Off topic I know, but why does this group call themselves the “Weather Underground”? The Weather Underground was a domestic terrorist organization. Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn were key people involved.
Are they trying to be cute with that name?
Don’t know, but their weather reporting is pretty damn accurate. I use it in Iraq and it’s still damn good.
I wondered about “Weather Underground” too but that’s where I get my weather report. It’s always accurate. Our local news gives me weather from downtown, and I’m just two miles but 1200’ higher elevation. www.wunderground.com
I suspect they are the “weather underground” because they are not “official.”
No on the name thing.
It started as just a group of weather enthusiasts. The underground part was just a play on terms for all the laymen involved. No one is a commie or a terrorist as far as I know.
You can buy your own weather station ($100-200) and feed the data into WU just like the OP said. I have a weather station on WU.
I’ve thought the same.
I think they are not as old as we are and don’t remember the headlines the “Weather Underground” made in our memories. It is ancient and forgotten to the youths.
I asked myself the same question. The answer I got was there are a lot of people alive on the planet today who know nothing about anything which took place before they were born.
Unfortunate lack of research into related names.
It’s a play on recognizable name, and a good brand that fit well for crowd-sourced weather information that bypassed the official government channels. Weather Underground is part of The Weather Company, which is owned by IBM.
Jeff Masters makes Bernie Sanders look like Thomas Jefferson.
I stopped visiting WU about fifteen years ago for that reason.
He’s a horrid radical that will never get my page-views.
Even if they are bad people, does it matter? Accurate weather is more important then their politics or whatever. I can’t imagine having every aspect of life controlled by politics. Too exhausting.
Both the Weather Underground terrorist group and the Weather Underground weather group had their origins at the University of Michigan. Thus the supposedly "cute" name, The Weather Underground, by the weather group.
The Weather Underground terrorist group was previously called the Weathermen, named after lyrics in a Bob Dylan song.
I'm glad nowadays we can use both terms weather men and weather underground without it being tied to an old terrorist group.
Weather Underground started back in the early 90s at Univ of Michigan. I’ve been using their weather reports since 1996 at least. They are great at telling you what the weather reports mean, have good maps, and, point you to the original data.
As for hurricane reports, the National Hurricane Center is consistently the most accurate forecasting service. Don’t bother with anyone else who isn’t using that as their base for their reports.