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WeatherData Inc.
Severe Weather Consultants

Passionate about what we do

WeatherData sprang from Mike Smith's enthusiasm for weather since the age of five. On May 20, 1957, an F5 tornado tore a 71-mile long path through south Kansas City, killing 44 people. The tornado destroyed Mike's kindergarten and was close enough to his home that debris fell in his front yard. From that night on, Mike has been fascinated by weather.

Mike grew up in an entrepreneurial family with his father, grandfather and uncle all entrepreneurs. At the age of six, Mike went door-to-door, trying to sell weather forecasts for five cents printed on a toy printing press, a Christmas gift from his grandparents. By his early teen years, Mike was an official tornado spotter for the U.S. Weather Bureau and dreamed of one day creating a company that would help people cope with severe weather.

After an education in meteorology, engineering and mathematics at the University of Oklahoma, and a successful career as a television meteorologist in St. Louis, Oklahoma City, and Wichita, Mike founded WeatherData on August 31, 1981. That first day in business, WeatherData had three employees and five clients. Today, WeatherData is an international company known for its innovation, ingenuity and excellence.

WeatherData's mission is - and has always been - to help customers take advantage of weather opportunities and minimize weather-related risk. The company's unique blend of meteorological science and technology plus highly trained, motivated and enthusiastic people set its course toward ground-breaking and award-winning achievements.

To fulfill its goals, WeatherData has had to develop brand new technology along the way. In the early 80s there was no off-the-shelf technology that provided the type and quality of raw weather information that the young company needed to deliver ground-breaking products to its clients. So it made its own. With the purchase of the first desktop Unix-based computers available in 1985, WeatherData built the foundation for its aggressive pursuit of innovative services and products.

In 1987, recalling the door-to-door sale of weather forecasts 29 years earlier, Mike created the first computerized weather data package for newspaper publishers through modification of programs written to run on Apple's new Macintosh computer. Early and long-time clients included The Detroit News, Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, Rocky Mountain News, and The Miami Herald. In 2001, WeatherData made the difficult decision to discontinue its newspaper operations in order to focus on the company's mission goal of managing weather risk.

Weather Information from WeatherData Inc. Around the same time WeatherData was revolutionizing newspaper weather, the company revolutionized railroad safety by developing track-specific weather forecasts and warnings. This made WeatherData the leader in the railroad industry virtually overnight. But it didn't stop there.

In the early 90s, WeatherData provided train dispatcher technology using two-way communication that routed weather warnings to the specific dispatcher who was controlling the trains that would be affected by the storm. The Direct to Dispatcher System™ ensured that warnings would be instantly delivered to those that needed them while solving the potential problem of information overload.

This immediately spurred a great advancement for the aviation industry. WeatherData gave airlines SmartFlight™, their first computerized work station that enabled simultaneous monitoring of weather data and warnings with aircraft position display. SmartFlight was nominated by Aviation Week & Space Technology Magazine for their Technology Innovation Award.

With this momentum came a variety of new opportunities with public emergency managers, businesses, and educational institutions, gaining high-caliber clients such as Toyota, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, Boeing, University of Virginia, Sprint, and dozens of others. WeatherData evolved from being just a weather company and became a business partner that enables companies to proactively manage weather-related risks and, maximize weather-related opportunities.

Innovative products and services have always fueled the growth of the company, but its future and longevity depended on some key business decisions. Foremost was the strategy to integrate the products and services into customized tool kits that gave customers exactly the solution they need. WeatherData made a major decision in 2002 when it embarked on developing a powerful consumer product, Storm Hawk®. Storm Hawk brings weather to a different scale than the average consumer is used to. The company amassed into this new product all of its weather expertise, innovations to date, and 15 years' experience in GIS-based mapping software. For the first time, consumers and businesses will have a "User Centric™" weather experience. Anywhere, anytime, consumers can get highly specific weather information centered on their location and oriented to their direction of travel.

For certain industries such as emergency management and television weather, Storm Hawk will interact with WeatherData's patented SelectWarn® command and warning center. SelectWarn (for "selective warning") enables the precise warning of people in danger while not warning those that will be unaffected by a storm. SelectWarn and Storm Hawk not only have an important role in weather warnings, but also have vital capabilities in the field of homeland security.

Behind the science and technology, it is people who really drive the company's success. They are truly an orchestra of the best and brightest in their respective fields: proven sales and marketing professionals, board certified meteorologists, U.S. patent holders, and highly talented technology experts. Furthermore, WeatherData has always strived to forge strong business alliances to strengthen its own capabilities and depth in ways that are beneficial to its clients and mutually profitable to its business partners.

Now after 22 years, the wide-eyed spirit and creative thinking that founded the company are still very much part of its everyday commitment to its mission. WeatherData continually refines its packages of services and products for its customers, many of whom have been with the company for more than a decade.

At WeatherData, new challenges are relentlessly sought out and pursued. Improvements and innovations in science and technology are part of the company's commitment to excellence. Perhaps that is why WeatherData has been the recipient of the highest awards in meteorology - recognized by its peers as the leader in weather risk management and Storm Intelligence™.

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