The Weather Businiess

When The WeatherMan was just a "WeatherKid" (a.k.a. geek), there was pretty much only one source of weather information and forecasts. At that time, it was called the "weather bureau" and has since become the National Weather Service. There was no internet, no Weather Channel, and most of the TV weathercasters had little or no knowledge of Meteorology and just spouted out re-worded information from the weather bureau. The information was "free". Since the weather bureau was part of the government, the forecasts were, in actuality, paid for through our tax dollars.

One of the first private weather forecasting services, Accu-Weather, now referred to asAccuWeather.com, was started in the 1960;s by Dr. Joel Myers, then a professor of meteorology at Penn State. The premise behind this and other private weather services is that people will be willing to pay for weather information that is either more accurate, more detailed, or more specifically tailored to their needs than what is available from the government. Later, with the advent of cable and satellite TV, The Weather Channel was born. It is a 24/7/365 source of weather information and forecasts on virtually every cable and satellite TV system in the country. There have been many private weather companies over the years, but AccuWeather.com and The Weather Channel have been the two "household names" in the business. AccuWeather.com was biggest in the radio business in the 70s and 80s and the newspaper business in the 90s. The Weather Channel of course was always focused on television, but has also branched out into newspaper and radio.

Now, with the internet and web-enabled cell phones, weather information is available just about anywhere, anytime with just the click of a button. But no matter what you think, there is no such thing as a "free forecast". The National Weather Service is funded through your tax dollars, whether you use their forecasts or not. Part of your cable or satellite TV bill goes to The Weather Channel, whether you watch it or not. If you think the forecasts you see on the internet, or those provided by your local TV or radio station are free, think again. All of these forecasts are funded by advertising, and if you buy anything from one of those advertisers, part of your cost goes toward paying for that advertising. So, in a roundabout way, you are probably paying for more forecasts than you ever use.