NetNews: Recent Weather-Related WebSite Updates brought to you by CASI. Send your NetNews to netnews{at}weatherwatchers.org for consideration. We will not accept advertisements, only significant updates to websites which affect the Internet community. This message is sent out first to the Members of CASI and later posted to Newsgroups. Special Note: Sorry folks, we can't blame our individual NEXRAD providers tonight! Since 6pm this evening, the NEXRAD dissemination procedure has been interrupted, it appears. At 9pm all major providers were experiencing partial data or late images. We're talking several different NIDS providers here so the meltdown must be at the root of the dissemination procedure. Now on with some more uplifting NetNews: 1. Personal AccuWeather Subscription Introduces Aviation Weather Which Includes Access to Full-Size Full-Scale Real-Time Local NEXRADs for all U.S. Sites: Personal AccuWeather's subscription service (personal.accuweather.com, $3.33-$4.95 per month, 30-day Free Trial) launched Wednesday a major upgrade to their subscription service called Personal AccuWeather Aviation. I'll get to the Pilots here in a minute, but what I'm excited about is the new Local NEXRADs. We're talking all 143 continental US NEXRADs plus Puerto Rico, updated in Real-Time (by definition NEXRADs can only be updated every 5, 6, or 10 minutes depending on their mode). The most exciting part is the different look of the AccuWeather NEXRADs - they aren't joking around with small images that lack detail anymore... we're talking 768x512 images with a dbZ range of -28 to 75. No low-level data cutout for you Outflow Boundary / Dryline / Small Insect fans. Also the dbZ scale is continuous so when the radar switches from Clear Air to Precip mode there is no "turning hot" of the scale, and if the radar is left in Clear Air mode when precip comes in you've got the whole scale with no repetition. But for you Pilots, since this is who the service is aimed at ;) besides the local radars there are DIFAX charts, AAFs, NOTAMSs, PIREPs, SIGMETs, TAFs, Regional Visible Sats, 6-Hour Surface Conditions, and more. 2. The Weather Channel (http://www.weather.com) Talking Future Updates Including 5-Minute Local NEXRADs and Other Products: The Weather Channel announce on their website this week a list of future enhancements. As mentioned above, it's impossible for every local NEXRAD to update every 5 Minutes, so I'm guessing they are talking about their current "local" NEXRADs which are not Single-Site but are very localized and attractive Composite Radar Images. These could be as current as you want them because not all radars update at the same physical time. Anyhoo, here's the scoop from their website: "Some of the enhancements will include new products and faster downloads. We appreciate your support during our testing period. With the input we have received from thousands of users, we will continue to enhance our site with products like local radar updated every 5 minutes. Look for the new service in early June." Sounds good folks! We'll see! 3. As a followup to their now-famous 3-D Radar Imagery of the Alabama Tornadoes, Intellicast now has exclusive 3-D Radar Imagery of Hurricane Danny, including 4-Tilt composites, RHI composites, and animations. Neato! (http://www.intellicast.com/drdew/3d-radar/) -- ============================================================== Jesse Ferrell - Meteorologist/Web Dev. - j{at}weatherwatchers.org Central Atlantic Storm Investigators - www.weatherwatchers.org "And here a twister comes... here comes the twister." --Talking Heads || ICQ No. 136862 ||