Global Weather Media Company — Trusted for Superior Accuracy — Looks Ahead to Next 50 Years
STATE COLLEGE – AccuWeather Inc. celebrated 50 years of operation today by launching a year-long recognition of the company’s 50th anniversary through a series of events, as well as retrospective stories and videos on AccuWeather.com. Founded in 1962 by Dr. Joel N. Myers, AccuWeather has grown from a weather company providing forecasts for businesses into an international weather media company that reaches more than half a billion users worldwide daily.
Trusted around the globe for its superior accuracy, AccuWeather serves a worldwide audience from its headquarters in State College and its Severe Weather Center in Wichita, KS. AccuWeather provides hourly forecasts for more than 2.7 million locations worldwide, reaching consumers via smart phones, tablets, free wired and mobile Internet sites, and smart appliances, as well as via radio, television and newspapers. Customized solutions to media, business, government and institutions are also a key part of AccuWeather’s services.
The company’s Founder and President, Dr. Joel N. Myers, is credited with many of the advances in the way consumers receive their weather information. He said, “I was passionate about the weather at a very early age, and I also knew I would be able to combine my love of forecasting with a business that would save lives and help people know more about what the weather had in store for them on a daily basis.
“We are constantly reinventing ourselves as technology changes how people access our accurate forecasts.”
Under Myers’ leadership, AccuWeather was in turn the first to introduce the seven-day, ten-day, fifteen-day hourly, and, most recently, the 25-day hourly forecast. AccuWeather is noted for patented weather measures such as the RealFeel Temperature — the only weather index to incorporate eight key variables to show what the temperature really feels like — as well as dozens of lifestyle forecasts, which show how the weather will affect travel, health, hobbies, sports and more.
On the mobile and wired web, AccuWeather has experienced spectacular growth, becoming a major news destination and the leading weather mobile site in the U.S. and in Europe. AccuWeather has built a comprehensive portfolio of partnerships with major digital equipment manufacturers worldwide, including Smart TV providers
Panasonic, LG, Vizio, Sony and Samsung, the top 10 mobile device manufacturers worldwide (accounting for 85 percent of all mobile devices sold) and leading manufacturers of tablets and next-generation PCs, including Apple, Dell, Lenovo and others.
The outstanding quality of AccuWeather’s digital media has achieved widespread recognition. AccuWeather was selected by Apple for launch on the iPad, was the winner of the Best iPhone App at the 2012 Mobie Awards, and AccuWeather’s Android applications are consistently chosen as top ranked apps by users. On an average day, AccuWeather receives almost 3 billion data requests from internet-capable smart phones, tablets and appliances around the world.
As the gold standard in weather forecasting, AccuWeather is the number one supplier of customized, pinpoint weather warnings to large enterprises, as well as a vital information source for worldwide weather forecasts, data and meteorological consulting services, serving six of the ten largest companies in America.
AccuWeather supplies weather content to hundreds of newspapers across the planet, including USA Today, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
AccuWeather’s forecasts and content appear on more than 72,000 third-party Web sites, and its radio broadcasts are heard on nearly 750 stations. The 24×7 The AccuWeather Television Network is available to 38 million TV households in North America.
AccuWeather believes the next 50 years will produce even greater demand for its powerful blend of global reach, customized service and superior accuracy.
“The discussion about climate change, and its causes and responses, will go on for decades,” said Barry Lee Myers, chief executive officers of AccuWeather Inc. noting that, “Days after Superstorm Sandy, Governor Cuomo said, ‘Anyone who says there is not a dramatic change in weather patterns is denying reality. We have a 100-year flood every two years now.’
“As weather systems — from superstorms to droughts and snow — increasingly capture the headlines,” Barry Lee Myers concluded, “the daily importance and value of AccuWeather will continue to grow.”
About AccuWeather and AccuWeather.com
Every day, more than 600 million people worldwide rely on AccuWeather to help them plan their lives, protect their businesses and get more from their day. AccuWeather provides the most accurate and detailed hourly forecasts for every location where people live and work worldwide (more than 2.7 million locations), with customized content and engaging video presentations available on smart phones, tablets, wired and mobile internet sites and smart TVs and appliances, as well as on radio and television and in newspapers.
Founded in 1962 by Dr. Joel N. Myers — recognized as one of the top 528 entrepreneurs in American history by Entrepreneur Magazine’s Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs — AccuWeather also delivers a wide range of highly-customized enterprise solutions to media, business, government and institutions, as well as news and weather content and video for more than 72,000 third-party Web sites, including The Wall Street Journal, CBS News Mobile and The New York Times.
