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In other words, a passel
of companies is betting that you’re going to want a live weather
service once you’ve seen it, though hardly anyone outside those companies
has yet to see how the service actually looks when fully integrated into
a plotter, radar, etc. The energy is such that even the finished, shipping
PC programs I tried are still very much in development. When I needled
WSI marine product manager Reed Wilbur about the lack of high/low/front
forecast graphics and a few other features I liked in XM WX, he fired
back a screenshot showing how almost all were coming to the next version
of TWCM. Likewise, I learned from WxWorx general manager Mick Gosgin that
his software’s inability to scale up to my monitor was already fixed
in the aviation version, and numerous other desired improvements were
in the works. These guys are energized. They’ve had the weather data
and expertise for a while; now they’ve got a fast pipeline to the
mobile users who will really appreciate it, not to mention powerful ways
to present them with it. And—a plus for them and us, I think—they’ve
got each other to compete with.
So, given that the products
are rapidly moving targets, what did I see of note? First and foremost,
each offers terrific Nexrad radar imagery, resolved to a couple of miles
and updated every few minutes. Most anyone in a medium-speed boat could
use either service to identify and dodge most severe thunderstorm cells,
even if they’re embedded in a big front. WX XM’s SCIT (Storm
Cell Identification and Tracking) markers are more informative than TWCM’s
StormTracks, but both are important advancements on the Nexrad you might
be familiar with from the Internet. WX XM also shows lightning strikes,
very hard-to-find information—especially for the whole country out
to about 300 miles offshore and even color-coded for their age over the
last 15 minutes. Talk about real-time weather!
Both services can also
show current conditions at hundreds of airports and buoys. At the moment
TWCM has more detail, offers useful station trend histories, and has the
added intelligence of some 300 of its own weather buoys. Both PC viewing
programs let me easily mix this information, zooming into my area to see
exactly what was going on and zooming out to see what was coming my way.
I found that combining Nexrad, cell tracking, wind barbs, and front graphics
produced a particularly informative real-time image, which I could then
turn into a forecast by advancing the front graphics. No doubt engineers
at Garmin and Raymarine and who knows where else are working right now
to put this same flexible imagery into their displays.
Of course there’s
much more to these services. Both offer the sea-surface temperature maps
that fishermen love to ponder, call out various types of weather alerts,
and can show at least short-term, computer-modeled wind and sea predictions
as well as hurricane warning tracks. TWCM also has all the coastal and
offshore marine forecasts in text, which I found particularly useful for
planning a few days out. Obviously the services have focused at first
on their unique ability to deliver live data, but boaters are often thinking
in much longer time frames than pilots or emergency personnel on tornado
watches. Wilbur says that TWCM will be extending wind and other predictions
to five days and possibly adding custom Weather Channel boating forecasts
for some popular areas. Gosgin was less specific but, like Wilbur, assured
me that there are lots more weather goodies in the shop and lots more
capacity in the pipeline.
So apparently the impressive
services I looked at were just version 1.0 and—truth be known—I
was still only able to sketch their capabilities and subtle differences
in this space. I highly recommend checking out the XM WX and TWCM Web
sites, where you’ll find much more information, including online
demonstrations. The live marine weather competition has begun.
The Weather Channel
Marine Phone: (888) 442-8732. www.weather.com/marine.
XM WX Satellite Weather
Phone: (800) 985-9200. www.xmwxweather.com.
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