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Weather Service Becoming More Tech Friendly

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-hope-your-servers-are-weatherproofed dept.

awgy writes "The National Weather Service recently began offering XML/RSS feeds of their alerts, observations, and forecasts. Now the Tulsa, OK Forecast Office is experimenting with offering forecast files for Google Earth. It looks like the National Weather Service is quickly becoming one of the most geek-friendly government agencies."

4 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. NWS is nothing but geeks by Kevinv · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My father worked for the NWS (retired now). The whole department is nothing but geeks. I had to go to his office after school every day. I learned BASIC on a mainframe ("here this'll keep you busy."). I got to use some touch-screen computer that was networked with a bunch of computers at a Michigan college (I don't think it used Arpanet but it may have). I played a graphical MUD type thing that looked like Wizardry eventually would but I could interact with other players. It pretty much rocked.

  2. Re:I wonder if their info is superior to AccuWeath by platos_beard · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Indeed. They appear to have successfully Bought my senator

    --
    What's a sig?
  3. Tell Santorum what you think about S.786 by rah1420 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here's what I told him. Here's where I told it to him.

    I'm opposed to your introduction of S.786, the "National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005." Why don't you just label it the "AccuWeather Protection Act of 2005" and get it over with?

    The National Weather Service provides accurate, up to date gathering of data and presents forecasts of weather at taxpayers' expense. To prohibit them from disseminating this through public access, and constrain them to "data portals designed for volume access by commercial providers" (Section 2(c)(2)) does a grave disservice to the taxpayers of Pennsylvania and the country in general. What you have done is nothing less than ensure that commercial weather reporting agencies have a taxpayer-funded data source that taxpayers are prohibited from enjoying.

    Rest assured I will be monitoring the progress of this bill through the Senate and the House.

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    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
  4. Geek Frinedly? by Andyham · · Score: 3, Interesting
    As many others have pointed out, the place is brimming with geeks. I volunteer there as part of the Skywarn program.

    There's a significant number of Mets that also sling a little code on their off-hours. Naturally, they like to code new weather data manipulation and presentation applications.

    They are also Open-Source friendly. The computer we use down there runs Fedora Core 3 and Firefox (at my insistence, and it was fine with them). Their AWIPS workstations run Red Hat Linux and feature 3 flat-panel montors. They are the coolest things, these AWIPS workstations. (If memory serves, the acronym means "Advanced Weather Information Presentation System").

    But there are two truly remarkable things about the people that work there that I have noticed. First, they are about the smartest group of people that I have ever worked with.

    Second, they truly have a dedication to protect and serve the public. That might sound corny to some, but not to me. They take pride in trying to warn the public of impending severe weather, and are genuinely concerned about the public's safety.

    And while they cannot publicly comment on issues such as the misguided Senator Santorum's attempt to make them work for large corporations, I can almost guarantee that they aren't happy about it (based on a few private conversations I've had with some of the staff).

    I have a deep respect for these people and do hope that Santorum's attempt to screw the public does not pass.