By KATHERINE ROSMAN
August 14, 2013
The Weather Channel knows the chance for rain in St. Louis on Friday, what the heat index could reach in Santa Fe on Saturday and how humid Baltimore may get on Sunday.
It also knows when you're most likely to buy bug spray.
The enterprise is transforming from a cable network viewers flip to during hurricane season into an operation that forecasts consumer behavior by analyzing when, where and how often people check the weather. Last fall the Weather Channel Cos. renamed itself the Weather Co. to reflect the growth of its digital-data business.
The Atlanta-based company has amassed more than 75 years' worth of information: temperatures, dew points, cloud-cover percentages and much more, across North America and elsewhere.
Company scientists found that the first day of above-average heat in Chicago results in a surge in air-conditioner sales. Meanwhile, in often-muggy Atlanta, people sweat out hotter-than-average temperatures for two days before making a run to the appliance store. "The old paradigm of business and weather was cope and avoid. With technology, the paradigm is now anticipate and exploit," says Paul Walsh, a former United States Air Force meteorologist who is now the Weather Co.'s vice president for weather analytics.
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