Weather Information Delivered to Your Cell Phone

Written By: Sande Smith
President, WeatherWave, Inc.
1-703-689-3535
www.weatherwave.com
email me at: ssmith@weatherwave.com

Introduction
Although I am not a bass fisherman, I have heard from enough avid fishermen to assure me that our new cell phone weather service provides weather information that can be extremely useful to bass fishermen. WeatherWave is a new, low cost, subscription service that delivers weather information to cell phones as computer generated VOICE calls. Because the weather information is delivered as voice, it is LISTENED TO—as compared to weather delivered to cell phones as text, which has to be READ—something very hard to do outdoors. This makes WeatherWave ideal for people who are outdoors, are traveling, or are operating boats or vehicles. Subscribers receive outbound alert calls for their profile cities (and profile coastal marine zones for coastal boaters). Such calls provide very fast advisories and alerts on up to 45 different types of National Weather Service (NWS) notifications, all customizable to your own needs and interests. Subscribers also can dial in toll-free to receive comprehensive weather on all U.S. cities—and for coastal boaters, all U.S. marine zones and all NOAA buoys.

The Land Service and The Marine Service
WeatherWave offers two types of subscriptions—the Land Service and the Marine Service. The Land Service is for outdoorsmen, including fresh water fishermen and boaters. It provides weather for every city in the U.S., accessed by zip code. The Marine Service includes all the features of the Land Service, but also provides weather for every U.S. coastal marine zone and every NOAA buoy. Weather for coastal waters covers the East Coast, the West Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, The Great Lakes, Alaska, the Aleutians, and Hawaii. Both the Land and Marine Services are available in individual and family subscriptions. Subscriptions are ordered on the WeatherWave website and paid for by credit card.

Your Customized Profile—Using Your Cell Phone to Change Your Profile
WeatherWave subscriptions are each highly customized to each subscriber. You start by selecting up to three cities as your profile cities. You can get outbound alert calls for these three cities on up to 45 different types of NWS warnings, including common things like severe thunderstorm warning, flash flood warning, severe weather statement, tornado warning, and many other unusual warnings. You pick what applies to your locations. Marine Service subscribers also select three marine zones and three NOAA buoys where they do their coastal boating. They also receive outbound alert calls on marine zone weather. All subscribers can set black out periods (usually sleep time) when they don’t want to get alert calls. Once you set your profile cities, then you can very quickly call in to WeatherWave to access weather for your profile cities, or for other cities and profile marine zones. Best of all, you can EASILY CHANGE YOUR PROFILE CITIES (AND MARINE ZONES) USING YOUR CELL PHONE. If you are going to a new fishing area in a few days, call WeatherWave and set that as a new profile city or marine zone. All you need to know is the zip code of the city nearest that lake (or the marine zone number).

Making Toll-Free Calls to Obtain a Wealth of Weather Information
As a subscriber, you can call the WeatherWave toll-free 800 number and access the following weather, all delivered as voice:
• For your profile cities and any other city in the U.S.: Current conditions from the four nearest airports, forecasts, advisories and alerts (if any) for that city, and advisories and alerts for a 60 mile radius. (Land and Marine Service subscribers)
• For your profile marine zones and any other marine zone: Forecasts, advisories and alerts for this marine zone, advisories and alerts for a 60 mile radius. (Marine Service subscribers only)
• For your profile marine buoys and any other marine buoy: Current conditions for the specific buoy. (Marine Service subscribers only)

Free Demonstration of the Service
The WeatherWave website has a demo page. It provides a password that lets you call in and access the entire weather database free. Dial 1-800-324-9360, enter the password on the website, then press 2 for the Cities menu. Once in that menu, press 4 on the sub-menu. This lets you ask for weather for any new city, by entering the zip code. Enter any U.S. zip code. Then press 1 for current conditions, 2 for forecast, or 3 for advisories and alerts (if any) for that city. Soon there will be another option that lists what lakes are covered by this zip code. WeatherWave also now offers a free two week trial subscription.

Pricing and How to Order
Both the Land and Marine Services are available under individual plan and family plan subscriptions. Subscription term is one year, and subscriptions are paid for by credit card. List price for an individual Land Service subscription is currently $39, increasing to $49 on April 1, 2005. List price for an individual Marine Service subscription is currently $49, increasing to $59 on April 1, 2005. In addition, before April 1st, new subscribers get 15 month subscriptions for the price of 12 months. WeatherWave also charges 14 cents each for outbound call, and 18 cents per minute for inbound calls. (This is in addition to any cellular network charges assessed to the subscriber.) Subscribers are charged a call deposit at subscription time, which is $4 for Land and $5 for Marine. Calls are charged against that deposit, and it is replenished when used up. All subscribers pay a set-up fee of $6.95 for all plan types.

For more information, or to order, go to the WeatherWave website at www.weatherwave.com. Click on the Subscribe Now button to order.

If you would like to read more on Weather Wave, here is an article that recently written in the Huntsville Times:
Weather Wave alert system makes it worth answering calls by Outdoors Columnist Alan Clemons