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.
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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