AccuWeather, Inc. is a private-sector American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services.
AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Pennsylvania State University graduate student working on a master's degree in meteorology.
While AccuWeather provides some free services funded by advertisements, most revenue is generated through a tiered subscription model which unlocks certain features.
AccuWeather's forecasts and warning services are generally derived from free and publicly available government data.
The network's studio and master control facilities are based at their headquarters near State College, Pennsylvania.
[citation needed] As of June 2023, Steven R. Smith is CEO having taken over the position from company founder Dr. Joel N. Myers who became executive chairman.
During severe-weather episodes, AccuWeather employees have been called upon by television journalists such as Larry King,[7] Geraldo Rivera,[8] and Greta van Susteren[9] for expert commentary.
Accuweather's broadcast meteorologist Jim Kosek became an internet sensation in 2010 due to what the company describe as his "all-out, manic style" announcements, e.g. of a blizzard forecast as a "snowmaggedon".
[10] Other well known AccuWeather meteorologists are Bernie Rayno, Brittany Boyer, Geoff Cornish and Melissa Constanzer.
[16] Besides its forecasting services to individual consumers, AccuWeather performs weather-related predictive analytical services for businesses, such as determining how weather conditions have influenced past sales history and advising businesses on adapting their sales strategy for future weather events.
[19] AccuWeather continues to provide local weather content to noncommercial Milwaukee PBS station WMVT-DT3 under a separate agreement.
[21] The AccuWeather Network is also carried on Spectrum TV, DIRECTV, Frontier, and on Philo and FuboTV streaming services.
AccuWeather has been granted a United States patent on The RealFeel Temperature,[23] but the formula is a trade secret and has not been reviewed by other meteorological authorities.
These hyper-extended forecasts have been compared to actual results several times and shown to be misleading, inaccurate, and sometimes less accurate than simple predictions based on National Weather Service averages over a 30-year period.
[5][30][31] An informal assessment conducted by Jason Samenow at The Washington Post asserted that AccuWeather's forecasts at the 25-day range were often wrong by as many as ten degrees Fahrenheit, no better than random chance and that the forecasts missed half of the fourteen days of rain that had occurred during the month of the assessment.
[41] AccuWeather immediately released an update to the App Store which removed the Reveal Mobile SDK.