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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."

6 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. The same weather service by bherman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't forget everyone, this is the same weather service our friends at Accuweather and like minded companys are trying to get to stop their innovation.

    I pay for them to gather the weather, why should I have to pay accuweather to give it to me in a more readable format.
    I'll let the guys/girls that gathered it in the first place make it purdy!

    --
    Error: Sig not found.
  2. Get your forecast on your cell phone by HMA2000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It even gives you a radar image. Works well in bars and cars especially.

    http://mobile.srh.weather.gov/

  3. How is this geek-friendly? by KitesWorld · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was under the impression that most of us never go outside. Why the hell would we need to know what the weather's like? ;-)

  4. Mother Nature Needs a Blog by Nova+Express · · Score: 5, Funny
    Maybe what the National Weather Service neds to do to make themselves more techn friendly is give Mother Nature Herself a blog:

    Mood: Sunny.

    Can't wait until the fall harvest season arrives; all this grain makes me feel hot and a trim will be great!

    I hate those new sat photos they released yesterday. They make me look fat.

    I wonder what Mars is doing. We were, like, so totally close during perihelion, but then he drifted away. Men.

    --
    Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)

    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

  5. Poster reveals his youth? by JabberWokky · · Score: 5, Informative
    They always have been - they just hadn't upgraded in awhile. Back in the 80s, you could pull forecasts and weather alerts off their ftp server and as gopher and the web were invented, they gave access to those new technologies. I think they even had a finger service.

    This was long before XML, so they invented their own format called METAR, no more difficult than, say, email. It was standard, and they have made it public for decades.

    "Becoming one of the most geek-friendly government agencies"? They always have been!

    --
    Evan

    --
    "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
    1. Re:Poster reveals his youth? by kabz · · Score: 5, Informative
      Aaaarrrrggghhhh!! METAR, the bane of student pilots everywhere, but it *is* ok once you get used to it.
      KIAH 190953Z 00000KT 10SM CLR 24/23 A2997 RMK AO2 SLP148 T02440233 $

      It's not really surprising that the weather service is kinda geeky. Most of it probably rubbed off from pilots who are probably in the top 3 geeky professions.
      --
      -- "It's not stalking if you're married!" My Wife.