In the fall of 1998 a radio network engineer wondered why all Internet weather sites showed conditions from places many miles away and sometimes thousands of feet different in altitude, especially in the mountains in the western United States. This made it very difficult to plan correctly when he had to make trips to these places since temperatures and weather could be significantly different. What he found was there were official weather stations at a limited number of locations so it was necessary to use "nearby" information.
He also found hundreds of personal weather stations, many in places he travelled to. But there was no central place to find out where stations were. The major Internet weather sites were approached with the idea of including these stations, but they were not interested even saying those stations were "not relevant."
In December of 1998 Joe decided to start WeatherForYou.com as that central place where people could find more relevant weather information in their area. After partnering with HAMweather in mid-1999, more weather information was added so visitors could receive current conditions from their area along with forecasts, radar, satellite, warnings and more. Also this information could be displayed on images people could place on their own web sites.
As the popularity WeatherForYou.com quickly grew other weather sites decided maybe personal weather stations were relevant and some started similar programs.
Another area Joe wanted to make WeatherForYou.com different in was advertising. Many appreciate that WeatherForYou.com will not knowingly display pop-up or pop-under advertisements, extreme or flashing animation, self-starting audio ads, deceptive terms ("You're the 1 millionth visitor so you win") or ads with specific themes such as gambling, tobacco, sexually suggestive or with adult-only content. The goal is to always have a family friendly atmosphere which is appropriate for all ages. If any of these "sneak" into the advertising they are immediately addressed as soon as they're found.
Today WeatherForYou.com is a leading independent Internet weather service, providing millions of forecasts through the main site every month, images (or Weather Snapshots) for tens of thousands of web sites around the world and full custom-branded weather pages for other web sites designed to match their look. Dozens of dedicated servers providing weather information for other weather companies are maintained by WeatherForYou.com. And over ten thousand stations are now registered to participate in the personal weather station program, now known as PWSweather.com.
WeatherForYou.com has a solid future as well. New services are constantly in the works. Operating completely debt free, from the beginning, means the financial ups and downs of the Internet has never been a factor. Growth has happened as the means were available. And as anyone who has read our "bottom line" knows we believe whatever happens God is in control.
Thanks for reading our history and for letting WeatherForYou.com serve you!