F5Data

[Andrew Revering]

F5Data is now officially open to the public.

On http://www.f5data.com/ you will find:
- Forecast Soundings (2000 grid points - 48 states - NAM/ETA out to 84 hrs & RUC out to 12 hrs)
- Forecast Maps (130 products - most unique set online... see list of map types on web site)
- Sortable current conditions database
- Surface maps that update every 5 minutes (with SPECIs of course)
- Bunch of other stuff.

There are all kinds of screen shots and Flash demonstrations on the web site. I'd encourage you to check it out to really get a feel of what we're doing.

I think our biggest advantage are the forecast soundings we provide. Every forecast hour in Skew-T and textual form on a very tight grid for the entire U.S. Not just tornado alley. There are 60 points in MN alone.

Also our massive list of contoured map parameters is the most comprehensive on the 'net. I'm sure there will be a lot of calculated variables you've never heard of before. The entire list can be found on the site.

http://www.f5data.com/

Andy

 

[Andrea Griffa]

Originally posted by Andrew Revering
F5Data is now officially open to the public.

On http://www.f5data.com/ you will find:
- Forecast Soundings (2000 grid points - 48 states - NAM/ETA out to 84 hrs & RUC out to 12 hrs)
- Forecast Maps (130 products - most unique set online... see list of map types on web site)
- Sortable current conditions database
- Surface maps that update every 5 minutes (with SPECIs of course)
- Bunch of other stuff.

There are all kinds of screen shots and Flash demonstrations on the web site. I'd encourage you to check it out to really get a feel of what we're doing.

I think our biggest advantage are the forecast soundings we provide. Every forecast hour in Skew-T and textual form on a very tight grid for the entire U.S. Not just tornado alley. There are 60 points in MN alone.

Also our massive list of contoured map parameters is the most comprehensive on the 'net. I'm sure there will be a lot of calculated variables you've never heard of before. The entire list can be found on the site.

http://www.f5data.com/

Andy

Andrew, do you wanna say that for each of this little crosses there's a different sounding?
http://www.f5data.com/imgs/sounding2.gif

 

[Andrew Revering]

Originally posted by Andrea Griffa


Andrew, do you wanna say that for each of this little crosses there's a different sounding?
http://www.f5data.com/imgs/sounding2.gif

Yes, each of the cross-hairs represents a new forecast sounding location. When you're logged into the site, this map becomes an imagemap that you can click on, and you can choose to view a Skew-T and/or a Text based sounding for each of those little points.

I love using this for picking a target when storm chasing.

andy

 

[Jason Boggs]

I already signed up for it and so far I like it fairly well. I'm sure a lot of other items will be added to the "goodie bag" and I can't wait to see how it pans out during the first severe weather event.

 

[Andrea Griffa]

Originally posted by Andrew Revering+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Andrew Revering)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Andrea Griffa

Andrew, do you wanna say that for each of this little crosses there's a different sounding?
http://www.f5data.com/imgs/sounding2.gif

Yes, each of the cross-hairs represents a new forecast sounding location. When you're logged into the site, this map becomes an imagemap that you can click on, and you can choose to view a Skew-T and/or a Text based sounding for each of those little points.

I love using this for picking a target when storm chasing.

andy[/b]

I imagine it's so much useful!Moreover do you know how many times a day it has an update?00Z-12Z-18Z or it has an hourly update?

 

[Andrew Revering]

Originally posted by Andrea Griffa

I imagine it's so much useful!Moreover do you know how many times a day it has an update?00Z-12Z-18Z or it has an hourly update?

We create soundings from ETA and RUC right now (more models to come soon).

We're generating 2,000 soundings for each forecast hour in 6 hour intervals out to 84 hours for the ETA, which runs a new model at 00z, 06z, 12z and 18z.

We also generate 2,000 soundings for each forecast hour for RUC which runs every hour for forecast hours 00, 01, 02, and 03. Then ever 3 hours it runs a forecast out to 06hr, 09hr and 12hr.

Andy

 

[Dan Cook]

I'm gonna sign up in April.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Yeah, that'll definately be something I'll try come March/April. Looks like a winner to me! 8)

 

[Glen Romine]

Heh mods, doesn't this belong in the marketplace thread? We'd make Mike Smith put his software products there. Anyhow, guess I'm not seeing here what makes this service worthwhile relative to free products already available on the net other than the ability to make overlays of different models (which I'm sure is available elsewhere). The maps appear to all be national - what is the data resolution being used here? If the data feed is the 40 km RUC and ETA, then actually better resolution products are available elsewhere (for free). The forecast soundings also, available elsewhere on the net for free. So, I guess I'm saying for marketing purposes you might want to make a stronger effort to demonstrate why folks should be happy to pay for your product.

Glen

 

[Tony Laubach]

I moved this topic from Weather & Chasing to here as this thread is trying to sell the product.

 

[Robert Dewey]

Originally posted by Glen Romine
Heh mods, doesn't this belong in the marketplace thread? We'd make Mike Smith put his software products there. Anyhow, guess I'm not seeing here what makes this service worthwhile relative to free products already available on the net other than the ability to make overlays of different models (which I'm sure is available elsewhere). The maps appear to all be national - what is the data resolution being used here? If the data feed is the 40 km RUC and ETA, then actually better resolution products are available elsewhere (for free). The forecast soundings also, available elsewhere on the net for free. So, I guess I'm saying for marketing purposes you might want to make a stronger effort to demonstrate why folks should be happy to pay for your product.

Glen

Yes, but there are alot of products on there that you would have a hard time finding on the 'net. Perhaps "regional" graphic areas will be available in the future.

 

[Andrew Revering]

Anyhow, guess I'm not seeing here what makes this service worthwhile relative to free products already available on the net other than the ability to make overlays of different models (which I'm sure is available elsewhere).

Glen

Alright, here's the sales pitch then... since you're asking for one.

Where can you find ETA guided maps of the following out to 84 hours? Or RUC Guided out to 12 hours for that matter?

- BRN
- BRN Shear
- CCL Height
- Convective Temperature
- Craven Significant Severe Parameter
- Deep Convection Index
- Degrees Needed For Convection
- Lid Strength
- Isentropic Surfaces
- Freezing Level
- LCL Height
- Significant Tornado Parameter (SPC)
- SPOT Index
- Stensrud Tornado Potential
- Summer Simmer Index
- Thompson Index
- TQ Index
- 1km & 3km VGP
- Visibility
- Warm Layer Wet Bulb (for winter forecasting)
- Warmest Vertical Temperature (for winter forecasting)
- WMAX (max updraft speed)

...and these are just a fraction of the list. Now I think what makes me upset is that people either aren't reading the list or they read it and think... I've heard of all these things. They must be on the Internet!

But with the exception of some of those being plotted on a mesoscale level on one or two sites, I dare you to find all of the maps above drawn on a nationally contoured map.

Do it now... go back up to the list and go product by product and read each one and think... where would I go to find a MAP of this?

The vast majority of those listed you can't.... until F5Data.

And our forecast soundings.... sure you can find forecast soundings out there. But they are for specific cities and often times are clustered together because they are based on airport locations.

How often do you know exactly which airport you want to look at a sounding for if you're making a chase forecast?

With our site you can roam around on an imagemap of evenly spaced forecast sounding locations so you can better target your forecast, rather than being biased toward a larger city, or regionally populated area.

Our forecast soundings also give you 40+ parameters listed on the side, the kind of things listed above and much more. Other sites don't list those things.

We also have text soundings which are insanely detailed for those of you who like numbers.

Our text soundings are also printing on 25mb increments rather than the typical 50mb increments. So you can see much more detail of the vertical atmosphere.

So I think there's value there. For those who can't see the value, that's fine. What we're providing isn't of value *to you*... but I think to some who are particular about their data, they could find it useful.

Andy