AccuWeather facts for kids
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AccuWeather headquarters in Ferguson Township, Pennsylvania
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| Private | |
| Industry | Meteorology |
| Genre | Weather forecasting |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Founder | Joel Myers |
| Headquarters |
Ferguson Township, near State College, Pennsylvania
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United States
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Key people
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Joel Myers (executive chairman) Steven Smith (CEO) |
| Services |
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Number of employees
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500+ |
AccuWeather, Inc. is an American company that gives weather forecasts. It was started in 1962 by Joel N. Myers. The company got the name 'AccuWeather' in 1971.
AccuWeather's main office is in Ferguson Township, Pennsylvania. This is close to State College. They also have offices in Manhattan's Financial District in New York City, Wichita, Kansas, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Around the world, AccuWeather has offices in Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, and Mumbai.
The company takes weather information from government sources and makes it easier for people to understand and use. AccuWeather has suggested that the U.S. government should charge for some weather services. This would allow AccuWeather to offer those services instead.
Contents
What AccuWeather Does
AccuWeather gives weather forecasts, warnings, and other weather-related services. Many people know them for their website, app, and TV channel. AccuWeather offers some free services that are supported by ads. They also make money from paid subscriptions that unlock special features.
In 2024, AccuWeather had about 400 employees. More than 100 of these employees were meteorologists, who are scientists who study weather.
AccuWeather also runs a TV channel called The AccuWeather Network. This channel shows weather updates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The channel's studio is at the company's main office near State College, Pennsylvania.
Company Leaders
As of June 2023, Steven R. Smith is the CEO (Chief Executive Officer). He took over from the company's founder, Dr. Joel N. Myers. Joel Myers is now the executive chairman.
Joel Myers' brother, Evan Myers, was the Chief Operating Officer until 2020. Another brother, Barry Lee Myers, was the CEO from 2007 to 2019.
AccuWeather's Services
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AccuWeather provides weather information to other companies. For example, they share forecasts with Bloomberg Television and United Stations Radio Networks. One of AccuWeather's broadcast meteorologists, Jim Kosek, became very popular online in 2010. This was because of his energetic way of announcing forecasts, like when he called a blizzard a "snowmaggedon". Jonathan Porter is AccuWeather's Chief Meteorologist. Elliot Abrams retired from AccuWeather in 2019 after working there for over 50 years.
AccuWeather creates local weather videos every day. These videos are used on their website, on the Local AccuWeather Network, and on mobile apps. Their mobile app has a minute-by-minute forecast. It also collects weather observations from people using the app. The company also works with digital signage, which are electronic displays. They have a section where users can share their own weather videos.
In 2015, AccuWeather teamed up with a Chinese company called Huafeng Media Group. This partnership gave AccuWeather the only rights to share forecasts made by the China Meteorological Administration. This is a government agency in China.
Besides giving forecasts to individuals, AccuWeather also helps businesses. They use weather information to predict future trends for companies.
The Local AccuWeather Channel
Starting in 2005, AccuWeather offered The Local AccuWeather Channel. This channel was available as a digital subchannel on TV stations. By 2021, this service was no longer available. However, AccuWeather still provides local weather content to the non-commercial Milwaukee PBS station WMVT-DT3.
National Weather Channel
In 2015, Verizon FiOS started showing a new 24/7 weather TV network called "The AccuWeather Channel". This channel replaced The Weather Channel on Verizon FiOS. This new network is different from "The Local AccuWeather Channel". The AccuWeather Network was the third 24/7 weather channel to start in the U.S. The first was The Weather Channel in 1982, and the second was WeatherNation TV in 2011. The AccuWeather Network is also available on Spectrum TV, DIRECTV, Frontier, and streaming services like Philo and FuboTV. On August 1, 2018, the AccuWeather Network became available nationwide on DIRECTV.
AccuWeather Now
In July 2021, AccuWeather announced a new online channel called AccuWeather Now. This channel mainly shows popular videos and content shared on social media.
RealFeel Temperature
AccuWeather created its own special system for how the temperature feels. They call it "The AccuWeather Exclusive RealFeel Temperature." This system considers many things. It looks at the actual temperature, wind, humidity, how strong the sun is, how cloudy it is, if it's raining, and how high up you are. All these factors affect how your body feels the weather. AccuWeather has a United States patent for RealFeel. However, the exact way it's calculated is a secret. Other weather experts have not reviewed the formula. In response to AccuWeather's "RealFeel," The Weather Channel created their own "FeelsLike" temperature.
Plume Labs
In 2022, AccuWeather bought a company called Plume Labs. Plume Labs started in 2014. It helps people see and predict air quality. It gets information from government stations and from people who share their own data. Plume Labs also started to predict air quality for specific streets. They also sold a small device called Flow that measures air quality. Many Flow devices reported air quality, even more than government stations. However, government stations usually give more accurate readings.
After AccuWeather bought Plume Labs, they stopped selling the Flow device in the spring of 2023.
Things People Have Said About AccuWeather
Long-Term Forecasts
In April 2012, AccuWeather changed how much past weather data they showed. They went from 15 years down to 1 year. They also started making their forecasts for longer periods, from 15 days to 25 days, then 45 days, and by 2016, up to 90 days. People have checked these very long forecasts. They found that they were often not correct. Sometimes, they were even less accurate than just guessing based on average weather from the past 30 years. Most experts agree that you can only reliably predict weather for about one to two weeks. This is because of limits in how we observe weather and because weather is naturally chaotic.
In 2013, a writer for The Washington Post looked at AccuWeather's 25-day forecasts. He found that they were often wrong by as much as ten degrees Fahrenheit. They also missed half of the rainy days in one month. AccuWeather says that they do not promise perfect accuracy for these very long forecasts. They advise users to only look for general trends. However, the way the forecasts are shown can make people think they are more precise. Another check by the Post found that the 45-day forecasts could not even predict general trends well.
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service (NWS) provides a lot of the weather data that AccuWeather uses. The NWS makes this information available for free to everyone. AccuWeather says that NWS data is one of many sources they use. They also use their own special technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and the knowledge of their meteorologists.
In 2005, a U.S. Senator suggested a law that would have stopped the National Weather Service from giving weather information directly to the public for free. Many people thought this was an attempt by AccuWeather to make money from government-funded weather research. They believed it would force people to get weather information from private companies. AccuWeather says this was not their intention. The proposed law did not pass. The Senator who suggested the law had received money for his election campaign from AccuWeather's founder, Joel Myers. AccuWeather states that they do not believe the NWS should fully charge for its services.
In 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Barry Lee Myers, who was AccuWeather's CEO and the founder's younger brother, to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA is the parent organization of the National Weather Service. People noted that Barry Myers did not have an advanced science degree, unlike most previous NOAA leaders. He had degrees in business and law. Barry Myers left his CEO role at AccuWeather in 2019. He also sold all his ownership in the company. He did this to follow rules for government officials. After two years, Myers withdrew his nomination in November 2019 due to health reasons.
iOS Location Privacy
In August 2017, a security expert found that the AccuWeather iPhone app was accidentally sending location information to another company. This happened even when users had said they did not want to share their location. ZDnet, a technology news website, also confirmed this. AccuWeather said they did not know the app was tracking location without permission. They also said they did not use this data. AccuWeather quickly released an update to their App Store app that fixed the problem.
See also
In Spanish: AccuWeather para niños
- Category:Meteorological companies
- Fox Weather
- The Weather Channel
- Skymotion
