Weather Underground is a commercial weather service providing real-time weather information over the Internet . It provides weather reports for most major cities around the world on its Web site, as well as local weather reports for newspapers and third-party sites.
151-469: Its information comes from the National Weather Service (NWS), and over 250,000 personal weather stations (PWS). The site is available in many languages, and customers can access an ad-free version of the site with additional features for an annual fee. In February 2024, Weather Underground and its parent company, The Weather Company , became controlled by Francisco Partners . The company
302-426: A Mapbox Map base and provides many interactive and dynamically updated weather and environmental layers. On November 15, 2017, users were notified by email that their worldwide, user-provided weather cameras would cease to be available on December 15, 2017. However, on December 11, 2017 users received another email from Weather Underground announcing that they were reversing their position and would not be discontinuing
453-738: A tornado emergency may be issued in such cases if the tornado is expected to track into a densely populated area). PDS warnings for other alerts occur with even less frequency, and their criteria varies depending on the alert type to which the wording is applied. Until September 30, 2007, local offices of the National Weather Service issued warnings for severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, flash flooding and marine hazards using geopolitical boundaries. The implementation of storm-based warnings on October 1, 2007, saw alerts for these meteorological or hydrological threats be delineated by polygonal shapes in map-based weather hazard products, which outline
604-449: A zine , before the term blog entered common usage. The first research paper about blogging was Torill Mortensen and Jill Walker Rettberg 's paper "Blogging Thoughts", which analysed how blogs were being used to foster research communities and the exchange of ideas and scholarship, and how this new means of networking overturns traditional power structures. Early blogs were simply manually updated components of common Websites. In 1995,
755-528: A "good probability of verification" exist when issuing such forecasts due to the difficulty in accurately predicting tornadic activity. However, it would not be until it faced criticism for continuing to refuse to provide public tornado warnings and preventing the release of the USAF Severe Weather Warning Center's tornado forecasts (pioneered in 1948 by Air Force Capt. Robert C. Miller and Major Ernest Fawbush) beyond military personnel that
906-560: A Congressional committee was formed to oversee the matter, recommending that the office's operations be transferred to the Department of War following a two-year investigation. The agency first became a civilian enterprise in 1890, when it became part of the Department of Agriculture . Under the oversight of that branch, the Bureau began issuing flood warnings and fire weather forecasts, and issued
1057-503: A TV station or newspaper, either as an add-on to a traditional media presence (e.g., hosting a radio show or writing a column in a paper newspaper), or as their sole journalistic output. Some institutions and organizations see blogging as a means of "getting around the filter" of media " gatekeepers " and pushing their messages directly to the public. Many mainstream journalists, meanwhile, write their own blogs—well over 300, according to CyberJournalist.net's J-blog list. The first known use of
1208-807: A blog on a news site was in August 1998, when Jonathan Dube of The Charlotte Observer published one chronicling Hurricane Bonnie . Some bloggers have moved over to other media. The following bloggers (and others) have appeared on radio and television: Duncan Black (known widely by his pseudonym, Atrios), Glenn Reynolds ( Instapundit ), Markos Moulitsas Zúniga ( Daily Kos ), Alex Steffen ( Worldchanging ), Ana Marie Cox ( Wonkette ), Nate Silver ( FiveThirtyEight.com ), and Ezra Klein (Ezra Klein blog in The American Prospect , now in The Washington Post ). In counterpoint, Hugh Hewitt exemplifies
1359-502: A breakdown of the traditional advertising model, where companies can skip over the advertising agencies (previously the only interface with the customer) and contact the customers directly via social media websites. On the other hand, new companies specialised in blog advertising have been established to take advantage of this new development as well. However, there are many people who look negatively on this new development. Some believe that any form of commercial activity on blogs will destroy
1510-572: A commercial blog was on the first business to consumer Web site created in 1995 by Ty, Inc. , which featured a blog in a section called "Online Diary". The entries were maintained by featured Beanie Babies that were voted for monthly by Web site visitors. The modern blog evolved from the online diary where people would keep a running account of the events in their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. Justin Hall , who began personal blogging in 1994 while
1661-417: A forecast period covering up to seven days, is issued by local WFOs daily, with updates as needed. The forecasts contain weather information relevant to fire control and smoke management for the next 12 to 48 hours, such as wind direction and speed, and precipitation. The appropriate crews use this information to plan for staffing and equipment levels, the ability to conduct scheduled controlled burns, and assess
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#17328476366601812-670: A large portion of bloggers are professionals and that a well-written blog can help attract employers. Business owners who blog about their business can also run into legal consequences. Mark Cuban , owner of the Dallas Mavericks , was fined during the 2006 NBA playoffs for criticizing NBA officials on the court and in his blog. Blogging can sometimes have unforeseen consequences in politically sensitive areas. In some countries, Internet police or secret police may monitor blogs and arrest blog authors or commentators. Blogs can be much harder to control than broadcast or print media because
1963-493: A live worldwide press conference. The questions and answers were later posted on IsraelPolitik , the country's official political blog. The impact of blogging on the mainstream media has also been acknowledged by governments. In 2009, the presence of the American journalism industry had declined to the point that several newspaper corporations were filing for bankruptcy, resulting in less direct competition between newspapers within
2114-677: A mass media personality who has moved in the other direction, adding to his reach in "old media" by being an influential blogger. Similarly, it was Emergency Preparedness and Safety Tips On Air and Online blog articles that captured Surgeon General of the United States Richard Carmona 's attention and earned his kudos for the associated broadcasts by talk show host Lisa Tolliver and Westchester Emergency Volunteer Reserves- Medical Reserve Corps Director Marianne Partridge. Blogs have also had an influence on minority languages , bringing together scattered speakers and learners; this
2265-822: A name suggested by Jeff Masters. They decided on the name, because it "alludes to our deep fascination with all types of weather and climate extremes, including the many important facets of our changing climate", and "will provide all the insight and expert analysis needed to put the extreme events of our evolving 21st-century climate into context." On April 3, 2017 Weather Underground ended all Member blogs, WUMail, SMS alerts, NOAA Weather Radio rebroadcast and Aviation. Weather Underground also uses observations from members with automated personal weather stations (PWS). Weather Underground uses observations from over 250,000 personal weather stations worldwide. The Weather Underground's WunderMap overlays weather data from personal weather stations and official National Weather Service stations on
2416-511: A new HTML file, and at the start of each month, diary entries were archived into their own folder, which contained a separate HTML page for every day of the month. Then, menus that contained links to the most recent diary entry were updated manually throughout the site. This text-based method of organizing thousands of files served as a springboard to define future blogging styles that were captured by blogging software developed years later. The evolution of electronic and software tools to facilitate
2567-402: A new model of marketing communication from businesses to consumers. Among the various forms of advertising on blog, the most controversial are the sponsored posts . These are blog entries or posts and may be in the form of feedback, reviews, opinion, videos, etc. and usually contain a link back to the desired site using a keyword or several keywords. Blogs have led to some disintermediation and
2718-402: A notification of significant weather for which no type of alert is currently in effect for a given location or is expected to be in effect. In situations where a forecaster indicates a significant threat of extremely severe and life-threatening weather with an ongoing local weather event, enhanced wording may be used to note the heightened threat by a significant local storm event. In April 2012,
2869-672: A particular subject or topic, ranging from philosophy , religion , and arts to science , politics , and sports . Others function as more personal online diaries or online brand advertising of a particular individual or company. A typical blog combines text, digital images , and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art ( art blogs ), photographs ( photoblogs ), videos ( video blogs or vlogs ), music ( MP3 blogs ), and audio ( podcasts ). In education, blogs can be used as instructional resources; these are referred to as edublogs . Microblogging
3020-412: A person can create a blog whose authorship is hard to trace by using anonymity technology such as Tor . As a result, totalitarian and authoritarian regimes often seek to suppress blogs and punish those who maintain them. In Singapore, two ethnic Chinese individuals were imprisoned under the country's anti-sedition law for posting anti-Muslim remarks in their blogs. Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer
3171-481: A public weather forecast, a TAF only addresses weather elements critical to aviation; these include wind, visibility , cloud cover and wind shear . Twenty-one NWS Center Weather Service Units (CWSU) are collocated with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) . Their main responsibility is to provide up-to-the-minute weather information and briefings to
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#17328476366603322-453: A redirect to a full screen weather viewer tied into OpenStreetMap. There was an app developed for Roku devices, which has been deleted. In February 2015, Weather Underground released an iOS app called Storm. This app is universal, and can be used on both iPhone and iPad. Other apps by Weather Underground include WunderStation for iPad and WunderMap for iOS and Android . In 2017, Weather Underground removed support for "Storm," in favor of
3473-562: A redirect to weather.com), a full screen weather Web tool with integrated mapping and mobile device use in mind. On July 2, 2012, The Weather Channel announced that it would acquire Weather Underground, which would become operated as part of The Weather Channel Companies, LLC, which was later renamed " The Weather Company ". The Weather Underground web site continues to operate as a separate entity from The Weather Channel primary site, weather.com , with its existing staff retained. Third-party web analytics providers Alexa and SimilarWeb rate
3624-571: A service, having witnessed the destructive power of storms in the Great Lakes region. Representative Halbert E. Paine introduced a bill to provide the funding. In 1870, the Weather Bureau of the United States was established through a joint resolution of Congress signed by President Ulysses S. Grant with a mission to "provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in
3775-466: A slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity. Blog usage spread during 1999 and the years following, being further popularized by the near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted blog tools: An early milestone in the rise in importance of blogs came in 2002, when many bloggers focused on comments by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott . Senator Lott, at a party honoring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond , praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that
3926-592: A special format known as the "ships synoptic code", and transmitted in real-time to the NWS. They are then distributed on national and international circuits for use by meteorologists in weather forecasting, by oceanographers, ship routing services, fishermen, and many others. The observations are then forwarded for use by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, North Carolina . Upper air weather data
4077-526: A student at Swarthmore College , is generally recognized as one of the earlier bloggers, as is Jerry Pournelle . Dave Winer 's Scripting News is also credited with being one of the older and longer running weblogs. The Australian Netguide magazine maintained the Daily Net News on their web site from 1996. Daily Net News ran links and daily reviews of new websites, mostly in Australia. Another early blog
4228-582: A tag requesting Emergency Alert System activation to trigger public alert messages via television, radio stations, NOAA Weather Radio, and smartphone apps and messaging services. For local storm events, the warning or advisory product also outlines a meteorological summary of the most recent storm location or local storm report issued prior to the product's issuance (including the approximate area in statute miles and estimated speed and direction), associated hazards, impacts, municipalities and designated land areas (and, if applicable, highway mile markers) covered by
4379-504: A viable threat of severe weather, in which case, the storm-based warning may take on a trapezoidal representation in map-based watch products) or canceled before their set time of expiration by local NWS offices. The NWS also releases Experimental Severe Weather Impact products for use on social media accounts maintained by local forecast offices as well as the Enhanced Data Display (EDD), an experimental pilot project created by
4530-484: A virtual " corkboard ". Berners-Lee also created what is considered by Encyclopedia Britannica to be "the first 'blog ' " in 1992 to discuss the progress made on creating the World Wide Web and software used for it. From June 14, 1993, Mosaic Communications Corporation maintained their "What's New" list of new websites, updated daily and archived monthly. The page was accessible by a special "What's New" button in
4681-412: A week before the company's earnings announcement. He was fired two days after he complied with his employer's request to remove the sensitive material from his blog. In India, blogger Gaurav Sabnis resigned from IBM after his posts questioned the claims made by a management school. Jessica Cutler , aka "The Washingtonienne", blogged about her sex life while employed as a congressional assistant. After
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4832-642: A week to seasons, extending into the future as far as technically feasible, and cover the land, the ocean and the atmosphere, extending into the stratosphere. Most of the products issued by the center cover the Contiguous U.S. and Alaska . Additionally, Weather Forecast Offices issue daily and monthly climate reports for official climate stations within their area of responsibility. These generally include recorded highs, lows and other information (including historical temperature extremes, fifty-year temperature and precipitation averages, and degree days ). This information
4983-472: Is a system designed to provide the emergency management community with access to a set of NWS warnings, watches, forecasts and other products at no recurring cost. It can receive data via radio, internet, or a dedicated satellite dish , depending on the needs and capabilities of the user. NOAAPORT is a one-way broadcast communication system which provides NOAA environmental data and information in near real-time to NOAA and external users. This broadcast service
5134-611: Is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the purposes of protection, safety, and general information. It is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) branch of the Department of Commerce , and is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland , within
5285-744: Is an aviation weather warning for thunderstorms, icing, turbulence, and low cloud ceilings and visibilities. The Meteorological Impact Statement (MIS) is a two- to 12-hour forecast that outlines weather conditions expected to impact ARTCC operations. The Aviation Weather Center (AWC), located in Kansas City, Missouri , is a central aviation support facility operated by the National Weather Service, which issues two primary products: The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, Oklahoma issues severe thunderstorm and tornado watches in cooperation with local WFOs which are responsible for delineating jurisdictions affected by
5436-456: Is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts. Blog and blogging are now loosely used for content creation and sharing on social media , especially when the content is long-form and one creates and shares content on regular basis, so one could be maintaining a blog on Facebook or blogging on Instagram . A 2022 estimate suggested that there were over 600 million public blogs out of more than 1.9 billion websites. The term "weblog"
5587-809: Is based in San Francisco , California and was founded in 1995 as an offshoot of the University of Michigan internet weather database. The name is a reference to the 1960s radical left-wing militant organization the Weather Underground , which also originated at the University of Michigan. The name, formerly UM-Weather, was changed to Weather Underground in 1991 due to feedback from the National Science Foundation in response to Perry Samson's proposal for funding. Weather Underground has since adopted
5738-540: Is built on the framework. In 2016, the NWS significantly increased the computational power of its supercomputers, spending $ 44 million on two new supercomputers from Cray and IBM . This was driven by relatively lower accuracy of NWS' Global Forecast System (GFS) numerical weather prediction model, compared to other global weather models. This was most notable in the GFS model incorrectly predicting Hurricane Sandy turning out to sea until four days before landfall; while
5889-655: Is considered preliminary until certified by the National Climatic Data Center . The primary network of surface weather observation stations in the United States is composed of Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS). The ASOS program is a joint effort of the National Weather Service (NWS), automatic weather station(AWS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Department of Defense (DOD). ASOS stations are designed to support weather forecast activities and aviation operations and, at
6040-427: Is divided into six regions. Each WFO maintains a specific area of responsibility spanning multiple counties, parishes or other jurisdictions within the United States – which, in some areas, cover multiple states – or individual possessions; the local offices handle responsibility of composing and disseminating forecasts and weather alerts to areas within their region of service. Some of the products that are only issued by
6191-624: Is either occurring at present (through radar imagery, reports from local television and radio stations, or ground observations by local law enforcement, civil defense officials, media outlets or storm spotters) or is forecast to occur within 12 to 24 hours. If after collaboration a warning or advisory is deemed necessary, the Weather Forecast Office will generate a bulletin product via the Advance Weather Interactive Processing System ( AWIPS ) and then disseminate
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6342-543: Is essential for weather forecasting and research. The NWS operates 92 radiosonde locations in North America and ten sites in the Caribbean . A small, expendable instrument package is suspended below a 2 metres (6.6 ft) wide balloon filled with hydrogen or helium , then released daily at or shortly after 1100 and 2300 UTC , respectively. As the radiosonde rises at about 300 meters/minute (1,000 ft/min), sensors on
6493-905: Is implemented by a commercial provider of satellite communications utilizing C band . The agency's online service, Weather.gov , is a data rich website operated by the NWS that serves as a portal to hundreds of thousands of webpages and more than 300 different NWS websites. Through its homepage, users can access local forecasts by entering a place name in the main forecast search bar, view a rapidly updated map of active watches and warnings, and select areas related to graphical forecasts, national maps, radar displays, river and air quality data, satellite images and climate information. Also offered are XML data feeds of active watches and warnings, ASOS observations and digital forecasts for 5x5 kilometer (3 x 3 mile) grids. All of NWS local weather forecast offices operate their own region-tailored web pages, which provide access to current products and other information specific to
6644-405: Is not exercised, [..] could lead to situations that may threaten life and/or property." In earnest, they indicate that hazardous weather conditions are occurring that may pose a risk to life and property, and are intended to direct the general public to take immediate action and heed safety precautions; it also has the side purpose of directing emergency management personnel to be on standby in case
6795-461: Is particularly so with blogs in Gaelic languages . Minority language publishing (which may lack economic feasibility) can find its audience through inexpensive blogging. There are examples of bloggers who have published books based on their blogs, e.g., Salam Pax , Ellen Simonetti , Jessica Cutler , and ScrappleFace . Blog-based books have been given the name blook . A prize for the best blog-based book
6946-416: Is people shouting at each other across the void, but not a lot of mutual understanding". Between 2009 and 2012, an Orwell Prize for blogging was awarded. In the late 2000s , blogs were often used on business websites and for grassroots political activism . There are many different types of blogs, differing not only in the type of content, but also in the way that content is delivered or written. As
7097-684: The Associated Press ; Weather Underground also provides weather reports for some newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Google search engine. Alan Steremberg also worked on the early development of the Google search engine with Larry Page and Sergey Brin. In October 2008, Jeff Masters reported that the site was No. 2 for Internet weather information in 2008. In February 2010, Weather Underground launched FullScreenWeather.com (now
7248-504: The Charleston, West Virginia office's WeatherReady Nation initiative. The product provides a graphical depiction of short-fuse warnings and watches (specifically, tornado and severe thunderstorm watches and warnings, and flash flood warnings), showing a map of the warning area (outlined as a red polygon) and locations (including communities and interstate highways) that will be impacted. For severe thunderstorm, tornado and flash flood warnings,
7399-574: The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ' model predicted landfall correctly at seven days. The new supercomputers increased computational processing power from 776 tera flops to 5.78 petaflops. As of 2016, the National Weather Service was organized as follows Blog A blog (a truncation of " weblog ") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order so that
7550-684: The Family of Services (FOS) , which is accessible via dedicated telecommunications access lines in the Washington, D.C., area. All FOS data services are driven by the NWS Telecommunication Gateway computer systems located at NWS headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. Users may obtain any of the individual services from NWS for a one-time connection charge and an annual user fee. The WSR-88D Doppler weather radar system, also called NEXRAD ,
7701-574: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security have begun to take advantage of NWR's ability to efficiently reach a large portion of the U.S. population. When necessary, the system can also be used (in conjunction with the Emergency Alert System ) to broadcast civil, natural and technological emergency and disaster alerts and information, in addition to those related to weather – hence
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#17328476366607852-561: The National Hurricane Center (NHC), a guidance center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). The NWS defines a warning as a "hazardous weather or hydrologic event [that] is occurring, is imminent, or has a very high probability of occurring" and an advisory as "[highlighting] special weather conditions that are less serious than a warning [...] for events that may cause significant inconvenience, and if caution
8003-550: The U.S. Virgin Islands ; and the U.S. Pacific Territories of American Samoa , Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands . NWR requires a scanner or special radio receiver capable of picking up the signal. Individual NWR stations broadcast any one of seven allocated frequencies centered on 162 MHz (known collectively as "weather band") in the marine VHF radio band. In recent years, national emergency response agencies such as
8154-557: The United States Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) program. It is organized for the purpose of obtaining weather and oceanographic observations from transiting ships. An international program under World Meteorological Organization (WMO) marine auspices, the VOS has 49 countries as participants. The United States program is the largest in the world, with nearly 1,000 vessels. Observations are taken by deck officers, coded in
8305-558: The Washington metropolitan area . The agency was known as the United States Weather Bureau from 1890 until it adopted its current name in 1970. The NWS performs its primary task through a collection of national and regional centers, and 122 local Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs). As the NWS is an agency of the U.S. federal government, most of its products are in the public domain and available free of charge. Calls for
8456-459: The news media . Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog . The emergence and growth of blogs in the late 1990s coincided with the advent of web publishing tools that facilitated the posting of content by non-technical users who did not have much experience with HTML or computer programming . Previously, knowledge of such technologies as HTML and File Transfer Protocol had been required to publish content on
8607-500: The "Online Diary" on the Ty, Inc. Web site was produced and updated manually before any blogging programs were available. Posts were made to appear in reverse chronological order by manually updating text-based HTML code using FTP software in real time several times a day. To users, this offered the appearance of a live diary that contained multiple new entries per day. At the beginning of each new day, new diary entries were manually coded into
8758-561: The "Storm Radar" app released by The Weather Channel Interactive in June 2017. On December 31, 2018, Weather Underground ceased offering its popular application programming interface (API) for weather data, further reducing the breadth of its services. On September 10, 2019, Weather Underground announced the discontinuation of its Email Forecast Program as of October 1, 2019, continuing the reduction in services noted above. National Weather Service The National Weather Service ( NWS )
8909-451: The Advance Weather Interactive Processing System ( AWIPS ), to complete their work. These workstations allow them to easily view a multitude of weather and hydrologic information, as well as compose and disseminate products. The NWS Environmental Modeling Center was one of the early users of the ESMF common modeling infrastructure. The Global Forecast System (GFS) is one of the applications that
9060-500: The Bureau issued its first experimental public tornado forecasts in March 1952. In 1957, the Bureau began using radars for short-term forecasting of local storms and hydrological events, using modified versions of those used by Navy aircraft to create the WSR-57 ( W eather S urveillance R adar, 19 57 ), with a network of WSR systems being deployed nationwide through the early 1960s; some of
9211-605: The EU Directive 2000/31/EC). In Doe v. Cahill , the Delaware Supreme Court held that stringent standards had to be met to unmask the anonymous bloggers and also took the unusual step of dismissing the libel case itself (as unfounded under American libel law) rather than referring it back to the trial court for reconsideration. In a bizarre twist, the Cahills were able to obtain the identity of John Doe, who turned out to be
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#17328476366609362-477: The Mosaic web browser. In November 1993 Ranjit Bhatnagar started writing about interesting sites, pages and discussion groups he found on the internet, as well as some personal information, on his website Moonmilk, arranging them chronologically in a special section called Ranjit's HTTP Playground. Other early pioneers of blogging, such as Justin Hall , credit him with being an inspiration. The earliest instance of
9513-486: The NWS also, under a prescribed set of criteria, issue Fire Weather Watches and Red Flag Warnings as needed, in addition to issuing the daily fire weather forecasts for the local service area. These products alert the public and other agencies to conditions which create the potential for extreme fires. On the national level, the NWS Storm Prediction Center issues fire weather analyses for days one and two of
9664-577: The NWS introduced the Impact Based Warning system at its Weather Forecast Offices in Wichita and Topeka , Kansas , and Springfield , St. Louis and Kansas City / Pleasant Hill , Missouri ; the pilot project – which would expand to 80 Weather Forecast Offices overseen by the Central, Eastern, Southern and Western Region Headquarters by the spring of 2015 – incorporate message tags within the main body of
9815-516: The NWWS data stream are prioritized, with weather and hydrologic warnings receiving the highest priority (watches are next in priority). NWWS delivers severe weather and storm warnings to users in ten seconds or less from the time of their issuance, making it the fastest delivery system available. Products are broadcast to users via the AMC -4 satellite. The Emergency Managers Weather Information Network ( EMWIN )
9966-402: The National Weather Service", is a special radio system that transmits uninterrupted weather watches, warnings and forecasts 24 hours a day directly from a nearby NWS office, with the broadcasts covering across 95–97% of the United States' population. The system – which is owned and operated by the NWS – consists of 1,030 transmitters, covering all 50 states; adjacent coastal waters; Puerto Rico ;
10117-498: The Signal Service, Abbe urged the Department of War to research weather conditions to provide a scientific basis behind the forecasts; he would continue to urge the study of meteorology as a science after becoming Weather Bureau chief. While a debate went on between the Signal Service and Congress over whether the forecasting of weather conditions should be handled by civilian agencies or the Signal Service's existing forecast office,
10268-586: The Traffic Management Units and control room supervisors. Special emphasis is given to weather conditions that could be hazardous to aviation or impede the flow of air traffic in the National Airspace System . Besides scheduled and unscheduled briefings for decision-makers in the ARTCC and other FAA facilities, CWSU meteorologists also issue two unscheduled products. The Center Weather Advisory (CWA)
10419-415: The United States would have been better off had Thurmond been elected president. Lott's critics saw these comments as tacit approval of racial segregation , a policy advocated by Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign . This view was reinforced by documents and recorded interviews dug up by bloggers. (See Josh Marshall 's Talking Points Memo .) Though Lott's comments were made at a public event attended by
10570-500: The WFOs are severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings, flood, flash flood , and winter weather watches and warnings, some aviation products, and local forecast grids. The forecasts issued by a WFO are available on their individual pages within the Weather.gov website, which can be accessed through either forecast landing pages (which identify the office that disseminates the weather data) or via
10721-436: The Weather Bureau became the National Weather Service. At the beginning of the 1980s the NWS used the same radar equipment as in the 1950s, and teletype for communication. In 1983, NOAA administrator John V. Byrne proposed to auction off all of the weather satellites, to repurchase data from private buyers, outsourcing weather observation stations, NOAA Weather Radio and computerized surface analysis to private companies but
10872-768: The Web, and early Web users therefore tended to be hackers and computer enthusiasts. As of the 2010s, the majority are interactive Web 2.0 websites, allowing visitors to leave online comments, and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. In that sense, blogging can be seen as a form of social networking service . Indeed, bloggers not only produce content to post on their blogs but also often build social relations with their readers and other bloggers. Blog owners or authors often moderate and filter online comments to remove hate speech or other offensive content. There are also high-readership blogs which do not allow comments. Many blogs provide commentary on
11023-500: The addition of the phrasing "All Hazards" to the name. The NOAA Weather Wire Service (NWWS) is a satellite data collection and dissemination system operated by the National Weather Service, which was established in October 2000. Its purpose is to provide state and federal government, commercial users, media and private citizens with timely delivery of meteorological, hydrological, climatological and geophysical information. All products in
11174-480: The alert map featured on the main page of the National Weather Service website. The NWS supports the aviation community through the production of several forecasts. Each area's WFO has responsibility for the issuance of Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAFs) for airports in their jurisdiction. TAFs are concise, coded 24-hour forecasts (30-hour forecasts for certain airports) for a specific airport, which are issued every six hours with amendments as needed. As opposed to
11325-490: The alert through various communication routes accessed by the media and various agencies, on the internet, to NOAA satellites, and on NOAA Weather Radio . The product outlines the alert type, the issuing WFO, the sections of government subdivisions ( counties , parishes , boroughs or independent cities ) covered by the alert, and its time of expiration (based on the local time zone ). Some products – particularly for severe thunderstorm, tornado and flood warnings – include
11476-404: The alert, and boilerplate action messages informing the public of safety precautions they need to take or advising them to be vigilant of any warnings or weather statements that may be issued by their local National Weather Service office. A statement may be issued as a follow-up message to a warning, watch, or emergency, which may update, extend, or cancel the previously issued product or be used as
11627-481: The anonymity of Richard Horton . Horton was a police officer in the United Kingdom who blogged about his job under the name "NightJack". Delta Air Lines fired flight attendant Ellen Simonetti because she posted photographs of herself in uniform on an aeroplane and because of comments posted on her blog "Queen of Sky: Diary of a Flight Attendant" which the employer deemed inappropriate. This case highlighted
11778-612: The areas in the Atlantic and parts of the Pacific. The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) in College Park, Maryland is responsible for all of the NWS's climate-related forecasts. Their mission is to "serve the public by assessing and forecasting the impacts of short-term climate variability, emphasizing enhanced risks of weather-related extreme events, for use in mitigating losses and maximizing economic gains." Their products cover time scales from
11929-416: The arrival of severe weather at a particular locale by one hour or less; the NWS also issues warnings and advisories for various hydrological and non-hydrological events including floods , non-thunderstorm high winds, winter storms , intense heat or cold, fire weather and marine hazards, which vary in timepsan depending on the weather situation ( inland and coastal warnings for tropical cyclones are issued by
12080-498: The atmosphere, more frequently, and from more locations is the key to improving forecasts and warnings. Due to the large installation and operating costs associated with ASOS, the stations are widely spaced. Therefore, the Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) , a network of approximately 11,000 mostly volunteer weather observers, provides much of the meteorological and climatological data to the country. The program, which
12231-552: The basis of the warning or its damage threat). The wording " Particularly Dangerous Situation " (PDS), which originated by the Storm Prediction Center for use in tornado watch products during expected high-end severe weather outbreaks, is subjectively issued. It is occasionally issued with tornado warnings, normally if a large tornado capable of producing EF3 to EF5 damage or staying on the ground for long-duration – sometimes uninterrupted – paths has been reported (although
12382-472: The blog "Creating Passionate Users", was the target of threats and misogynistic insults to the point that she cancelled her keynote speech at a technology conference in San Diego, fearing for her safety. While a blogger's anonymity is often tenuous, Internet trolls who would attack a blogger with threats or insults can be emboldened by the anonymity of the online environment, where some users are known only by
12533-512: The blog in a fairly anonymous manner, some of the descriptions of the firm and some of its people were less than flattering. Sanderson later won a compensation claim case against the British firm, however. On the other hand, Penelope Trunk wrote an upbeat article in The Boston Globe in 2006, entitled "Blogs 'essential' to a good career". She was one of the first journalists to point out that
12684-508: The blog was discovered and she was fired, she wrote a novel based on her experiences and blog: The Washingtonienne: A Novel . As of 2006 , Cutler is being sued by one of her former lovers in a case that could establish the extent to which bloggers are obligated to protect the privacy of their real life associates. Catherine Sanderson, a.k.a. Petite Anglaise , lost her job in Paris at a British accountancy firm because of blogging. Although given in
12835-595: The blogosphere's credibility. Blogging can result in a range of legal liabilities and other unforeseen consequences . Several cases have been brought before the national courts against bloggers concerning issues of defamation or liability . U.S. payouts related to blogging totalled $ 17.4 million by 2009; in some cases these have been covered by umbrella insurance . The courts have returned with mixed verdicts. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), in general, are immune from liability for information that originates with third parties (U.S. Communications Decency Act and
12986-489: The creation of a government weather bureau began as early as 1844, when the electrical telegraph was introduced. In 1869, Cleveland Abbe began developing probabilistic forecasts using daily weather data sent via telegraph by the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Western Union , which he convinced to back the collection of such information. Meanwhile, Increase A. Lapham of Wisconsin lobbied Congress to create such
13137-499: The daily fire danger. Once per day, NWS meteorologists issue a coded fire weather forecast for specific United States Forest Service observation sites that are then input into the National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS). This computer model outputs the daily fire danger that is then conveyed to the public in one of five ratings: low, moderate, high, very high, or extreme. The local Weather Forecast Offices of
13288-407: The determination of the need for Red Flag Warnings. The Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland provides guidance for future precipitation amounts and areas where excessive rainfall is likely, while local NWS offices are responsible for issuing Flood Watches, Flash Flood Watches, Flood Warnings, Flash Flood Warnings, and Flood Advisories for their local County Warning Area, as well as
13439-436: The diversity of media culture, providing opportunities for greater inclusiveness, and making more responsive to consumers." Many bloggers, particularly those engaged in participatory journalism , are amateur journalists, and thus they differentiate themselves from the professional reporters and editors who work in mainstream media organizations. Other bloggers are media professionals who are publishing online, rather than via
13590-514: The documents to be forgeries and presented evidence and arguments in support of that view. Consequently, CBS apologized for what it said were inadequate reporting techniques (see: Little Green Footballs ). The impact of these stories gave greater credibility to blogs as a medium of news dissemination. In Russia, some political bloggers have started to challenge the dominance of official, overwhelmingly pro-government media. Bloggers such as Rustem Adagamov and Alexei Navalny have many followers, and
13741-434: The estimated population count of the warned area and approximate totals of public schools and hospitals within the warning area as well as the maximum forecast intensity of hail size, wind gusts and potential tornadoes; tornado warnings referenced in the impact product also denote whether the warning was issued based on radar indication or ground confirmation. NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) , promoted as "The Voice of
13892-477: The first daily national surface weather maps; it also established a network to distribute warnings for tropical cyclones as well as a data exchange service that relayed European weather analysis to the Bureau and vice versa. The first Weather Bureau radiosonde was launched in Massachusetts in 1937, which prompted a switch from routine aircraft observation to radiosondes within two years. The Bureau prohibited
14043-401: The forecast period that provide supportive information to the local WFO forecasts regarding particular critical elements of fire weather conditions. These include large-scale areas that may experience critical fire weather conditions including the occurrence of "dry thunderstorms", which usually occur in the western U.S. , and are not accompanied by any rain due to it evaporating before reaching
14194-411: The guidance center initiates advisories and discussions on individual tropical cyclones, as needed. If a tropical cyclone threatens the United States or its territories, individual WFOs begin issuing statements detailing the expected effects within their local area of responsibility. The NHC and CPHC issue products including tropical cyclone advisories, forecasts, and formation predictions, and warnings for
14345-580: The ignition time, and other pertinent information. The WFO composes a short-term fire weather forecast for the location and sends it back to the officials, usually within an hour of receiving the request. The NWS assists officials at the scene of large wildfires or other disasters, including HAZMAT incidents, by providing on-site support through Incident Meteorologists (IMET). IMETs are NWS forecasters specially trained to work with Incident Management Teams during severe wildfire outbreaks or other disasters requiring on-site weather support. IMETs travel quickly to
14496-407: The incident site and then assemble a mobile weather center capable of providing continuous meteorological support for the duration of the incident. The kit includes a cell phone , a laptop computer , and communications equipment, used for gathering and displaying weather data such as satellite imagery or numerical forecast model output. Remote weather stations are also used to gather specific data for
14647-502: The interior of the continent and at other points in the States and Territories... and for giving notice on the northern (Great) Lakes and on the seacoast by magnetic telegraph and marine signals, of the approach and force of storms." The agency was placed under the Secretary of War as Congress felt "military discipline would probably secure the greatest promptness, regularity, and accuracy in
14798-405: The internet, users can download and use the individual grids using a "GRIB2 decoder" which can output data as shapefiles , netCDF , GrADS , float files, and comma-separated value files. Specific points in the digital database can be accessed using an XML SOAP service. The National Weather Service issues many products relating to wildfires daily. For example, a Fire Weather Forecast, which have
14949-474: The issue of personal blogging and freedom of expression versus employer rights and responsibilities, and so it received wide media attention. Simonetti took legal action against the airline for "wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages". The suit was postponed while Delta was in bankruptcy proceedings. In early 2006, Erik Ringmar, a senior lecturer at the London School of Economics ,
15100-420: The issued watch, and SPC also issues mesoscale discussions focused upon possible convective activity. SPC compiles reports of severe hail, wind, or tornadoes issued by local WFOs each day when thunderstorms producing such phenomena occur in a given area, and formats the data into text and graphical products. It also provides forecasts on convective activity through day eight of the forecast period (most prominently,
15251-438: The latter's nickname for the ruling United Russia party as the "party of crooks and thieves" has been adopted by anti-regime protesters. This led to The Wall Street Journal calling Navalny "the man Vladimir Putin fears most" in March 2012. By 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as political consultants , news services, and candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. Blogging
15402-584: The main features in Weather Underground, allowing users of the site to create blogs about weather, everyday life and anything else. Jeff Masters started the first blog on April 14, 2005, and he posts blog entries nearly every day. From 2007 through early 2017 Richard B. Rood wrote blogs on climate change and societal response, with new entries on a weekly basis. On October 14, 2016, the Wunderblog announced that it would be changing their name to Category 6,
15553-607: The means of product dissemination, the NWS has been using more forecast products of a digital, gridded, image or other modern format. Each of the 122 Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) send their graphical forecasts to a national server to be compiled in the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD). The NDFD is a collection of common weather observations used by organizations and the public, including precipitation amount, temperature, and cloud cover among other parameters. In addition to viewing gridded weather data via
15704-526: The media, no major media organizations reported on his controversial comments until after blogs broke the story. Blogging helped to create a political crisis that forced Lott to step down as majority leader. Similarly, blogs were among the driving forces behind the " Rathergate " scandal. Television journalist Dan Rather presented documents on the CBS show 60 Minutes that conflicted with accepted accounts of President Bush's military service record. Bloggers declared
15855-621: The most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page . In the 2000s, blogs were often the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, "multi-author blogs" (MABs) emerged, featuring the writing of multiple authors and sometimes professionally edited . MABs from newspapers , other media outlets , universities, think tanks , advocacy groups , and similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic . The rise of Twitter and other " microblogging " systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into
16006-614: The national waters of the United States. NWS national centers or Weather Forecast Offices issue several marine products: The National Hurricane Center (NHC) and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC), respectively based in Miami, Florida and Honolulu, Hawaii , are responsible for monitoring tropical weather in the Atlantic , and central and eastern Pacific Oceans . In addition to releasing routine outlooks and discussions,
16157-496: The nickname Wunderground in addition to Weather Underground. Jeff Masters, a doctoral candidate in meteorology at the University of Michigan working under the direction of Professor Perry Samson, wrote a menu-based Telnet interface in 1991 that displayed real-time weather information around the world. In 1993, they recruited Alan Steremberg and initiated a project to bring Internet weather into K–12 classrooms. Weather Underground president Alan Steremberg wrote "Blue Skies" for
16308-489: The office's local area of responsibility. Weather.gov superseded the Interactive Weather Information Network (IWIN) , the agency's early internet service which provided NWS data from the 1990s through the mid-2000s. Since 1983, the NWS has provided external user access to weather information obtained by or derived from the U.S. Government through a collection of data communication line services called
16459-399: The official rainfall forecast for areas within their warning area of responsibility. These products can and do emphasize different hydrologic issues depending on geographic area, land use, time of year, as well as other meteorological and non-meteorological factors (for example, during the early spring or late winter a Flood Warning can be issued for an ice jam that occurs on a river, while in
16610-823: The output of numerical weather models because large bodies of water have a profound impact on the weather. Other users rely on the observations and forecasts for commercial and recreational activities. To help meet these needs, the NWS's National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) in Hancock County, Mississippi operates a network of about 90 buoys and 60 land-based coastal observing systems (C-MAN). The stations measure wind speed, direction, and gust; barometric pressure; and air temperature. In addition, all buoy and some C-MAN stations measure sea surface temperature , and wave height and period. Conductivity and water current are measured at selected stations. All stations report on an hourly basis. Supplemental weather observations are acquired through
16761-651: The person they suspected: the town's mayor, Councilman Cahill's political rival. The Cahills amended their original complaint, and the mayor settled the case rather than going to trial. In January 2007, two prominent Malaysian political bloggers, Jeff Ooi and Ahirudin Attan , were sued by a pro-government newspaper, The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad, Kalimullah bin Masheerul Hassan, Hishamuddin bin Aun and Brenden John a/l John Pereira over alleged defamation. The plaintiff
16912-470: The point of interest, and often receive direct support from the local WFO during such crises. IMETs, approximately 70 to 80 of which are employed nationally, can be deployed anywhere a disaster strikes and must be capable of working long hours for weeks at a time in remote locations under rough conditions. The National Weather Service is divided into 122 local branches, known as Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs), to issue products specific to those areas. The NWS
17063-614: The popularity of blogging continued to rise (as of 2006), the commercialisation of blogging is rapidly increasing. Many corporations and companies collaborate with bloggers to increase advertising and engage online communities with their products. In the book Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers , Henry Jenkins stated that "Bloggers take knowledge into their own hands, enabling successful navigation within and between these emerging knowledge cultures. One can see such behaviour as co-optation into commodity culture insofar as it sometimes collaborates with corporate interests, but one can also see it as increasing
17214-477: The popularization of the terms. Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet , commercial online services such as GEnie , Byte Information Exchange (BIX) and the early CompuServe , e-mail lists , and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum software created running conversations with "threads". Threads are topical connections between messages on
17365-405: The product describing the source of the hazard report, damage potential, and if applicable, radar indications or physical observations of tornadoes or the possibility of a tornado; hazards are also summarized at the close of the product text (describing estimated maximum hail size and wind gusts, and if applicable, if a storm has the potential to produce a tornado or in the event of a tornado warning,
17516-519: The production and maintenance of Web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible for a much larger and less technically-inclined population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize today. For instance, the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging". Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog hosting services , on regular web hosting services , or run using blog software. After
17667-468: The project, a graphical Mac Gopher client, which won several awards. When the Mosaic Web browser appeared, this provided a natural transition from "Blue Skies" to the Web. In 1995 Weather Underground Inc. became a commercial entity separate from the university. It has grown to provide weather for print sources, in addition to its online presence. In 2005, Weather Underground became the weather provider for
17818-471: The proposal failed in a Congressional vote. NEXRAD (Next Generation Radar), a system of Doppler radars deployed to improve the detection and warning time of severe local storms, replaced the WSR-57 and WSR-74 systems between 1988 and 1997. The NWS, through a variety of sub-organizations, issues different forecasts to users, including the general public. Although, throughout history, text forecasts have been
17969-578: The radars were upgraded to WSR-74 models beginning in 1974. In August 1966, the Weather Bureau became part of the Environmental Science Services Administration when that agency was formed. The Environmental Science Services Administration was renamed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on October 1, 1970, with the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act . At this time,
18120-495: The radiosonde measure profiles of pressure, temperature, and relative humidity. These sensors are linked to a battery-powered radio transmitter that sends the sensor measurements to a ground receiver. By tracking the position of the radiosonde in flight, information on wind speed and direction aloft is also obtained. The flight can last longer than two hours, and during this time the radiosonde can ascend above 35 km (115,000 ft) and drift more than 200 km (120 mi) from
18271-419: The raw data is not available to the public). The National Weather Service has developed a multi-tier concept for forecasting or alerting the public to all types of hazardous weather: Short-fused weather warnings and advisories issued by local NWS forecast offices are generally less than 500–5,000 square miles (1,300–12,900 km ) in area. Warnings for severe local storms are intended to be issued preceding
18422-488: The release point. When the balloon has expanded beyond its elastic limit and bursts (about 6 m or 20 ft in diameter), a small parachute slows the descent of the radiosonde, minimizing the danger to lives and property. Data obtained during the flights is coded and disseminated, at which point it can be plotted on a Skew-T or Stuve diagram for analysis. In recent years, the National Weather Service has begun incorporating data from AMDAR in its numerical models (however,
18573-452: The reputation of their employer, either in a positive way, if the employee is praising the employer and its workplaces, or in a negative way, if the blogger is making negative comments about the company or its practices. In general, attempts by employee bloggers to protect themselves by maintaining anonymity have proved ineffective. In 2009, a controversial and landmark decision by The Hon. Mr Justice Eady refused to grant an order to protect
18724-459: The required observations." Within the Department of War , it was assigned to the U.S. Army Signal Service under Brigadier General Albert J. Myer . General Myer gave the National Weather Service its first name: The Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce. Abbe was appointed as the Bureau's first chief meteorologist. In his earlier role as the civilian assistant to the chief of
18875-425: The same circulation area. Discussion emerged as to whether the newspaper industry would benefit from a stimulus package by the federal government. U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledged the emerging influence of blogging upon society by saying, "if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, then what you will end up getting
19026-824: The same time, support the needs of the meteorological, hydrological, and climatological research communities. ASOS was especially designed for the safety of the aviation community, therefore the sites are almost always located near airport runways. The system transmits routine hourly observations along with special observations when conditions exceed aviation weather thresholds (e.g. conditions change from visual meteorological conditions to instrument meteorological conditions ). The basic weather elements observed are: sky condition, visibility, present weather, obstructions to vision, pressure, temperature, dew point , wind direction and speed, precipitation accumulation, and selected significant remarks. The coded observations are issued as METARs and look similar to this: Getting more information on
19177-466: The service based on significant user feedback. The service previously distributed Internet radio feeds of NOAA Weather Radio stations from across the country, as provided by users, and had a Weather Underground Braille Page. The Associated Press uses Weather Underground to provide national weather summaries. Weather Underground has several Google Chrome extensions and applications for iPhone , iPad and Android including FullScreenWeather.com,
19328-500: The site as the 117th and 98th most-visited site in the United States, respectively, as of July 2015. SimilarWeb rates the site as the second most visited weather website globally, attracting more than 47 million visitors per month. The Weather Company also uses the site's San Francisco headquarters as a regional office. The site popularity also helped launch a television show hosted by meteorologist Mike Bettes , which aired on The Weather Channel from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET. The show
19479-454: The specified sections of government sub-jurisdictions that the warning covers, based on the projected path of a storm as determined by Doppler radar at the time of the warning's issuance; however, entire counties/parishes may sometimes be included in the warning polygon, especially if they encompass a small geographical area. Warnings can be expanded, contracted (by removing jurisdictions where SPC and NWS forecasters no longer consider there to be
19630-582: The summer a Flood Warning will most likely be issued for excessive rainfall). In recent years, the NWS has enhanced its dissemination of hydrologic information through the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS). The AHPS allows anyone to view near real-time observation and forecast data for rivers, lakes and streams. The service also enables the NWS to provide long-range probabilistic information which can be used for long-range planning decisions. Daily river forecasts are issued by
19781-401: The surface . State and federal forestry officials sometimes request a forecast from a WFO for a specific location called a "spot forecast", which are used to determine whether it will be safe to ignite a prescribed burn and how to situate crews during the controlling phase. Officials send in a request, usually during the early morning, containing the position coordinates of the proposed burn,
19932-617: The thirteen River Forecast Centers (RFCs) using hydrologic models based on rainfall, soil characteristics, precipitation forecasts, and several other variables. The first such center was founded on September 23, 1946. Some RFCs, especially those in mountainous regions, also provide seasonal snow pack and peak flow forecasts. These forecasts are used by a wide range of users, including those in agriculture , hydroelectric dam operation, and water supply resources. The National Weather Service Ocean Prediction Center (OPC) in College Park, Maryland issues marine products for areas that are within
20083-402: The threat of severe thunderstorms, the risk of which is assessed through a tiered system conveyed among six categories – general thunderstorms, marginal, slight, enhanced, moderate, or high – based mainly on the expected number of storm reports and regional coverage of thunderstorm activity over a given forecast day), and is responsible for issuing fire weather outlooks, which support local WFOs in
20234-431: The weather situation leads to property damage or casualties. Severe thunderstorm and flood warnings indicate that organized severe thunderstorms or flooding are occurring, whereas tornado warnings are issued if a storm is indicated to be producing an observed tornado or exhibits strong, low-level rotation. The process of issuing a warning or advisory begins with observations of a hydrological or extreme weather event that
20385-449: The word " tornado " from being used in any of its weather products out of concern for inciting panic (a move contradicted in its intentions by the high death tolls in past tornado outbreaks due to the lack of advanced warning) until 1938, when it began disseminating tornado warnings exclusively to emergency management personnel. The Bureau would in 1940 be moved to the Department of Commerce . In 1941, Margaret Smagorinsky (née Knoepfel)
20536-501: Was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, digital video, and digital pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site in 1994. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance , and such journals were also used as evidence in legal matters. Some early bloggers, such as The Misanthropic Bitch, who began in 1997, referred to their online presence as
20687-503: Was among the first national governments to set up an official blog. Under David Saranga , the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs became active in adopting Web 2.0 initiatives, including an official video blog and a political blog . The Foreign Ministry also held a microblogging press conference via Twitter about its war with Hamas , with Saranga answering questions from the public in common text-messaging abbreviations during
20838-559: Was an effort to protect the public. The case was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction, and Traffic Power failed to appeal within the allowed time. In 2009, NDTV issued a legal notice to Indian blogger Kunte for a blog post criticizing their coverage of the Mumbai attacks . The blogger unconditionally withdrew his post, which resulted in several Indian bloggers criticizing NDTV for trying to silence critics. Employees who blog about elements of their place of employment can begin to affect
20989-632: Was arrested in April 2007 for anti-government writings in his blog. Monem is a member of the then banned Muslim Brotherhood . After the 2011 Egyptian revolution , the Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad was charged with insulting the military for an article he wrote on his personal blog and sentenced to three years. After expressing opinions in his personal blog about the state of the Sudanese armed forces, Jan Pronk , United Nations Special Representative for Sudan ,
21140-495: Was charged with insulting the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and an Islamic institution through his blog. It is the first time in the history of Egypt that a blogger was prosecuted. After a brief trial session that took place in Alexandria , the blogger was found guilty and sentenced to prison terms of three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition and one year for insulting Mubarak. Egyptian blogger Abdel Monem Mahmoud
21291-516: Was coined by Jorn Barger on December 17, 1997. The short form "blog" was coined by Peter Merholz , who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in May 1999. Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to blog", meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger product, leading to
21442-554: Was developed by the National Weather Service during the mid-1980s, and fully deployed throughout the majority of the United States by 1997. There are 158 such radar sites in operation in the U.S., its various territorial possessions and selected overseas locations. This technology, because of its high resolution and ability to detect intra-cloud motions, is now the cornerstone of the agency's severe weather warning operations. National Weather Service meteorologists use an advanced information processing, display and telecommunications system,
21593-630: Was established by politicians and political candidates to express opinions on war and other issues and cemented blogs' role as a news source. (See Howard Dean and Wesley Clark .) Even politicians not actively campaigning, such as the UK's Labour Party's Member of Parliament (MP) Tom Watson , began to blog to bond with constituents. In January 2005, Fortune magazine listed eight bloggers whom business people "could not ignore": Peter Rojas , Xeni Jardin , Ben Trott , Mena Trott , Jonathan Schwartz , Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble , and Jason Calacanis . Israel
21744-903: Was established in 1890 under the Organic Act, currently has a twofold mission: The National Weather Service also maintains connections with privately operated mesonets such as the Citizen Weather Observer Program for data collection, in part, through the Meteorological Assimilated Data Ingest System (MADIS). Funding is also provided to the CoCoRaHS volunteer weather observer network through parent agency NOAA. NWS forecasters need frequent, high-quality marine observations to examine conditions for forecast preparation and to verify their forecasts after they are produced. These observations are especially critical to
21895-485: Was finalized on January 29, 2016. On October 3, 2019, Jeff Masters announced that he would be leaving Weather Underground. On August 22, 2023, IBM agreed to sell The Weather Company to private equity firm Francisco Partners for an undisclosed sum. After the acquisition of the company was completed in February 2024, Weather Underground also became controlled by the American private equity firm. Web logs ( blogs ) were one of
22046-455: Was given three days notice to leave Sudan. The Sudanese army had demanded his deportation. In Myanmar , Nay Phone Latt, a blogger, was sentenced to 20 years in jail for posting a cartoon critical of head of state Than Shwe . One consequence of blogging is the possibility of online or in-person attacks or threats against the blogger, sometimes without apparent reason. In some cases, bloggers have faced cyberbullying . Kathy Sierra , author of
22197-406: Was hired as the Weather Bureau's first female statistician. On July 12, 1950, Bureau chief Francis W. Reichelderfer officially lifted the agency's ban on public tornado alerts in a Circular Letter, noting to all first order stations that "Weather Bureau employees should avoid statements that can be interpreted as a negation of the Bureau's willingness or ability to make tornado forecasts", and that
22348-462: Was initiated in 2005, the Lulu Blooker Prize . However, success has been elusive offline, with many of these books not selling as well as their blogs. The book based on Julie Powell 's blog "The Julie/Julia Project" was made into the film Julie & Julia , apparently the first to do so. Consumer-generated advertising is a relatively new and controversial development, and it has created
22499-495: Was ordered by the convenor of his department to "take down and destroy" his blog in which he discussed the quality of education at the school. Mark Jen was terminated in 2005 after 10 days of employment as an assistant product manager at Google for discussing corporate secrets on his personal blog, then called 99zeros and hosted on the Google-owned Blogger service. He blogged about unreleased products and company finances
22650-478: Was renamed Weather Unfiltered on May 13, 2024. On October 28, 2015, Jeff Masters noted that IBM had officially announced an agreement to acquire The Weather Company's mobile and cloud-based Web properties, including Weather Underground, WSI, weather.com, and also the Weather Company brand. The Weather Channel television service remained a separate entity, later sold to Entertainment Studios in 2018. The deal
22801-723: Was supported by the Malaysian government. Following the suit, the Malaysian government proposed to "register" all bloggers in Malaysia to better control parties against their interests. This is the first such legal case against bloggers in the country. In the United States, blogger Aaron Wall was sued by Traffic Power for defamation and publication of trade secrets in 2005. According to Wired magazine, Traffic Power had been "banned from Google for allegedly rigging search engine results." Wall and other " white hat " search engine optimization consultants had exposed Traffic Power in what they claim
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