(San Francisco) Global weather technology leader WeatherFlow has acquired TEMPEST, a groundbreaking social and digital weather content brand founded by renowned journalist and media entrepreneur Ann Marie Gardner. The acquisition adds a branded media platform to WeatherFlow’s existing suite of weather technology products and will allow WeatherFlow to expand the Tempest brand and concepts to a family of consumer services.

WeatherFlow will launch their new personal weather system in the Spring of 2020. The Tempest Weather System is powered by a futuristic home weather station that leverages WeatherFlow’s data science and forecast modeling to provide real-time observations and precise weather forecasts to the app. Soon after the conclusion of the Kickstarter campaign in December, Tempest will be available on WeatherFlow’s website.

Tempest will continue to provide groundbreaking media content, informing the public on the effects of extreme weather around the globe through the Tempest newsletter, with plans to integrate content into the app soon.

Buck Lyons, Founder and CEO of WeatherFlow says: “By merging the data expertise and global weather network of Weatherflow with Gardner’s recognized ability to identify compelling content that connects communities, we are equipped to talk about the weather in a new way. Tempest is the most advanced weather forecasting and data system in the world, packaged and presented to be approachable and relevant to consumers.”

Gardner, who led her previous media venture to an ASME award after just one short year, will advise WeatherFlow as they transition the media brand into their weather platform. “In the 21st century, the world’s number one source of universal conversation is undergoing radical shifts,” says Gardner. “Weather and climate are the most important conversations we can have right now, but require data and technological expertise to fully tell the story. I’m excited to pass off the Tempest brand to Weather Flow, who are perfectly positioned to deliver compelling and timely stories, whether you’re worried about severe weather in your region or just need to better plan your day. Tempest goes beyond just a content destination, fostering a community of weather geeks who contribute crowd-fueled social weather reporting to make it easier to navigate the new weather.”

For more information please contact: Michele Redmon, mredmon@weatherflow.com

About WeatherFlow

WeatherFlow Inc. is a leader in private sector weather technology, with over two decades of experience developing and applying progressive data modeling and forecasting techniques. The company currently operates the most advanced industrial grade weather station network of any private entity in the world, with clients including NOAA, the US Navy and Coast Guard, and a number of highly regarded academic and corporate organizations.

With global weather concerns mounting, WeatherFlow has expanded its global focus to include services catering to consumers and gathering data from a massive number of sensing devices including at homes around the world, a logical addition to the company’s impressive suite of services.

About Ann Marie Gardner

Ann Marie Gardner is an award-winning journalist, editor and media entrepreneur. She founded Tempest in 2016 after having launched and edited multi-media brands including Modern Farmer, Monocle and T Travel, and The New York Times Style Magazine. Gardner is currently writing and consulting on climate change projects.

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Poquoson, VA – In the never-ending quest by WeatherFlow to give its clients all the pertinent wind and weather and water information possible to make their next boating, sailing, kiting, or fishing session the best ever, WeatherFlow would like to announce the installation of several new sites that truly span the widening domain of WeatherFlow’s national network.

New installations this spring began with the installation of Mountain Top on St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands and will benefit research initiatives across the Caribbean.

Later, a new location was added at Lynnhaven Inlet Light (shown left) in the Virginia Hampton Roads area. It is essentially a replacement for the former site at Lynnhaven Pier. The Pier site collected data for almost 20 years, and survived numerous tropical systems, including Hurricane Isabel. The new site should continue to provide useful information for vessels that run the gamut in size from aircraft carriers to windsurfers.

A new weather station was also installed at Lake Elsinore in California. Though far from seeing commercial freighters, this lake will likely see winds of equal strength or greater to Lynnhaven despite the fact that this lake is quite a distance from the coast where afternoon sea breezes are the norm. Almost every summer afternoon, a reliable breeze sweeps across the lake bringing smiles to kiteboarders who make the trek from places all over Riverside, San Diego, and Orange Counties and beyond. This site will help locals, including the National Weather Service, learn more about Elsinore’s unique wind and weather behavior.

Most recently, Molokini Light (shown left) off of Maui, Hawaii is WeatherFlow’s first site in Hawaii that benefits from the long, healthy relationship between Weatherflow and the United States Coast Guard. The Memorandum of Agreement, now in its 11th year, has been highly successful for both parties. WeatherFlow is able to place wind and weather collection sensors in locations right over the water. Advances in both the limitation of power consumption and constantly improving communications have allowed the placement of equipment directly on aids to navigation, right at locations of high boat traffic, both professional and recreational. Divers and snorkelers will enjoy learning about wind and weather behavior at this famous dive location, allowing them to safely enjoy the perfect dive. This information is also now available for the United States Coast Guard to optimize their mission objectives through improved situational awareness.

For more information about WeatherFlow’s observing network, Contact Us.

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Poquoson, VA – WeatherFlow now brings a new observing capability to its suite of offerings by the recent addition of water level sensing. Microwave sensing allows for the monitoring of water level in a low-cost, highly reliable, and accurate manner.

WeatherFlow has chosen the same sensor that is used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in their gauge network. In 2014, WeatherFlow deployed a single unit adjacent to its’ office in Poquoson, VA at the entrance of the Wythe Creek watershed. Impressed with both the data collected and its reliability (data collection has been uninterrupted since the install date), WeatherFlow felt ready to add this capability as a natural add-on to meteorological station deployments within the littoral zone.

In 2016, WeatherFlow had multiple funded projects that called for the collection of both water level and meteorological data. For example, in July, WeatherFlow engineers deployed a unique monitoring system for the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority (SLFPA), which is home to one of the world’s largest flood control barriers. At the Bienvenue Flood Gate, at vital portion of the flood control barrier, WeatherFlow placed a much-needed meteorological station and two water level monitoring systems, one along the outer wall and another along the inner wall. (See images left and below.)

These observations allow the SLFPA to measure water level differentials across the barrier. Vital water level data like these enable authorities to better manage inundation-related threats in this vulnerable region.

In fact, these data have helped SLFPA in more ways than originally scoped. SLFPA is now using these data to learn more about, and hopefully forecast, currents along the inter-coastal waterway and other canals, bayous, and tributaries that dominate this marshy landscape.

The following time series graph depicts water levels for the two sensors installed at the Bayou Bienvenue gate along with two NOAA-NWLON sites, Shell Beach (about 10 miles to the east of the outer gate) and New Canal (about 8 miles to the west of the inner gate).

For more information about WeatherFlow’s water level sensing capabilities, Contact Us.

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Poquoson, VA – The 2016 hurricane season saw five named storms, including two hurricanes, make landfall in the United States. With hundreds of weather stations strategically located in areas prone to tropical weather, WeatherFlow’s network of weather stations was well-situated to collect valuable data. And because WeatherFlow’s network is comprised of durable equipment, data continues to flow even in the harshest of conditions. Hence, as the landfall of these tropical cyclones approached, WeatherFlow was poised capture it all.

In September, Hurricane Hermine became the first hurricane to impact Florida since 2005 and brought strong winds to much of the East Coast. 22 of WeatherFlow’s stations recorded sustained winds greater than 50 mph, with four recording gusts over 74 mph or more.

A month later, Hurricane Matthew passed just offshore of Florida’s Atlantic Coast before making landfall in South Carolina. 52 WeatherFlow stations measured sustained winds greater than 50 mph, with 32 seeing gusts of at least 74 mph. All of these stations remained online and reporting for the duration of the storm.

For more information about WeatherFlow sensor data or about our tropical weather products, Contact Us.

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October 1st: Major Hurricane Joaquin continues to intensify as it drifts to the WSW near the Bahamas. Although confidence is high that this will remain a powerful storm, large uncertainties remain about the storm’s track and where it might make landfall along the U.S. East Coast.  With coverage provided by more than 250 stations positioned along the entire Eastern Seaboard, WeatherFlow’s network is online and ready to record conditions should Joaquin impact the coast.

WeatherFlow’s stations include almost 90 in its Hurricane Network, which have been specifically designed to withstand landfalling hurricanes.  In addition to these stations, WeatherFlow partners are also gearing up, preparing to deploy 4 towers from the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program, 24 deployable surface “StickNet” stations from Texas Tech University, and a Doppler on Wheels (DOW) mobile weather radar system from the Center for Severe Weather Research.  These deployable assets are supplemented by over 1500 other high quality fixed weather stations operated by NOAA and others, and which have been vetted extensively by WeatherFlow.

WeatherFlow’s StormPrint product suite combines this proprietary data set with other high quality observations from NOAA and selected third party networks to assemble the most comprehensive ground-truth surface wind data set available.  This data set is then used to generate the industry’s most accurate footprint of the storm’s maximum sustained winds.  StormPrint products are provided to NWS Weather Forecast Offices, the National Hurricane Center, and emergency responders, and are vital to WeatherFlow’s insurance clients.

As a result of their geographic coverage, careful siting, high quality, and exceptional reliability, stations from WeatherFlow and its partner networks recorded over 75% of the highest wind speeds for both SuperStorm Sandy (October 2013) and Hurricane Arthur (July 2014).  With a higher station density, they also recorded the single highest reported wind speeds for both storms, in both cases a full 8 mph greater than those recorded by other networks in the area.

For real-time access to the observations described above, weather radar, and NHC/NWS forecast information, stay tuned to WeatherFlow’s Joaquin Storm Coverage page.

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