t you understand?
Found in crucilandia on May 10, 2010 at 10:46 am:
After the many decades of promoting “free” wind and solar power in perpetuity, perhaps some people are forgetting how “free” usually works. Of course this happened long ago with regards to “free speech.”
Anthony, what happens if NOAA decides to start charging for the data, or even just asks users to sign up for a free registration from the computer they are using? Please don’t say out-of-hand that will never happen. WUWT is considered the premiere website of the anti-CAGW rebellion, and this administration likes their Chicago-style politics. Are you certain they won’t respond to such a major thorn in their backside with a spit in your eye? 😉
REPLY: If they did, it wouldn’t just be me, they’d have millions of users that get the same data off their website complaining also. It would also mean that radar would have to come off the NWS webpages.
Interestingly there was a time when you had to pay for radar access, about 2001 this changed to public access. Pressure from many groups to make the radar data free on par with surface data and forecast data. I’m not worried about it since the charter of NOAA is for free data access and putting the genie back in the bottle would be very difficult for them.
Like anything you subscribe to, be it for free or pay, you run the risk of that entity yanking the access or folding. I could cite the same worries about hundreds of other data and media sources, but I don’t let such worries cripple product development. -A
this implied that it was free.
“Is the radar imagery really free?
Yes! Our system takes freely available raw radar data from NOAA’s National Weather Service and combines it with our stunning terrain imagery to produce a high quality presentation.
… All you need is a working wired or wireless ”
REPLY:How odd. I’m surprised that you seem to ignore the picture of the hardware in front of your face, and the word “system” in the sentence you hold up as evidence of your own misinterpretation on “free-ness”. I can’t help it if you see “free hardware” where none actually exists. Sheesh. -A
crucilandia said on May 10, 2010 at 1:55 pm:
Are you the crucilandia who posts at Weather Underground? If so, you’ve got some nice intelligent posts over there. But after reading through a bunch, it seems to me there may be a communication problem, people often don’t fully understand what you are saying and sometimes you misunderstand other people.
Take it exactly as it says, the imagery is free. And just as when you look at any other free content found on the internet, the hardware to display the free content still needs to be paid for. In much of the United States you can put up an antenna and get free over-the-air TV shows, but before you can watch the shows you still have to acquire (usually by purchase) the antenna, TV, and the electrical power needed.
You buy the StormPredator appliance, you supply a broadband internet connection and the TV or monitor, then the appliance takes the free NOAA data from the internet and displays the free imagery, which is “free” as in there is no further charge for it.
The other way to get the free imagery is to buy the StormPredator software and install it on your own computer. There is a trial version available for download so you can “try before you buy.”
Hope this helps.
Thank you for your comments and feedback. It was a very clear explanation.
There is a lot of bickering on that blog and it is very hard to understand those blogger since they are vague and misunderstand the science behind the whole thing. I try not to get involved and present information as succinctily as possible.