....My family was closely following the weather . A supercell thunderstorm had moved near Emporia, Kansas -- where it produced large hail -- on its way toward Williamsburg and Ottawa where it produced an F-5 intensity tornado that began killing people at Ottawa, moved through densely populated south Kansas City, and then lifted near the suburb of Raytown, MO. Forty-four people were killed and as many as 500 were injured.  Charles LeMaster via The Ottawa Herald. Used with permission.  This tornado was historic because it was the first time the federal government's Weather Bureau issued what we could call today a "tornado warning." Those warnings have saved lives! The number is likely in the tens of thousands.  Here's another story, just published today , of how a tornado warning and a tornado safe room allowed a young woman to graduate from high school this week.  Members of the AccuWeather team on a storm warning client "field trip" It was this storm, known...

  A number of my commenters correctly point out that no meteorologist is perfect. I couldn’t agree more. So, I thought it would be useful to explain how my company, WeatherData, Inc., handled a bad storm warning failure. This case involved an exceptionally powerful rear-flank downdraft (RFD) that caused major damage for one of our largest clients.   Supercell similar to the one that produced the 90 mph gusts The example I will cite occurred in 1999, very late on a Saturday evening. The RFD's winds were estimated to be 90 mph. They caused huge damage ($6 million in 1999, now $11 million) for one of our largest clients. We had a high wind warning out for the client nearby but not at the specific location of the incident. While that confirms we were watching the weather in that area, the fact the location of the accident wasn’t included in the warning made it irrelevant as far as the client was concerned.    I was awakened by about 1am and said I would be in later in th...

Ted Fujita was the most amazing meteorologist of my lifetime.  Ted Fujita in 1993 during one of his visits to WeatherData, Inc. He took a forensic approach to studying weather and, among other accomplishments,  Discovered the downburst which stopped what was them the #1 cause of airline crashes Created the Fujita Scale of tornado damage Discovered so much about tornadoes that I can't list all it here Photo of rain "curling" in a downburst Copyright 1978, Michael R Smith AccuWeather published a well-done biographical article Ted this morning. You'll enjoy reading more about him!

Macintosh computers at AccuWeather The passing of Steve Jobs earlier this week hit me hard. I've asked myself why and it was because the Macintosh and the company I founded, WeatherData, Inc., were so tightly linked for so many years.  With its unsurpassed graphics capability, the Mac allowed us to create full color weather packages for newspapers that were better and more timely than the newspapers could do for themselves. WeatherData grew rapidly as a result. Even after I sold WeatherData to AccuWeather, the Mac continues both in AccuWeather's Wichita and State College offices to create great graphics in our products. This blog is written on a MacBook Pro. AccuWeather's Grace Muller picks up the story .

We had a wonderful celebration at WeatherData to conclude its 30-year run. As I mentioned on the blog last week, our name is is now AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions. There is no doubt in my mind that even bigger and better things are ahead of us. But, it was fun today to pause and think back over the last 30 years and all we have accomplished. Our colleagues at AccuWeather's home office in State College joined us via videoconference and everyone had a wonderful time.

Thirty years ago today was the first day in business for a tiny company, WeatherData, Inc., that I founded August 31, 1981. The chances of a startup company making it to the 30-year mark are far less than 1%. So, I thought our readers might like to know some of the principles of our success.   Never start a company until you have a well-defined goal about which you are both passionate and competent to execute. ·       100% of the entrepreneurs I have known say creating and running a business is harder than they expected. I know I expected it to be hard but I, too, found it to be extraordinarily difficult, especially since mine was 24/7. There is no way I could have stuck it out unless I was passionate about my goal of saving lives and property.  As a business owner, “the highs are very high and the lows are very low and there are many more of the latter.” ·       Every entrepreneur to whom I have given this advice has late...

Cloud-to-ground lightning. Photo: U.S. Department of Education The more we learn about lightning, the more difficult crafting simple safety rules seems to be. Until the last five years or so, we didn't realize that lightning from "anvil crawlers" can travel as far as 30 miles from the core of the thunderstorm yet still induce cloud to ground lightning. Anvil crawlers (foreground) with cloud-to-ground lightning. Photo: Norway Meteorological Institution At this point, there is no perfect lightning warning technique. What to do? A federally approved technique is the “flash to bang method.” If you see lightning and the thunder arrives in less than 30 seconds (six miles) you are in danger. Less than 15 seconds is high danger. The danger continues until 30 minutes have passed after the last thunder is heard This requires people to keep track of each peal of thunder and restart the clock each time thunder occurs. This can result in some difficult situ...

All of us who work at WeatherData® (my day job) are very proud of our company and the work we do.  Here is a  video  by Justin Roberti shot during our recent open house. I think you'll enjoy watching it.

The folks at Disaster Recovery Journal have an article  of mine up at their web site on why private sector weather companies are usually a better choice for businesses than using the National Weather Service warnings intended for the public. You can learn more about WeatherData's services for businesses at WeatherData's web site.