by Daphne Thompson | Apr 9, 2025 | Data
In an era of increasingly extreme weather events, the National Weather Service (NWS) stands as America’s first line of defense against nature’s fury. But today, this crucial institution faces a critical challenge threatening its ability to fulfill its...
by Daphne Thompson | Mar 27, 2025 | Data
Weather forecasting is a precision science, with computer models relying on a delicate ecosystem of atmospheric data. At the core of these sophisticated prediction systems are weather balloons – critical instruments that provide the nuanced, three-dimensional...
by Steve Gifford | Mar 20, 2025 | Data
I’m an outsider in most of the fields I’ve worked in. Long ago, my first job out of college was building terrain database software for military training, but I wasn’t a tank commander. Later, I got into flight simulation, but I’m not a pilot....
by Steve Gifford | Mar 13, 2025 | Data
The other day, I participated in a discussion on open-source adoption and was surprised by some opinions. One really stood out: Some technologists think their companies are still deciding on open source. This is an argument from the early 2000s, perhaps even the late...
by Steve Gifford | Mar 6, 2025 | Data
I live in Northern California, and we were largely spared by wildfires this year. Southern California was obviously not, and Canada and the East Coast of the U.S. got hit pretty hard last year. Effective wildfire smoke tracking has become a significant area of...
by Daphne Thompson | Feb 27, 2025 | Data
Millions of Americans check their phones daily for the day’s weather forecast. We plan our commutes, outfits, and activities based on these predictions. But have you ever wondered where your weather data comes from? The answer might surprise you: virtually all weather...
