AccuWeather

AccuWeather, Inc., is a private-sector American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services. AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers. The company adopted the name 'AccuWeather' in 1971.

The company sells forecasting products compiled from weather data available from federal government agencies.[2][3] AccuWeather has lobbied the US government to stop providing weather data services for free to the public and to privatize the National Weather Service, thus enabling AccuWeather to provide those services at a charge instead.[2]

AccuWeather is headquartered in Ferguson Township, near State College, Pennsylvania, with offices in New York City, Wichita, Kansas, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Internationally, AccuWeather has offices in Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, and Mumbai.

Company overview

Criticisms

Long-term forecasting practices

In April 2012, AccuWeather drastically shortened the range of its publicly available historical data from 15 years to 1 year. They also began increasing the range of their forecast from 15 days to 25 days, 45 days, and (by 2016) to 90 days. These forecasts have been compared to actual results several times and shown to be misleading, inaccurate, and sometimes less accurate than simple predictions based on National Weather Service averages over a 30-year period.[31][32] It is generally accepted that the upper limit for reliable forecasting is between one and two weeks, with a limit based on both limitations in observational systems and the chaotic nature of the atmosphere.[31][33][34]

An informal assessment conducted by Jason Samenow in 2013 at The Washington Post asserted that AccuWeather's forecasts at the 25-day range were often wrong by as many as ten degrees Fahrenheit, no better than random chance and that the forecasts missed half of the fourteen days of rain that had occurred during the month of the assessment.[35] AccuWeather responds that it does not claim absolute precision in such extremely long forecasts and advises users to only use the forecast to observe general trends in the forecast period,[36] but this contrasts with the way the forecasts are presented. An assessment from the Post determined that the 45-day forecasts were not even able to predict trends accurately, and that, although the forecasts did not decrease in accuracy with time, the forecasts were so far off even in the short range as to be useless.[37] The Post commissioned another assessment from Penn State University professor Jon Nese, comparing several more cities to AccuWeather's predictions; that assessment, while acknowledged as being limited to a single season, acknowledged that AccuWeather's forecasts were of value in short-range forecasting while also noting that their long-range forecasts beyond one week were less accurate than climatological averages.[32]

National Weather Service

The National Weather Service, which provides large amounts of the data that AccuWeather repackages and sells for profit, also provides that same information for free by placing it in the public domain. AccuWeather stated that "NOAA foundational weather data is one of 190 sources that AccuWeather uses as inputs into our proprietary and patented Forecast Engine (SWIFT), which also uses AI, 250 patents, the expertise of more than 100 meteorologists, and over 60 years of intellectual capital to generate our forecasts and warnings."[38]

On April 14, 2005, U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) introduced the "National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005" in the U.S. Senate. The legislation would have forbidden the National Weather Service from providing any such information directly to the public, and the legislation was generally interpreted as an attempt by AccuWeather to profit off of taxpayer-funded weather research by forcing its delivery through private channels. AccuWeather denies this and maintains it never intended to keep weather information out of the hands of the general public.[39] The bill did not come up for a vote. Santorum received campaign contributions from AccuWeather's president, Joel Myers.[40] AccuWeather maintains that it does not agree with the view, and AccuWeather has not suggested that the National Weather Service (NWS) should fully commercialize its operations.

iOS location privacy

In August 2017, security researcher Will Strafach intercepted traffic from the AccuWeather iPhone app to discover that it inadvertently sent location information to Reveal Mobile through a faulty SDK, even when customers have not given permission to share location information. ZDnet independently verified this information.[45] AccuWeather stated that it did not know the app was tracking location information without users' consent and that it did not use the data in any way and released an update to the App Store which removed the Reveal Mobile SDK.[46]

Lobbying

AccuWeather has lobbied the US government to stop providing services for free to the public and to privatize the National Weather Service, thus enabling AccuWeather to provide those services at a charge instead.[2][47]

type	Private
genre	Weather forecasting
industry	Meteorology
foundation	1962
founder	Joel Myers
location city	Ferguson Township, near State College, Pennsylvania
location country	United States
key people	Joel Myers (founder and executive chair) Steven Smith (CEO)
services	Smartphone weather applications Online forecasts and videos
num employees	500+‡R1R‡
homepage	https://accuweather.com

Company overview

Leadership

Products and services

Personalities

The Local AccuWeather Channel

Criticisms

Long-term forecasting practices

National Weather Service

iOS location privacy

Lobbying

See also

External links

References

MS NOW, CNBC broadcast

National weather channel

AccuWeather Now

RealFeel temperature

Plume Labs