Weather Graphics newsletter #2

[Tim]

WEATHER GRAPHICS
NEWSLETTER #2
MARCH 5, 2008

Welcome to the second Weather Graphics newsletter! You might be
surprised
to hear from me as it's been over a year since I sent the last
newsletter.

Things have been busy as usual with a family and an energetic, bright
4-year
old boy. We've been working to finish a large cottage house I've been
building almost singlehandedly out in the country. It was supposed to
be
completed in early 2006. It's there, but is empty and still covered
in
Lowes housewrap! That's probably metaphoric for how a lot of my
projects
have ended up this past year. Fortunately the tide is turning and I'm
making
some good headway with respect to time and progress on my projects.

So anyway, here's what's in this newsletter:

1. RADIO SHOW APPEARANCE
2. DIGITAL ATMOSPHERE
3. NEW SURFACE ARCHIVES (massive additions)!
4. BOOK AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS
5. CHASE HOTLINE

Let's begin:


=============================================================================
1. RADIO SHOW APPEARANCE
=============================================================================

I will be appearing as a guest on "High Instability", an Internet
radio show
run by the kings of weather radio, Gene Rhoden and R. J. Evans. It
will
appear live on Wednesday evening (March 5) at 7 pm Central (UTC time:
06/0100Z). You can tune it in here:
http://www.highinstability.com

Though the show is focused largely on storm chasing, I encourage and
welcome
you all to call in with any general questions or comments about
Digital
Atmosphere, my books, or about myself or Weather Graphics in general.
Forecast
questions are also welcome. Obviously this is probably not the best
place to
go for tech support issues, though.

You may want to bookmark the High Instability website as they've had a
string
of very interesting guests of all walks of life in the meteorology
field.


=============================================================================
2. DIGITAL ATMOSPHERE
=============================================================================

Digital Atmosphere work has gone slowly but steadily during the past
year.
About a year ago on January 1, 2007 we released the Equinox series of
Digital
Atmosphere, which replaced the 2004-2006 Workstation generation
incorporating
about 100 changes. It also added a simplified, streamlined user
interface.

Though my work ability has been affected by the demands of raising a
new
family, I find that I am getting larger and larger blocks of time to
work
on Digital Atmosphere and other projects. I intend to fix all
remaining
bugs that have been reported. I am also working on the side to
develop
Digital Atmosphere 2010, a completely new program that is torn down
and
rebuilt from scratch with new technology, animation, and DirectX
features.
Details are not available at this time but rest assured it's on the
way.

A printed manual (similar to what we offered in ye olde days of 1996)
is
definitely on the way, but can't be released until we get most of the
bugs
out of the way and arrive at a more semipermanent, rock solid version.

Currently the newest version of Digital Atmosphere is Equinox V1.22.
You
can get it here:
http://www.weathergraphics.com/dl/

Professional Version users should contact me directly to receive the
upgrade at our private URL for professional users.

If you haven't registered the Workstation or Equinox version, then
your
registration is probably out of date. Visit our upgrade page at:
http://www.weathergraphics.com/upgrade.htm for information and reduced
rates.


=============================================================================
3. NEW SURFACE ARCHIVES!
=============================================================================

Great news! We've introduced a dramatically revised Surface Archives
set
spanning 1931 to 2007! In all versions sold up until January 2008, we
were
only able to offer full remarks going back to 2001. Now we offer full
remarks
in all observations going back to 1973! Also until now, we were only
able
to go back to 1961. Now we go back all the way to 1931!

Take a look at the Surface Archives observation from Washington DC
during
Richard Nixon's resignation, on August 9, 1974:

KADW 091800Z 18010KT 6SM DZ SCT009 SCT017 BKN028 OVC100 23/20 A3006
RMK TCU ALQDS/
WET RWY SLP178 60003 8/22/ T02330200 58010/=

Yes, those are real remarks, and I counted about 1100 observations on
this
particular 8/9/74 18Z file for North America. ALL of the observations
throughout the entire dataset have been cast into METAR format to
ensure
maximum compatibility with today's data viewers and importers,
including
Digital Atmosphere.

Quite simply this is the most powerful, complete coverage of surface
observations available anywhere. It's light years ahead of anything
we've
offered in years past.

The cost is still $199 and copies are available for shipment now!
Visit
the following link for more information:
http://www.weathergraphics.com/archive/


=============================================================================
4. BOOK AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS
=============================================================================

For those of you who have not kept up on our book publishing work
during the
past year, we now offer the Weather Forecasting Red Book, available at
http://www.weathergraphics.com/redbook/ . This book contains 304
pages
and is packed with the latest forecasting methodology.

There will also be a Storm Chasing Handbook revision that will be
released
in March. This will include new illustration work by David Hoadley, a
drastically revised technology chapter, and more. You can pre-order
it
here and be the first in line to get the book (ahead of our standard
website orders and Amazon). Your advance authorization of payment
helps
me finance the initial print run. I expect this to begin shipping
around
March 20-25.

As some of you may know, I also have a few other weather book projects
that have been on the back burner anywhere from 1 to 5 years now.
This
includes the North American Weather Forecasting handbook, as well as a
severe weather forecasting book. I fully intend to get these projects
out the door.

Some of you are probably enjoying my Weatherwise column, which has run
in
the magazine since 2000. The response on this has been positive, and
there's
a chance I may develop a full-fledged weather training course later
this year.


=============================================================================
5. CHASE HOTLINE
=============================================================================

For the handful of folks who use my Chase Hotline services, there is a
possibility that I may be pulling the plug on it in 2008. With mobile
broadband, EV-DO, WeatherWorx, and AutoNet making huge splashes, we're
seeing the nowcast market drying up from a general interest service
into a
niche consulting market. Unfortunately that doesn't generate enough
income
to subsidize the hundreds of hours required every spring to forecast
severe
weather, day after day.

There's still a few weeks yet before the fat lady sings, and in fact
it's
possible we may see enough interest to keep the service going in
2008. But
it's possible this is the year I have to step aside for the march of
technology.
I am kind of astounded that I may FINALLY get a chance to chase again
this
spring instead of sitting at the forecast desk, and if that's the
case,
it's nice to know I can go down to the Alltel store and get set up
with
mobile broadband for peanuts. The last time I had a full season to
chase
at my whim was 1999, and back then, I was still carrying an acoustic
coupler
in my computer case!


-----

That's about it for now. If you have any comments or questions just
email
me or use my spamproofed contact page at http://www.weathergraphics.com/contact
.

Thanks!


Tim Vasquez
Weather Graphics


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