Published December 9th, 2008
Weather Graphics in the Eye of the Storm
Improvements in weather graphics systems are enabling stations to meet the challenge of hurricanes and other severe events.
Hurricane Gustav
by Ken J. Freed
Bill Quinlan will never forget the 2004 hurricane season. As the chief meteorologist for ABC affiliate WCJB-TV20 in Gainesville, Fl, he reported three major hurricanes hitting the Florida peninsula in six weeks. Hurricane “Charley” arrived on August 13, “Frances” arrived on September 5, and “Jeanne” arrived on September 26.
WCJB did not yet have the advanced weather graphics system recently acquired from WSI, Quinlan said, “so to show the power of the 65 MPH wind speed, one of the anchors went outside with his necktie tied to stick. The tie flew out straight and was flapping so hard he could barely hold on.”
Nowadays, WCJB uses the WSI TrueView Titan with Vortex severe storm real-time weather graphics system. “TrueView was enhanced this year to better track hurricanes now and compare them to the storm tracks of past hurricanes,” said Bill Dow, VP of media product management for Weather Services International (WSI), based in Andover, Maine.
