Even in an extremely divided country, there’s one thing both sides in the U.S. agree on: The Weather Channel is the most trusted media source.

The Trust in Media 2024 poll by YouGov is out and, once again, The Weather Channel is the most trusted news source by Americans. In fact, it has held the top spot in 2022, 2023, and now also 2024.

Read more at YouGov.com: Trust in Media 2024: Which news sources Americans trust

As weather is becoming increasingly more erratic and more impactful, it’s more important now than ever for people to have a trusted provider and partner to help you make better decisions around weather. As the most trusted news source, most trusted brand, and most accurate weather forecaster, The Weather Channel and its parent The Weather Company help turn weather into action.

Combine the Trust of a Local Meteorologist with Advanced Technology to Improve Reach, Engagement and Monetization on CTV and OTT without Added Staff or Resources

ATLANTA – April 11, 2024 – Weather is the main reason viewers tune in to their local news broadcast. In today’s media landscape, weather content also drives eyeballs – and dollars – across digital and streaming platforms. Content creators today face an enormous challenge to stay relevant and engage viewers, who turn to multiple sources for weather information because no single source is effectively delivering all of what they want. Viewers expect accuracy, reliability and relevance with lightning speed, or they’ll quickly move on to the next source.

Recognizing this challenge, The Weather Company today unveils ReelSphere, its newest innovation for the broadcast industry and streaming platforms. For decades, The Weather Company has embraced AI and married it with expert human insight to improve weather forecasts and products. ReelSphere, backed by advanced AI technology, delivers an easy way to help content creators reach and monetize audiences with compelling, customized and impactful weather content 24/7 across connected television (CTV), over the top (OTT), mobile and other digital platforms without additional staff or resources.

“By making weather videos even more timely, local and scalable, The Weather Company is helping improve how millions of consumers experience vital weather content each day,” said Andrew Finlayson, executive vice president of digital and AI strategies at SmithGeiger Group. “They continue to marry their weather expertise with the latest in technology innovation to solve consumer problems, helping weather storytellers of all types ‘super serve’ their consumers. Weather content is increased across all screens, including mobile, web and smart TVs, while improving workflows and controlling costs.”

According to a study by SmithGeiger, while overall satisfaction with weather forecasts is high, only 22% of respondents are completely satisfied with the forecasts and reports they receive, citing a need for increased accuracy, reliability and relevance. Connected TV offers huge potential for weather content. Over 80 percent of U.S. adults 18-64 would consume ReelSphere content at least once a week, and 65% trust an AI voiceover from their favorite meteorologist.¹

“Weather has never been more impactful for audiences or more critical for broadcasters and streaming providers, and we are committed to helping our clients become a one-stop-shop of weather information for their viewers,” said Joe Fiveash, head of enterprise media and new verticals at The Weather Company. “Our products use AI and cloud technology to solve urgent challenges like resource shortages and audience growth by leveraging remote workflows and resources across an enterprise to create scalable content for multiple platforms such as CTV, which audiences demand.”

How the tech works to create unique on-air weather stories

An effective combination of human and machine, ReelSphere increases flexibility by leveraging AI responsibly to deliver relevant content – a curated video “reel” created by local meteorologists – that can be tweaked as needed. Content generates automatically with location-specific graphics that appear and change based on the time of day, day of the week, and forecasted weather.

For example, forecasted precipitation levels will show up when rain is expected, or lifestyle content such as a beach forecast will be added before the weekend. AI technology provides captioning and an audio overlay for each video, using either a generic voice or that of trusted local on-air talent. For added expertise and context, meteorologists can further edit and enhance videos by integrating any of the rich graphical content they’ve already created within Max, a leading weather visualization tool from The Weather Company.

See a demo video below of ReelSphere in action, showing resulting video output.

ReelSphere leverages the power of artificial intelligence in an easy-to-use tool that helps content creators offer a dynamic, on-demand, valuable weather viewing experience that:

• Expands storytelling to streaming audiences: Create smart, snackable forecasts, weather alerts and lifestyle weather videos on demand and at scale.
• Increases audience engagement: ReelSphere’s hyper-fast video creation engine quickly generates and serves adaptive, highly customized curated CTV content that audiences crave.
• Shares critical severe weather news: Real-time weather reports customized by location are delivered with the understanding and trust of a local meteorologist.
• Improves content production efficiency: Meet the increasing demand for personalized weather videos across CTV and OTT without additional resources.
• Monetizes OTT content with relevance: Integrate sponsor content for advertisers who have expressed interest in this content, driving additional revenue. Stations can also use their first-party data to better target and deliver videos.

Research shows that audiences first expect accuracy, reliability and relevance from weather presentations. As the world’s most accurate weather forecaster,² The Weather Company combines 100 forecast models, including its own GRAF system, and then uses a proprietary mix of AI and human expertise to create the freshest, best possible forecast for any time and location requested, on demand. No other provider comes close to the personalized weather forecast and insights The Weather Company solutions deliver.

A market leader in broadcast weather solutions, The Weather Company will be showcasing ReelSphere at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas at South Hall Lower booth #SL3053. See a demo video above of resulting video output from ReelSphere in action. For more, visit weathercompany.com/media.

About The Weather Company
The Weather Company helps people and businesses around the world make more informed decisions and take action in the face of weather. With its deep industry expertise and highly accurate, high-volume weather data combined with advanced technology and AI, The Weather Company provides insights and solutions that harness the power of weather in a scalable, privacy-forward way. The world’s most accurate forecaster, the company serves hundreds of enterprise customers across media, advertising, aviation and more, and is trusted by hundreds of millions of monthly active users via digital properties from The Weather Channel (weather.com) and Weather Underground (wunderground.com). For more, visit weathercompany.com.  

The Weather Kids campaign, created in partnership with the World Meteorological Organization and The Weather Channel, calls for urgent climate action for the next generations.

New York – March 21, 2024 – Global television audiences who tune in for their local weather reports today are in for a surprise – a special forecast from the year 2050. While the format is familiar, the forecasts – anchored by children – are not. These young TV meteorologists joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for its new Weather Kids campaign, created in partnership with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and The Weather Channel, the flagship consumer brand of The Weather Company. Supported by global celebrities and UNDP Goodwill Ambassadors, including Oscar-winning Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh, American actor Connie Britton and Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the campaign is part of UNDP’s efforts to boost awareness on the impacts of climate change and to mobilize people around the world to take meaningful climate action for future generations.

Watch the 2050 forecast delivered by Weather Kids:

The segment warns viewers that rising temperatures will continue to bring more of the catastrophic climate change impacts that we are currently experiencing to people and the global economy. These include a projected impact on 94% of the world’s children, threats to food security and a potential rise in taxpayers’ bills globally of trillions of US Dollars. “Everything is crazy. Schools are closed because it’s too hot. Wildfires are burning whole towns. And floods are making everything wet and gross,” announces one young presenter.

The forecast ends with a powerful plea from the children: “It’s not just a weather report to us. It is our future.” Viewers are encouraged to sign a pledge to act by making financial decisions that align with sustainability and educating themselves on climate solutions and global climate action. UNDP’s new video series Climate Action Explained, narrated by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, which complements the campaign, highlights some of the concrete solutions that are already happening.

“The Weather Kids add a powerful voice to alert us to a future that will certainly materialize if we do not take meaningful climate action today,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator. “Continued inertia on climate change will lead to an increasingly uninhabitable planet for the ‘kids of today’ and future generations. We can only course-correct if we move at speed and scale now. That includes decarbonizing our economies and advancing access to affordable, clean energy for all; protecting and restoring our natural world; and empowering communities to have their say in their countries’ climate pledges.”

The Weather Kids campaign is part of UNDP’s efforts to inspire public conversation and mobilize action on climate change on the road to the COP30 climate negotiations to be held in Brazil 2025. COP30 will mark the ten-year anniversary of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and is a critical opportunity to get the world on a path aligned with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as countries submit a new round of climate actions and goals they plan to undertake. These plans – known as ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ (NDCs) – are at the very heart of the global fight against climate change.

Weather Kids is underpinned by UNDP’s extensive work on climate change and climate action. The newly established UNDP Climate Hub delivers the UN System’s largest portfolio of support on climate action in nearly 150 countries. UNDP’s flagship Climate Promise initiative has supported action to tackle global warming by working with 85% of the world’s developing countries on their NDC submissions.

Designed to emulate weather reports television viewers see every day, the projected forecasts were developed using data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and UNDP’s Human Climate Horizons data platform.

The Weather Kids will air on news channels in more than 80 countries around the world.

This global reach was made possible by a broad coalition of partners, many of whom donated their time and services for this common cause. In addition to our core partners the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and The Weather Channel, the flagship consumer brand of The Weather Company, UNDP would like to thank: Activista; Earth X; Pvblic Foundation, The-Artery, ICCO – the International Communications Consultancy Organization – and SAWA, the Global Cinema Advertising Association and its network of members. In amplifying the campaign’s global reach, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) also stands as a strategic partner, with several EBU Members actively participating in Weather Kids. Additionally, Eurovision News is supporting the campaign by aiding in the distribution of its content to broadcasters around the world.

Visit the campaign website at www.weatherkids.org

###

Read more about the campaign on weather.com: Forecast 2050: “Weather Kids” Say There’s Still Time

Notes to Editors and Broadcasters

Broadcast footage: the Weather Kids campaign video, related interviews and media materials can be downloaded here

Additional Quotes   

Michelle Yeoh, actor and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador: “Climate change isn’t just a distant threat—it’s a present-day reality that’s devastating communities worldwide. From my experiences aiding earthquake relief efforts to witnessing the aftermath of natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, I’ve seen the urgent need for action. It’s vital that we work together to limit warming to 1.5°C, which is why I’m so excited about UNDP’s Weather Kids campaign. While their weather reports are fictional for now, it is crucial for us to take meaningful action to protect the planet for our children and future generations and mitigate the effects of the current climate crisis. I encourage everyone to sign the climate action pledge. Let’s stand together, empower vulnerable communities, and drive meaningful change for our planet’s future.”

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, actor and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador: “Climate change is the defining challenge of our time, and I refuse to stand idly by. Through my work with UNDP and projects like ‘An Optimist’s Guide to the Planet,’ I’ve witnessed firsthand the resilience of communities combating environmental threats. It’s time to harness our collective power and protect our planet for generations to come. Our children will be our future weather reporters, climate journalists, emergency workers and medical professionals. UNDP’s Weather Kids campaign shows us the faces of those who will be impacted the most by our climate actions. Solutions already exist that can help us to cut emissions in more than half by 2030, but it’s time to act. Sign the pledge and take meaningful action.”

Connie Britton, actor and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador: These Weather Kids know what’s up! As most of us know we are in the midst of a climate crisis. So let’s join UNDP’s Weather Kids to increase awareness of the impacts of climate change and energize people around the world to take meaningful and urgent climate action. Because our Weather Kids know there’s a future that they and all kids will have to face if our society doesn’t shift, but they also know that together we can harness our collective strength and lead the charge towards a greener, more equitable future!”

Celeste Saulo, Secretary General, WMO: “The climate crisis is THE defining challenge that humanity faces and is closely intertwined with the inequality crisis. The year 2023 was by far the hottest on record, as were the last 9 years. Extreme weather events are increasing, and have huge socio-economic impacts – heatwaves, floods, droughts, wildfires and intense tropical cyclones. Ocean heat and sea level rise are accelerating. Sea ice is melting, and we risk losing glaciers which are so vital for our precious water supplies and ecosystems. Meteorological and hydrological services and scientists worldwide are sounding the Red Alert and are scaling up efforts to deal with the challenge. Our decisions today will shape the future of many generations to come. This campaign is a call to urgent action for the sake of people and the planet.”

Randi Stipes, Chief Marketing Officer for The Weather Company: “At The Weather Company, we are fiercely committed to helping people understand what weather means for them and ultimately to make smarter, more informed decisions – whether that’s planning for the week ahead or leaving our planet in a better place for the next generation. We’re honored to support this UNDP campaign with the WMO to help kids forecast a brighter future.”

Liz Corbin, Deputy Media Director, Head of News, European Broadcasting Union: “As a strategic partner of the Weather Kids campaign, we’re proud to support our Members’ efforts to provide their audiences with the facts about climate change. By participating in this initiative, we are leveraging the power of Public Service Media to raise awareness of the risks and solutions, through imaginative and engaging content.”

Media contacts:
for more information on the campaign or to request an interview, please contact:

In the U.S.: [email protected]        I    +1 646 673 6350
                      [email protected]   I   +1 917 288 7900
In Geneva:  [email protected]                  I   +41 79 934 11 17

About UNDP
UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and the planet. Learn more at undp.org or follow at @UNDP.

About WMO
WMO is the United Nations system’s authoritative voice on the state and behaviour of the Earth’s atmosphere, its interaction with the land and oceans, the weather and climate it produces and the resulting distribution of water resources.

About The Weather Company
A global leader in weather data, forecasting and insights, The Weather Company provides scalable, proven solutions to help people and businesses around the world make more informed decisions and take action in the face of weather. The world’s most accurate forecaster serves the media, advertising, aviation industries and more, and is trusted by hundreds of millions of monthly active users via digital properties from The Weather Channel (weather.com) and Weather Underground (wunderground.com). Visit weathercompany.com.

About EBU
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is the world’s leading alliance of public service media (PSM). We have 112 member organizations in 56 countries and have an additional 30 Associates in Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas. Our Members operate nearly 2,000 television, radio and online channels and services, and offer a wealth of content across other platforms. Together we reach an audience of more than one billion people around the world, broadcasting in 153 languages. We operate Eurovision and Euroradio services. To find out more about the EBU, please go to https://www.ebu.ch/about

Efforts will aim to produce more accurate forecasts and help make the world more resilient in the face of a changing climate

ATLANTA – March 18, 2024 – In an effort to mitigate disruptions from future weather- and climate-related events, The Weather Company today announced an expanded collaboration with NVIDIA in the field of weather forecasting. Leveraging both companies’ deep expertise and advanced science and technology capabilities, this collaboration will progress artificial intelligence-based weather prediction and provide improved simulation using real weather data from the world’s most accurate weather forecaster¹ to better visualize weather’s potential impacts on businesses, personal safety and society.

“Working to build future climate resilience as a society starts with having accurate, reliable, actionable weather data,” said Sheri Bachstein, CEO of The Weather Company. “By combining our leading weather data together with NVIDIA’s computing advancements, we plan to deliver forecasts from the first AI-based high-resolution numerical weather model as well as to improve digital twin climate scenarios for a more realistic view down to the scale of a thunderstorm.”

NVIDIA computing technology will help power The Weather Company’s data processing, one of the largest collections of global weather data in the world, and The Weather Company data and insights will help expand NVIDIA’s Earth-2 open digital twin platform, which strives to accelerate climate and weather predictions using interactive, high-resolution simulation. A digital twin is a virtual replica of a real-world physical asset to test and monitor changes, oversee performance and accelerate decision making.

“The impacts of extreme climate events are costing countries hundreds of billions of dollars each year,” said Dion Harris, Head of Data Center Product Marketing at NVIDIA. “We’re working with The Weather Company and other industry leaders to take advantage of accelerated computing and AI to make dramatic improvements in the accuracy of climate change predictions.”

The Weather Company has worked with NVIDIA for years on GPU acceleration of its groundbreaking high-resolution weather forecasting system GRAF, a physics-based, rapidly updating model that predicts more realistic, small-scale detail than conventional global models. Proprietary to The Weather Company and in collaboration with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), GRAF is enabled by NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) to accelerate the computing power needed to process highly dynamic and complex weather data.

Building on previous work, the expanded collaboration will focus on two main areas:

The first-ever AI-based weather model focused on high-resolution forecasting

The Weather Company is working with NVIDIA to create a first-of-its-kind kilometer-scale, AI-based numerical weather prediction model. The model will initially generate products for the U.S. and Europe and, with continued collaboration, eventually cover the entire globe. AI-powered forecasts and insights have the potential to fuel products that have real-world applications for businesses, consumers and society at large.

NVIDIA Earth-2 APIs already include AI-based weather models, although none currently focus on high-resolution, granular forecasts. The Weather Company’s model will leverage its GRAF system to fill this gap, providing training data to inform the AI model and applying forecasting in a more energy-efficient, economical way.

AI models are only as good as the data and inputs that train them. As severe weather events grow in intensity amid a changing climate, current AI models simply don’t have the historical storm-scale data to predict some of the never-before-seen weather extremes that are now more common, such as record-breaking heat, devastating flooding and wildfires, and rapidly intensifying hurricanes. This collaboration aims to generate many years of retrospective GRAF forecasts to help develop AI techniques capable of emulating and understanding the physics of storm-scale weather.

The only provider of actual weather data for use within synthetic environments

A view of the actual weather in Boston, as visualized within Weatherverse Sim. The Weather Company’s Weatherverse capabilities will be made accessible on NVIDIA Omniverse.

As weather grows more disruptive, it’s increasingly clear that operational planning requires reliable weather intelligence. While other current simulations and digital twins use synthetic weather, The Weather Company’s Weatherverse™ solutions deliver real weather, based upon historical, current and forecasted datasets, into planning and simulation environments at a global scale. This results in better informed insights, more confident decision making and improved outcomes where weather is a contributing influencer.

The Weather Company’s Weatherverse capabilities will be made accessible on NVIDIA Omniverse,™ the platform for connecting and developing OpenUSD applications. This access enables customers building digital twins to better visualize and understand the actual effects of weather conditions in an interactive and intuitive manner.

Looking forward, The Weather Company will also explore adopting NVIDIA score-based generative AI within its Weatherverse solutions, its new high-resolution weather modeling products, and its Weather Engine™ solution that helps fuel business insights through weather intelligence.

Defense industry leaders such as BAE Systems and SimCentric Technologies are actively exploring how best to leverage Weatherverse solutions to help redefine military planning, training and simulation outcomes. Additionally, users of the Unreal Engine for visual rendering can take advantage of Weatherverse Sim, a plugin via API to visualize The Weather Company’s data for easier integration and deployment.

The Weather Company
The Weather Company helps people and businesses around the world make more informed decisions and take action in the face of weather. With its deep industry expertise and highly accurate, high-volume weather data combined with advanced technology and AI, The Weather Company provides insights and solutions that harness the power of weather in a scalable, privacy-forward way. The world’s most accurate forecaster, the company serves hundreds of enterprise customers across media, advertising, aviation and more, and is trusted by hundreds of millions of monthly active users via digital properties from The Weather Channel (weather.com) and Weather Underground (wunderground.com). For more, visit weathercompany.com.  

The global economic impact of weather events is predicted to reach $5 trillion over the next five years. Despite Mother Nature’s volatility, the power of weather can be leveraged by brands to help drive business growth across an organization. For marketers, brands can harness weather to help meet objectives, reach audiences, and build brand loyalty. Faced with the impending post-cookie future, savvy brands are already tapping into the weather for a competitive edge.

At CES in January, The Weather Company first showcased its 2024 class of Rainmakers, forward-thinking brands who are using weather insights to better understand their audience’s needs, cultivate meaningful messaging and drive business growth.

“With the  amount of data and reliable forecasts we now have available, gone are the days when businesses could blame poor results on the weather. Rather, businesses should have a weather strategy to deliver future growth,” said Randi Stipes, chief marketing officer for The Weather Company. “Working with innovative brands who are open to digging in to understand the pervasive impact weather can have on their operations is energizing.”

Using data, AI and expertise from The Weather Company, below we highlight two of these Rainmaker brands who not only understand but also predict how consumers will feel, what they’ll try, and what they’ll buy.

CeraVe

Core insight: More than half of millennials, Gen Z and multicultural audiences change their personal care routine as the weather changes because their skin needs change.¹

The CeraVe team leveraged this seasonal connection to reach consumers while they were considering a change in their skincare routine as spring turned to summer. The #1 Dermatologist Recommended Skincare Brand in the U.S.² chose to reach audiences when their real-time local weather conditions were – or were forecasted to be – clear, warm, sunny, cloudy, or high UV. The campaign resulted in an improved sales lift, a return on ad spend that exceeded benchmarks, and a majority of incremental sales driven by new buyers.

Sanofi

Core insight: 61% of people use weather information to assess their flu risk.³

Recognizing the connection between weather and flu to help boost overall community health, Sanofi Flu leveraged a combination of real-time weather data, insurance claims and anonymized health info (down to the ZIP code) to reach at-risk audiences with proactive flu vaccine messages 14 days before flu risk spiked in their area. This led to a healthy 14% lift in familiarity across their target audience, as well as a 3x bump in intent to search for flu vaccines online.

CeraVe and Sanofi join this year’s honorees and the inaugural class of Rainmakers announced in 2023, which includes e.l.f. Cosmetics, STIHL, Toyota and McCormick.

With an abundance of weather data available, it’s critical now more than ever to seek out accurate, actionable data when it comes to insights that go into making important business decisions. The Weather Company is the world’s most accurate forecaster⁴ and the world’s leading weather provider.⁵

21 February 2024 (Geneva) – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is expanding the transmission of its Turbulence Aware data for use within industry-leading aviation solutions by The Weather Company, which serves a majority of North American commercial airlines and many others globally. With this enhancement, participating airlines will soon be able to access Eddy Dissipation Rate (EDR) turbulence data directly through Fusion™ and Pilotbrief® tools by The Weather Company. IATA Turbulence Aware will be enabled as an additional data layer within these tools, allowing pilots, dispatchers and flight planners to have needed turbulence observations integrated directly into their mission critical applications in one place rather than relying on multiple screens.

Turbulence can impact crew and passenger safety, route planning, arrival and departure times, customer satisfaction, equipment maintenance and more. Combining IATA Turbulence Aware observations with forecasts from The Weather Company, the world’s most accurate forecaster,¹ aims to better mitigate the impacts of weather and turbulence for contributing airlines globally.

Accessing real-time, accurate turbulence information enables pilots and dispatchers to choose optimal flight paths, avoid turbulence and fly at optimum levels to maximize fuel efficiency and thereby reduce CO2 emissions. IATA Turbulence Aware was launched in 2018 to help airlines mitigate the impact of turbulence, which is a leading cause of passenger and crew injuries and higher fuel costs each year. The platform pools anonymized EDR turbulence data from thousands of flights operated by participating airlines. EDR is the official ICAO and WMO atmospheric turbulence intensity metric.

“As weather grows more impactful due to a changing climate, it’s critical now more than ever for aviation leaders to incorporate accurate, real-time, globally scaled weather data and insights within decisions,” said Ravi Vanmali, Head of Aviation for The Weather Company. “Reliable weather data and forecasts, combined with human expertise, can help airlines and pilots plan around inclement weather and turbulence, improve crew and passenger safety, and mitigate impact to the bottom line.”

“It is our aim to make access to turbulence-related data as simple as possible. By collaborating with The Weather Company, IATA Turbulence Aware data will be available to pilots and dispatchers through existing flight deck and flight planning applications and tools, enhancing the decision-making process in turbulence mitigation and avoidance”, said Frederic Leger, IATA’s Senior Vice President Commercial Products & Services.

Managing turbulence is expected to remain challenging, as climate change continues to impact weather patterns. This has implications for both safety and efficiency of flight. Turbulence Aware provides a significant improvement in turbulence reporting and avoiding excess fuel consumption.

At present, 21 airlines participate in the IATA Turbulence Aware Platform with more than 2,000 aircraft providing data daily. In 2023, a total of over 380 million turbulence observations was generated. Thanks to the data provided by Turbulence Aware, over 700 million passengers* have enjoyed a safer and more comfortable travel experience.

– IATA –

Notes for Editors:

• IATA (International Air Transport Association) represents some 320 airlines comprising 83% of global air traffic.
• You can follow us at com/iata for announcements, policy positions, and other useful industry information.
• * based on the number of passengers carried by participating airlines from 2020 onwards based on IATA’s World Air Transport Statistics
• Fly Net Zero
• The Weather Company, Fusion and Pilotbrief are trademarks of The Weather Company, LLC.
• Learn more about The Weather Company aviation business: weathercompany.com/aviation.

Customizable Experience from The Weather Company Includes AI-derived Weather Insights to Help People Make More Confident Decisions about Weather’s Impact on their Well-being and Daily Routines  

Research¹ Reveals: 58% of People Surveyed Check the Weather More Than Once a Day; 67% Surveyed Report That Their Physical Health is Impacted by Weather, with Younger Segment (18-34) Seeing More Influence of Weather on Their Physical Health, Mood and Activities

ATLANTA (Feb. 5, 2024) – As weather around the world is growing more intense and having a significant impact on society, people may no longer be able to rely solely on seasonal norms to know when pollen season will start, to plan a fall trip, or make other decisions based on weather. Recognizing the profound influence of weather, The Weather Channel, the flagship consumer brand of The Weather Company, today introduces a new app experience that goes beyond the forecast to help translate how the weather impacts your daily life, activities, and physical and emotional well-being.

Ensuring people can stay ahead of and be prepared for disruptive weather conditions is critical, especially as extreme weather could cost the global economy $5 trillion over the next five years.² As the world’s most accurate forecaster,³ and most downloaded weather app,⁴ The Weather Channel has long been the source for reliable forecasts.

“Our mission has always been to help keep people safe and help them lead better lives. In our forty-year history, weather has never been more impactful and therefore never more important to consumers and businesses,” said Sheri Bachstein, CEO of The Weather Company. “Our transformed app will set a new standard for what people can and should expect from their weather provider, whether it is getting ahead of a storm, planning a trip, understanding how air quality could affect your health, or simply deciding when to go for a hike. The work by our combined team of meteorologists, product leaders and engineers truly focuses on the needs of our hundreds of millions of monthly users around the globe.”

First and foremost, The Weather Channel app offers reliability. It combines 100 forecast models and then uses a proprietary mix of AI and human expertise to create the freshest, best possible forecast for any time and location requested, on demand. No other app comes close to the personalized weather forecast The Weather Channel app delivers, unique to you.

10 New App Features and Improvements to Help Plan Your Day and Live Well

In addition to a precise forecast, The Weather Channel app offers a stunning new look and simple user interface. At launch and in the coming weeks, this new experience will include new tools and features to help:

• Understand how weather may impact your well-being⁵ – Get content, forecasts, and tips tailored to several health conditions that can be impacted by weather. Sections focused on skin health, breathing, allergies, and cold & flu are available to help people prepare and mitigate their symptoms. Coming next will be sections on headaches, hydration & heat illness, and pet health, with even more to follow.
• Look ahead at what the air quality will be – The Weather Channel app now offers an air quality forecast in addition to current conditions. Air quality will now also factor into the new “Breathing Index” for a better look at how breathing may be affected based on air quality, pollen, smoke, heat, humidity and more.
• Weather insights, front and center – AI-derived weather explainers delivered at the top of the app aims to show users the important things they may need to know in that moment, such as “Cold temperatures will result in the risk of frozen pipes tonight,” “Conditions for breathing are poor today, partly due to high pollen levels,” or “Thunderstorms possible after 7pm.”
• Quickly know what weather to expect – A first look at the app offers dual tabs now with deeper insights and details. “Today” shows current conditions and “This Week” reveals the 15-day forecast. When severe U.S. weather threatens such as major winter storms, a tornado outbreak or hurricanes, a dynamic third tab will show up to provide critical detail. In moments of sunny weather, uplifting content such as pets or stories of people helping people aim to put a smile on your face.
• Make better plans based on your favorite activities – While people are quick to turn to their weather app when bad weather threatens, The Weather Channel app also helps people maximize plans when the weather is nice. Using algorithms that factor in how various weather conditions affect specific interests, a new Activities feature helps with planning outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, golf, tennis, running/walking, gardening, with more to be added to the app throughout the year.
• Translate what the weather means for you – Those who choose a more customized view can register and select what weather conditions are important to them (temperature, wind, humidity, precipitation, etc.) and topics of interest (health and well-being; travel; climate and environment; pets; etc.). As you interact more with this smart app, it can learn your preferences for a more tailored experience.
• Immerse yourself in the weather with advanced AR technology – Coming soon in a beta version, subscribers of The Weather Channel Premium app will be able to visit virtual environments and engage in immersive, interactive weather-related experiences with augmented reality (AR). The map-based, 3D view is designed to help subscribers better visualize how conditions like UV, pollen, or inclement weather could affect their current location.
• Go deeper with expert partner content – Expanded content is included from trusted brands like Healthline on the impact weather can have on people’s health and well-being and from Outside to help people plan their next outdoor adventure.
• Plan outdoor time and effects from the sun and moon – Going well beyond showing sunrise and sunset times, the “Sun” and “Moon” features will soon deliver the data people need to help maximize their daylight hours; learn about stargazing and celestial events; plan for high tides and more.
• Experience integrated advertising – Brands will have a portfolio of ad products that are underpinned by weather data and can flex with the changing conditions, to help build a more relevant experience for ad-supported users.

The new UI design is modern and intuitive, intended to delight users. It was built with newly written code and current state-of-the-art design patterns, tools and APIs. Especially critical during threats of severe weather, relevant and personal information shows up quickly to users in impacted locations to help them stay safe and informed. First available on both the free, ad-supported and premium version of The Weather Channel app for iOS, the modernization will extend next to Android and to weather.com on web and mobile web.

The Weather Channel is the world’s most downloaded weather app,³ one of America’s most trusted brands,⁶ the world’s leading weather provider,⁷ and the world’s most accurate forecaster.²

The new app experience is available for download now from Apple’s App Store, and coming next to Android in the Google Play Store. For more, visit weathercompany.com.

_{The Weather Company  
The Weather Company helps people and businesses around the world make more informed decisions and take action in the face of weather. With its deep industry expertise and highly accurate, high-volume weather data combined with advanced technology and AI, The Weather Company provides insights and solutions that harness the power of weather in a scalable, privacy-forward way. The world’s most accurate forecaster, the company serves hundreds of enterprise customers across media, advertising, aviation and more, and is trusted by hundreds of millions of monthly active users via digital properties from The Weather Channel (weather.com) and Weather Underground (wunderground.com). For more, visit weathercompany.com.}   

Upon close, The Weather Company to become standalone company, unlocking new growth potential.

ARMONK, N.Y. and SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 22, 2023 — IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Francisco Partners, a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology businesses, today announced that the two companies have signed a definitive agreement under which Francisco Partners will acquire The Weather Company assets from IBM. Specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The assets being acquired by Francisco Partners include The Weather Company’s digital consumer-facing offerings, The Weather Channel mobile and cloud-based digital properties including Weather.com, Weather Underground and Storm Radar, as well as its enterprise offerings for broadcast, media, aviation, advertising technology and data solutions for other emerging industries. The Weather Company will also bring its forecasting science and technology platform to Francisco Partners.

The Weather Company provides highly accurate weather data to consumers and businesses and is among the top 10 most trusted brands in America¹. The Weather Company serves an average of more than 415 million people each month through its consumer-facing digital properties, including The Weather Channel mobile app and website, Weather Underground and Storm Radar, and more than 2,000 businesses across a variety of industries through its enterprise offerings.

IBM will retain its sustainability software business, including its Environmental Intelligence Suite (EIS) to help clients curate, measure, report and operationalize ESG data to inform decision making, improve performance and meet regulatory requirements. IBM intends to continue leveraging The Weather Company’s weather data for EIS, which spans various climate related use cases. EIS also uses a geospatial foundational AI model powered by NASA’s satellite dataset and offered as part of watsonx, IBM’s AI and data platform. This model has a wide range of applications, including tracking changes in land use, monitoring natural disasters, and predicting crop yields.

Through increased investment and resources from Francisco Partners, The Weather Company will look to move beyond forecasting alone and bring new tools and experiences to users to help them understand how weather impacts all aspects of their lives, starting with health and well-being. For businesses, The Weather Company plans to offer more actionable insights so organizations can provide greater value to their customers. With its advertising platform, The Weather Company will continue to provide quality real-time experiences for the ad and subscription media industry, while complying with all consumer privacy laws and regulations.

“We’re proud of what The Weather Company team has accomplished with IBM, and we are confident that the best path forward is as a standalone company benefiting from Francisco Partners’ expanded investment, dedication and expertise. We’re excited to see the next phase of The Weather Company’s journey,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, Software and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM. “Over the last few years, we’ve evolved IBM to be a hybrid cloud and AI company. We regularly review our portfolio to make sure our business areas are core to that strategy, and today’s news reflects our continued focus on these two transformational technologies.”

Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in over 400 technology companies, making it one of the most active and long-standing investors in the technology industry. Francisco Partners’ investments have focused on companies that provide the best possible products and service for its customers and partners. Francisco Partners also has extensive experience partnering with corporations to execute divisional carve-outs with transactions such as Dell Inc.’s Dell Software business and Discovery Inc.’s Discovery Education business.

Alan Ni, Partner at Francisco Partners said “Amid the growing volatility of weather, The Weather Company’s unique set of consumer, media, and industry-specific products provide mission critical, data-driven weather insights to individuals and businesses around the world. We are excited to partner with the management team to grow The Weather Company’s robust portfolio of technology offerings and deliver a great product experience for its customers.”

Mei Shi, Principal at Francisco Partners, added “We have a long and successful track record of executing divisional carve-out transactions and look forward to helping The Weather Company drive crucial focus in executing on organic and inorganic growth strategies.”

The transaction is expected to close by the end of Q1 2024 and is subject to regulatory approvals, completion of local labor processes and other customary closing conditions.

_{1 https://pro.morningconsult.com/analyst-reports/most-trusted-brands-2023}

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in over 400 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology industry. With approximately $45 billion in capital raised to date, the firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit www.franciscopartners.com.

About IBM

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

Press Contacts:
For Francisco Partners:
Whit Clay, 917-601-6012
[email protected]

SOURCE IBM

• The Weather Company was over 3 times more likely to be the most accurate forecaster than other weather providers studied.¹
• AI and advanced technology combined with human expertise helps enable more informed weather decisions.

NEW YORK and ATLANTA, May 15, 2023 — The Weather Company, which includes The Weather Channel digital properties, was determined to be “the overall most accurate provider globally” by ForecastWatch, a premier organization for evaluating the accuracy of weather forecasts. In fact, The Weather Company has been the world’s most accurate forecaster overall every year since the study began in 2017.²

Accuracy has become increasingly paramount as people and businesses continue to monitor weather forecasts to help them make decisions, especially amid the growing volatility of weather and a changing climate. In fact, a recent study validated that 91% of respondents cited accuracy among the top five leading criteria for why they select a weather provider.³

In its latest comprehensive report of forecast accuracy released today,² Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2017-2022, commissioned by The Weather Company and IBM, ForecastWatch named The Weather Company as the weather forecast provider whose forecasts were more likely to be the most accurate across all geographic regions studied and time periods covered. Further, the report data showed that the accuracy gap between The Weather Company (noted as The Weather Channel in the report) and the next best overall provider has grown larger since the study began, from 2 times in 2017 to over 3 times more likely in 2022 to be the most accurate forecaster, even with the addition of more weather providers studied.¹

“We’re seeing more companies jump into the business of weather forecasting as weather becomes more erratic and impactful. Despite increased competition, this report validates our continued innovation and leadership in weather accuracy,” said Sheri Bachstein, CEO of The Weather Company. “Our unique mix of ‘human and machine’ – advanced AI and technology plus human expertise – has helped us vastly outpace the field as we help people and customers make informed decisions based on insights from a recognized, trusted source.”

About the Report
The report is a comprehensive weather forecast accuracy study spanning six years, 2,182 global locations across eight regions of the world, and 84 different accuracy metrics covering precipitation, temperature, cloud cover, wind and other forecast variables. ForecastWatch analyzed about 250 million forecasts from 23 different weather providers. Each provider was noted each time it finished in first place for each metric, and according to the report, The Weather Channel recorded the most first-place finishes globally for every year studied and all forecast days of all the providers compared.

Major highlights and findings of the report include:

• The Weather Company is the world’s most accurate weather forecaster overall of the providers studied.²
• The Weather Company was over 3 times more likely to be the most accurate forecaster than any other provider studied.¹
• The accuracy gap between The Weather Company and the next best overall provider has grown larger since the study began, from 2 times more likely in 2017 to over 3 times more likely in 2022 to be the most accurate forecaster than any other weather provider studied.¹
• The Weather Company was the most accurate forecast provider most often in each region compared, including the U.S., Canada, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific.⁴
• The report states: “The Weather Channel had more first place finishes in the wind metric alone than any provider had globally for all metrics combined.”

Industry-Leading Accuracy Built on Science, AI, and Tech
The report is evidence of how The Weather Company is helping advance the science of weather forecasting through continued innovations, including in AI and cloud computing. Artificial intelligence is a critical tool for meteorologists to make sense of billions of unstructured weather data points produced by satellites, ground sensors, radars, and more. With advanced machine learning algorithms and computing power from IBM, meteorologists at The Weather Company can use this data to simulate atmospheric conditions and better forecast the weather.

Continued investment and innovation at The Weather Company have allowed its team of meteorologists and experts to develop technologies that have helped keep it ahead in overall accuracy, such as:

• A forecasting engine that uses AI to integrate input from nearly 100 forecast models around the world, weighing factors from each model based on geography, time, weather type and recent forecast accuracy, on demand.
• A significant breakthrough in global weather forecasting with its proprietary GRAF (Global High-Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting) system, the first hourly-updating global weather model able to predict something as small as a thunderstorm.
• A unique collaboration of human and machine – proprietary technology called “human over the loop” forecasting that brings AI together with an expert team of nearly 100 meteorologists. The process helps customers get an on-demand forecast based on fresh information and human expertise.
• Global radar leadership thanks to one of the world’s largest assimilations of weather radar data and technologies such as AI to use that data effectively.
• On-demand assessment of both current and forecast weather conditions from proprietary technology at The Weather Company.

Forecast Accuracy Helps Inform Businesses, People and Marketers
The accuracy of forecasts within The Weather Company’s products is critical not only for keeping consumers informed, but also for delivering AI-based insights and decision capabilities across industries. Leveraging weather signals and insights helps businesses, marketers and customers prepare for and respond to weather.

The Weather Company forecasts are distributed across The Weather Channel app and weather.com, Weather Underground app and wunderground.com, as well as weather products for enterprise clients.

The Weather Company is the world’s leading weather provider⁵ and powers the weather forecasts on over 2 billion devices.⁶ The Weather Channel is the world’s most downloaded weather app⁷ and one of America’s most trusted brands.⁸

_{1 The Weather Channel global percent of top rankings averaged over all forecast lead days (1-9) during 2022 was over 3 times higher than any other weather provider studied. Derived by The Weather Company using data from: ForecastWatch, Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2017-2022, https://forecastwatch.com/AccuracyOverview2017-2022, commissioned by The Weather Company and IBM.
2 ForecastWatch, Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2017-2022, https://forecastwatch.com/AccuracyOverview2017-2022, commissioned by The Weather Company and IBM.
3 According to a third-party global management consulting firm study, Q1 2023, commissioned by IBM.
4 The Weather Channel had the highest percentage of first-place finishes over the study period and averaged over all forecast lead days (1-9) in each region studied, according to ForecastWatch, Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2017-2022, https://forecastwatch.com/AccuracyOverview2017-2022, commissioned by The Weather Company and IBM.
5 According to Comscore, The Weather Company was the largest provider of weather forecasts worldwide (web and app) in 2022 based on the average of the total monthly unique visitors. Comscore Media Metrix®, Worldwide Rollup Media Trend, News/Information – Weather category incl. The [P] Weather Company, The, Jan-Dec. 2022 avg.
6 Based on The Weather Company review of third-party market analyses of worldwide consumer device data for 2022.
7 According to data.ai Intelligence, The Weather Channel has been the world’s most-downloaded weather app across Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store beginning on July 4, 2010 and into 2023.
8 According to Morning Consult, June 2022: https://morningconsult.com/most-trusted-brands/ The Weather Channel brand is named #8 most trusted brand for the US. The surveys were conducted from 3/3/2022 through 4/14/2022, among a nationally representative sample of 2,200 U.S. adults and over 4,000 brands.}

PRESS CONTACT:
Melissa Medori, The Weather Company, [email protected]