Weather Underground (weather service)
| The Weather Underground emblem featuring the letters W U shaded from red to blue with a raindrop above the U. Below is smaller black text stating "Weather Underground." | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1995 |
| Founder | Jeff Masters |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
| Parent | The Weather Company |
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Weather Underground operates as a commercial weather service delivering up-to-date weather information through its online platform. It provides forecasts for major urban areas worldwide and supplies localized weather data to newspapers and various third-party outlets.
The platform gathers data from the National Weather Service (NWS) alongside a network exceeding 250,000 personal weather stations (PWS). Supporting multiple languages, it also offers a premium subscription option that removes advertisements and unlocks additional features.
In February 2024, ownership of Weather Underground and its parent company, The Weather Company, transferred to the private equity firm Francisco Partners.
History
Located in San Francisco, California, Weather Underground originated in 1995 as a commercial offshoot of the University of Michigan’s internet-based weather database. Its name pays homage to the 1960s radical left-wing group called the Weather Underground, which also formed at the same university. Initially called UM-Weather, the name switched to Weather Underground in 1991 after feedback from the National Science Foundation concerning funding submissions. The service is sometimes informally referred to as Wunderground.
Jeff Masters, then pursuing a PhD in meteorology at the University of Michigan under Professor Perry Samson, created a menu-driven Telnet interface in 1991 that displayed real-time global weather data. In 1993, Alan Steremberg joined the team to help introduce internet weather resources into K–12 education by developing "Blue Skies," an award-winning graphical Mac Gopher client that adapted seamlessly to web browsers like Mosaic.
Weather Underground Inc. was established as an independent commercial company in 1995. It broadened its scope beyond online offerings by providing weather content for print publications. By 2005, it had become the official weather provider for the Associated Press and supplied forecasts to newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle as well as platforms like Google Search. Alan Steremberg also played a role in Google's early development alongside Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
By October 2008, Weather Underground was ranked second among internet-based weather information sources. In February 2010, it introduced FullScreenWeather.com (now redirected to weather.com), designed specifically for mobile users with full-screen mapping capabilities.
On July 2, 2012, The Weather Channel acquired Weather Underground and incorporated it into The Weather Channel Companies (later renamed "The Weather Company"). The website continued to operate independently with its existing staff retained. By mid-2015, third-party analytics placed it among the top 100 most visited websites in the United States and ranked it as the second most popular global weather website with over 47 million monthly users. The Weather Company also utilizes its San Francisco office as a regional base of operations.
The brand’s recognition led to a dedicated television program hosted by meteorologist Mike Bettes on The Weather Channel, which was renamed Weather Unfiltered in May 2024.
On October 28, 2015, IBM announced its acquisition of The Weather Company's mobile and cloud-based web properties—including Weather Underground—with the transaction closing on January 29, 2016. The Weather Channel television network remained independent and was sold to Entertainment Studios in 2018.
Founder Jeff Masters announced his exit from Weather Underground in October 2019.
On August 22, 2023, IBM reached an agreement to sell The Weather Company to private equity firm Francisco Partners; this acquisition was finalized in February 2024, placing Weather Underground under Francisco Partners’ ownership.
Blogs
Weather Underground hosted blogs created by users focusing on weather and associated subjects. The inaugural blog was introduced by Jeff Masters on April 14, 2005, with posts appearing almost daily. Between 2007 and early 2017, Richard B. Rood regularly contributed weekly entries discussing climate change and societal impacts.
On October 14, 2016, the blog platform was rebranded as Category 6 to emphasize coverage of severe weather events and climate-related insights. Nevertheless, on April 3, 2017, Weather Underground terminated all Member blog services alongside other features such as WUMail, SMS alerts, NOAA Weather Radio rebroadcasts, and Aviation-related offerings.
Services
Weather Underground utilizes information gathered from more than 250,000 personal weather stations (PWS) globally. Its WunderMap tool displays weather data from these PWS alongside National Weather Service stations on a Mapbox framework, providing users with interactive weather visualization layers.
Toward the end of 2017, the company initially intended to cease support for user-submitted weather cameras but reversed this decision after receiving considerable feedback from the community.
In the past, Weather Underground streamed NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts through Internet radio and maintained a Braille Page for accessibility. The Associated Press relies on Weather Underground for its nationwide weather reports.
The platform provides multiple Google Chrome extensions and mobile applications compatible with iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Key offerings include FullScreenWeather.com (integrated with OpenStreetMap), WunderStation for iPad, and WunderMap available on both iOS and Android platforms. A Roku application was previously offered but has since been discontinued.
In February 2015, Weather Underground introduced the universal iOS app named Storm; however, support for this app ended in 2017 as focus shifted to The Weather Channel Interactive’s Storm Radar app.
On December 31, 2018, the company ceased its widely used weather data API service. Further service reductions followed, including the discontinuation of the Email Forecast Program effective October 1, 2019.
See also
External links
- UM-Weather, the original platform from which Weather Underground originated
- Pages with script errors
- Pages with broken file links
- Weather Underground (weather service)
- Meteorological companies
- Companies based in San Francisco
- American news websites
- Meteorological data and networks
- Former IBM subsidiaries
- IBM cloud services
- 1995 establishments in Michigan
- Internet properties established in 1995
- 2012 mergers and acquisitions
- 2024 mergers and acquisitions
- Private equity portfolio companies