AerisWeather

Whether or Knot LLC d.b.a. AerisWeather is a global weather API and tile mapping layer provider governed by Paul Douglas, David Hubbard, Michael Vaughan, and Craig Mataczynski. It is based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.[1]

AerisWeather
FormerlyHAMweather
TypeEnvironmental Data Service Provider
IndustryMedia
Headquarters
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Key people
Paul Douglas, David Hubbard, Michael Vaughan, Craig Mataczynski
ProductsWeather API, weather map tiles, WeatherBlox widgets
ParentWhether or Knot, LLC
Websitewww.aerisweather.com, www.pwsweather.com

History

Paul Douglas first had the idea for outsourced weather production in 1979 but shelved it due to the expected high cost, mostly for satellite feeds ($5 to $7 million a month). With his lay off from WCCO-TV in 2008, Douglas started WeatherNation as broadband's availability decreased the costs. Douglas was CEO and Todd Frostad, formerly of Digital River and a commercial real estate businessman, was president and co-owner. The company hired 5 other meteorologists.[2] One of the company's first client was the St. Cloud Times[3] who signed on during the summer of 2009.[2] Another was KARE in launching its Weather Now subchannel.[2] In 2009 Media Logic, WeatherNation's parent company, purchased HamWeather, an Atlanta based company.[4][5] By November 2009, the company had about two dozen clients with some being Spanish-language stations. WeatherNation also signed on Independent News Network which uses the company for five of its Spanish-language client stations.[2]

On May 20, 2010, the company launched The Weather Cast, a channel developed for Dish Network with the intent to replace The Weather Channel on the satellite provider. Dish, which had been negotiating with the channel on a new carriage agreement, had planned to drop The Weather Channel as a result of a dispute over a planned increase in retransmission consent payments and the provider's dissatisfaction with the channel's decreased reliance on weather forecasts in favor of reality, documentary and other entertainment programming.[6] Weather Cast existed for four days, ceasing operations on May 24, when The Weather Channel reached a multi-year agreement with Dish Network.[7]

The company licensed its WeatherNation trademarks and brand to Performance One Media in 2010 and changed its name to Broadcast Weather. Broadcast Weather also was contracted to produce the WeatherNation programming.[8][9] With the license out of the Weather Nation trademarks, the company was split into four companies, Broadcast Weather LLC, Ham Weather LLC, Smart Energy LLC and Singular Logic.[8]

In June 2010, the company with Insight Communications launched CN2 cable channel to serve the state of Kentucky providing the weather. By Mid-August 2011, Broadcast Weather was providing weather video to Bay News, a San Francisco Bay area iPad-only news service.[8]

Current Operations under Whether or Knot, LLC

On August 1, 2016, Whether or Knot, LLC announced its acquisition of HAMWeather's assets. Via an announcement on the HAMWeather site, it was announced that AerisWeather was to become the trade name for the future developments in their weather API and mapping products which are currently taking the place under the umbrella of Whether or Knot LLC.[10] The entity that formerly owned AerisWeather was renamed Praedictix. In early April 2020, AerisWeather refreshed PWSweather, a site that allows personal weather station users to collect and share data.[11]

Products and Services

Services
  • AerisWeather API, a global weather API oriented towards business and enterprise applications offering historical, current, and forecast conditions for nearly any location on Earth. Two types of plan are available.
    • API Basic - Includes the following endpoints: Places, Observations, Forecasts (7 days), Sun & Moon, Alerts, Lightning Summary.
    • API Premium - Includes the following endpoints: Places, Conditions, Observations, Forecasts (15 days), Sun & Moon, Alerts, Lightning, Air Quality, Threats, Tropical Cyclones, Storm Cells, Storm Reports, Wildfires, Points of Interest (POI), Normals/Almanac, Daily Records, Earthquakes, Tides, Indices (Health & Outdoors), Fire Weather Outlook, and Drought Monitor.
  • AerisWeather Mapping Platform (AMP), offers map layers for visualizing weather data in custom applications. Two types of plan are available.
    • AMP Basic - Includes basic map layers like base maps, overlays, masks, radar, satellite, alerts, and observed weather conditions.
    • AMP Premium - Includes premium map layers like base maps, overlays, masks, radar, satellite, alerts, and observed weather conditions as well as severe, tropical, lightning, forecast, air quality, outlook, and ocean layers.
  • WeatherBlox, embeddable weather widgets powered by the AerisWeather API and AMP.[12]
  • PWSweather, a site that allows personal weather station owners to monitor, manage, and archive their device's data.[13]
    • AerisWeather Contributor Plan - limited API access is granted to PWS contributors who regularly send data.

Former Units
  • Broadcast Weather, LLC provides TV station weather reports
  • Ham Weather LLC, development of graphics, data streams and mobile API’s
  • Smart Energy LLC, wind forecasts for wind farms
  • Singular Logic, patent or patent pending holder of user choice advertising[8]

References
  1. "OpenGovWA". Retrieved 2 June 2020..
  2. Brooks Suzukamo, Leslie (November 28, 2009). "Ex-WCCO Meteorologist Paul Douglas wants to bring the nation's TV stations more weather". Twin Cities Pioneer Press. Digital First Media. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
  3. Kaiser, Emily (March 30, 2009). "Paul Douglas is back! In St. Cloud, at least". City Pages. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
  4. Douglas, Paul (September 30, 2009). "Rumors, gossip and weather innuendo". MinnPost. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  5. Platt, Adam (November 22, 2013). "Paul Douglas". Twin Cities Business. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  6. Huttner, Paul (May 21, 2010). "Paul Douglas launches new national weather channel from the Twin Cities". Updraft. Minnesota Public Radio. MPR News. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
  7. Gibbons, Kent; Spangler, Todd (May 24, 2010). "Weather Channel Gets Dish Deal Done, Avoiding Drop". Multichannel News. NewBay Media, LLC. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  8. Samenow, Jason (August 18, 2011). "An alternative to The Weather Channel: Weather Nation TV, interview with CEO Paul Douglas". Washington Post. Retrieved December 21, 2016.
  9. "WeatherNation TV Cuts Distribution Deal with NCTC". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media. March 30, 2011. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
  10. HAMWeather, "HAMWeather homepage", HAMweather Sold to AerisWeather, date
  11. "PWSweather". April 4, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  12. "AerisWeather Documentation". June 10, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  13. "PWSweather About". Retrieved June 29, 2020.

www.aerisweather.com

www.pwsweather.com

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