Reportstorms.com

[Andy Rice]

Hi Everyone,

Some of you here know me, and I have been a member of stormtrack since 2004. I work for a company called Weather Central Inc. in Madison, WI. Weather Central is a weather software and data company that creates the on air weather graphic systems and radar tracking systems that you see behind the Meteorologists on TV.

http://www.wxc.com

Over the last few months we have been working on a very cool project that I think will be of interest to the stormtrack community. We have developed and beta launched a website called Reportstorms.com. The basic premise is that when you observe weather occurring in your neighborhood, you could go to reportstorms.com and issue a Local Storm Report for your location. This could be a snowfall amount, a wall cloud, hail, flooding... you name it. Reportstorms.com works on an interactive Microsoft virtual earth map, so you just type in your address, right click on the map and report your storm. You have the ability to write a brief text summary of what happened and even attach a movie or picture that you took.



Within seconds we make these reports available to our television customers. Right now I know that a number of you already report severe weather events, to the local television stations via email. Reportstorms.com will expedite that process. Your reports will pop up on a list in their actual on air weather graphic system. If the television station meteorologist wants to use them, they simple click and add your event to their show.



Additionally we have partnered with Tyler Allison at Spotternetwork.org ( http://spotternetwork.org ) so that the reports issued by people in spotternetwork will be available to our television clients as well. This will ensure that severe weather reports that you issue from the field through Tyler’s network will get to the television meteorologist who are trying to save lives.

Weather Central has television clients in almost all of the tornado alley markets that will have access to your reports including

Chicago
Dallas
Atlanta
Houston
Minneapolis
Denver
St. Louis
Indianapolis
Nashville
Kansas City
Cincinnati
Milwaukee
San Antonio
Grand Rapids
Birmingham
Memphis
Oklahoma City
Louisville
Austin
Little Rock
Dayton
Tulsa
Lexington
Flint
Wichita
Green Bay
Des Moines
Toledo
Omaha
Springfield, MO
Paducah
Champaign
Madison
South Bend
Cedar Rapids
Colorado Springs
Waco
Quad Cities, IA
El Paso
Evansville
Ft. Smith
Lincoln, NE
Ft. Wayne, IN
Tyler
Lansing
Sioux Falls
Montgomery
Fargo
La Crosse
Corpus Christi
Amarillo
Rockford
Wausau
Columbia, MO
Topeka
Beaumont
Sioux City
Wichita Falls, TX
Lubbock
Terre Haute
Rochester, MN
Bismarck
Sherman, TX
Abilene
Jonesboro, AR
Rapid City
Victoria, TX

We are ready to start beta testing this functionality and I thought it would be fun to involve the stormtrack.org community! Please come by and check us out.

To get started

1. Go to http://www.reportstorms.com

2. You will need to install Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 (This is kind of like Flash). The site should prompt you to do this. If it does not go to http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/resources/install.aspx

and then restart your browser.

3. Register to be a storm reporter in the top right hand corner of the site.

I think this will be an exciting way for the general public to relay critical real time weather information to the television station meteorologist to help them cover storms, and save lives.

Thanks for checking us out!

Andy Rice
Senior Product Manager
Weather Central Inc.
[email protected]

 

[Tyler Allison]

Additionally we have partnered with Tyler Allison at Spotternetwork.org ( http://spotternetwork.org ) so that the reports issued by people in spotternetwork will be available to our television clients as well. This will ensure that severe weather reports that you issue from the field through Tyler’s network will get to the television meteorologist who are trying to save lives.

Before somebody asks, Andy and crew have agreed to honor the "media" contact information flag within the Spotter Network. SN member contact information is _not_ shared with WXC unless you allow it. Also, WXC has provided financial support to the SN to allow us to maintain and grow the system(s). Thanks to Andy and team for recognizing what the SN is trying to accomplish and partenering with us to grow it.

 

[Verne Carlson]

Additionally we have partnered with Tyler Allison at Spotternetwork.org ( http://spotternetwork.org ) so that the reports issued by people in spotternetwork will be available to our television clients as well. This will ensure that severe weather reports that you issue from the field through Tyler’s network will get to the television meteorologist who are trying to save lives.

Hi Andy, Sounds great and I'm all for faster and more accurate warnings to the media and public. But if you're already integrated with spotternetwork is there any benefit for chasers to install the extra client software and report in two places?
thanks,
Verne

 

[Andy Rice]

Hi Verne,

It's not really a client application, you just have to have silverlight, which is Microsoft's version of flash for a web browser. It's more like a website. From the road, I think using SN is a great option, and I use it all the time when I'm on the road.

The TV stations will be having the public go there too so it will be an interesting place to see public reported LSRs (with a grain of salt of course but still information that could be cool)

I would check it out and see for yourself.

Andy

 

[Verne Carlson]

Ok that is pretty cool. I signed up and posted a real event just to try it out. (Fire in Golden, CO - Hope that was okay) On the road with a data card the graphics might be a big bandwidth suck. How does it do on a slower network? I imagine 3G might do pretty well but out in the boonies on a slow cell network it could cause problems.

 

[Matthew Fischer]

There are a few problems i see with the public reporting events, like wall clouds and tornadoes, and snow events. I'll focus on snow events since that season is coming if you like it or not. But in order to get a good accurate snow measurement you'll need a board on in your yard away from trees and drifting areas. The public may just go stand outside and stick the ruler or tape measure and not get the accurate reading since they will have grass depth to deal with along with compaction of the snow.

Now for the tornadoes and wall clouds. Every John or Jane out there in the public may not know its just a hangy downy thingy aka scud or a tornado.

Is there going to be a training program to help them with there decisions?

 

[Andy Rice]

Yeah... we are just at the launch point. There will be plans to have a lofi version at some point down the road.

 

[Andy Rice]

There are a few problems i see with the public reporting events, like wall clouds and tornadoes, and snow events. I'll focus on snow events since that season is coming if you like it or not. But in order to get a good accurate snow measurement you'll need a board on in your yard away from trees and drifting areas. The public may just go stand outside and stick the ruler or tape measure and not get the accurate reading since they will have grass depth to deal with along with compaction of the snow.

Now for the tornadoes and wall clouds. Every John or Jane out there in the public may not know its just a hangy downy thingy aka scud or a tornado.

Is there going to be a training program to help them with there decisions?

That's a great point. And I am depending on the local TV meteorologist to QC the report before they put it on air (As they would if they received an email or a phone call about something). Also if you see a report that you think is inaccurate on the site... simply flag it by clicking the flag button and choosing inaccurate and a meteorologist moderator at Weather Central will look at it.

 

[MatthewCarman]

That's a great point. And I am depending on the local TV meteorologist to QC the report before they put it on air (As they would if they received an email or a phone call about something). Also if you see a report that you think is inaccurate on the site... simply flag it by clicking the flag button and choosing inaccurate and a meteorologist moderator at Weather Central will look at it.

You could make a basic online program or course telling people what to look for when looking for a tornado or wall cloud etc. You could also have pictures of low hanging scud and compare them to tornadoes so people know not to report scud like clouds unless they can confirm it is rotating etc. It could just be optional so people who want to take it can and others who do not have the time or do not want to can just post there reports. You could also post the estimated wind speeds and what people should look for to determine if winds are 60 MPH or more like trees being blowin around or uprooted etc. It is just an idea.

 

[rdale]

Will this plot locations of SpotterNet chasers or just reports?

 

[Andy Rice]

You could make a basic online program or course telling people what to look for when looking for a tornado or wall cloud etc. You could also have pictures of low hanging scud and compare them to tornadoes so people know not to report scud like clouds unless they can confirm it is rotating etc. It could just be optional so people who want to take it can and others who do not have the time or do not want to can just post there reports. You could also post the estimated wind speeds and what people should look for to determine if winds are 60 MPH or more like trees being blowin around or uprooted etc. It is just an idea.

Matthew,

That is a great idea! Almost like a weather classroom. We have a lot of video resources and stock here so that might not actually be that hard.

Andy

 

[Andy Rice]

Will this plot locations of SpotterNet chasers or just reports?

Expect both in future versions of ESP:LIVE... reports will be first and coming soon.

 

[Darin Brunin]

I have a quick question for you Andy...say I chased for a station in a market where a competing station has ESP...is there going to be a way to not allow my reports to show up on the competition's map? Or further more...for other sister stations and such owned by the same company that you help out when you are in their DMA?

 

[rdale]

Nope. That's the big downside for TV stations that want to use it on-air. If my spotter nails an awesome tornado pic and posts it there, my competition can use it first. Any TV station can show any report from any source placed there.

 

[Andy Rice]

I have a quick question for you Andy...say I chased for a station in a market where a competing station has ESP...is there going to be a way to not allow my reports to show up on the competition's map? Or further more...for other sister stations and such owned by the same company that you help out when you are in their DMA?

I see where you are coming from.

I guess my question would be..... How is that any different from the competition looking at GRLEVEL2 and reporting the SN report on air? Having been in many TV wx offices during tornadic events this is definitely already happening today.

Andy