AccuWeather turns 50
By Kent Jackson, Standard-Speaker, Hazleton, Pa. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
From up there, a downward glance takes in men and women segregated by cubicles as they work on computers, a bank of booths for radio broadcasts and a green screen backdrop for videotaping sessions.
This is what
He theorized that companies, governments and people would pay for timely information that could protect their property, their businesses and even their lives from the damage that weather can inflict.
He was right.
The company now supplies 200 television stations and more than 200 radio stations with forecasts, updated several times a day. People check forecasts on
Each day, about 1 billion people hear one of the forecasts or see the AccuWeather brand.
"We have a great brand," Myers said.
As the name suggests, accuracy is the key to the product. Because of the locales and languages in which
"We go to great pains to make sure it's clear what we're saying," he said.
46 years on the job
The first to join the staff, meteorologist
Abrams and Myers knew each other from
"He was more than right," Abrams said from inside the booth where he delivers radio weather forecasts heard by millions.
Seven computer screens line the counter in font of his chair, but a paper map of
He still makes his own forecasts by hand every morning.
When Abrams started at
Government radar readings arrived by fax on pieces of paper 3 inches square. Abrams pasted the squares on a map of the Northeast to chart the weather conditions.
As he continued reminiscing, he opened an album of old photos, many of them black-and-white, showing him, Myers and others at the job. In those days, that crew was small, and their spouses helped out by telephoning clients such as highway garages.
"My wife was propositioned by somebody in the
Of all the storms on which he reported, he most remembers a hurricane seared into the psyches of Northeastern Pennsylvanians who lived through it in 1972.
Agnes.
Just three meteorologists at
When Agnes ended, Abrams said he felt like he had post-traumatic shock.
The flooding of the
Flood reports "were based on how much rain was already falling. You have to account for the rain that would fall, and that wasn't being done" until after Agnes, Abrams said.
He said many meteorologists got into the field with hopes of developing information that saves lives. He saves a thank you from a
"She thought I saved her life," Abrams said.
"It protected them from a multi-million-dollar expense," Seidel said.
"We've stopped trains in the Midwest, and tornadoes have gone in front of them," he added.
Seventy-nine of the Forbes 100 list of the largest corporations retain
The founder
Myers meets with the leaders of corporations frequently and said they're always looking a year or more into the future.
Predictions are Myers' forte, too.
He manages a hedge fund, called Weather Prophets, in which he predicts financial trends for investors.
Weather, not business, first filled him with wonder.
As a boy growing up in
"It interrupts all human activities. That's all fascinating. That led me into weather," he said.
When his father read him a newspaper article about a man in
Getting a great idea is only the first step to building a business.
Myers said when a new business has a breakout year, he will hear comments like "I had that idea three years ago" and think to himself, "
After identifying an idea for a business and testing it, he said more work remains to be done.
"You move on it. You work day and night until you achieve it," Myers said.
In 50 years, he has seen scores of competing weather companies start and fold.
What kept
"We created an entrepreneurial culture," Myers said while sitting at the desk in his office. His collection of barometers, some hundreds of years old, hang on the walls.
The barometers are reminders of earlier times in forecasting, but
Starting with corporate clients in the 1960s such as ski resorts that wanted to know the best times to make snow,
The audience responded by emailing and tweeting photos of approaching storms and scenes of damage just after a storm subsides.
Sensors could be built into smartphones or automobiles, making them miniature weather stations that feed information into
The company reached around the globe. Myers said
When reminding people to take a jacket because the weather's going to be cold, broadcaster
Many times, she will open a broadcast with "Hola" to say hello in Spanish and remember that she is giving the forecast for an English-speaking audience.
Myers said
The company predicts weather for periods such as five, seven and 15 days, and now provides a 45-day forecast.
"Rain will start at 1:58 and turn to snow at 2:10," he said while giving an example.
Myers said
Penn State for 21 years, has been on the university's board of trustees for 33 and donated
"Of course, I hired my best students. I seeded the company with some of the best forecasters," Myers said.
Expert senior meteorologist
He wanted to become a forecaster. Radio and television broadcasting wasn't for him, he thought, until he tried them.
"I fell in love with what I do," Rayno said.
He now broadcasts forecasts from
On Friday evenings in the fall, he goes on ESPN to give game-day forecasts, which lets him combine two of his favorite things: football and forecasting.
Rayno said he was looking forward to an upcoming interview on CNN where he planned to talk about whether climate change caused recent incidents of severe weather, such as this fall's flooding in
"I've been waiting three years to give my opinion," Rayno said.
He thinks there's no scientific basis.
"You can't blame a single event on climate change," he said while mentioning flaws in computer models and how the 150 years or so of available weather data pales with the age of the planet of about 4 billion years.
The official position of
"I can't think of any major channel I have not had him on," Roberti said.
With the ease of a broadcaster accustomed to public speaking, Rayno approached a computer screen showing a map of
The screen was the size of a big television, but interactive.
Rayno rubbed his fingers across the screen to zoom in as if delivering a forecast for his hometown.
He talked about his hometown's place on the Pocono Plateau and its weather.
"It's a great place for Nor'easters," he said.
While growing up in
He still calls the Standard-Speaker's Time and Temperature line, 570-455-2011, to check his hometown temperature and forecast. When he is forecasting, his mother, Mary, asks the server at
One thing his mother taught him, Rayno said, is to be thankful that he has a job every day.
A work ethic that his mother would recognize sustains
"We're always competing against free. We're not free. We have to be better," he said. "A smarter way of working. That's how we survive."
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