Everything Weather
The Essential Guide to the Whys and Wonders of WeatherReviewed by Glen Moyer
As a hot air balloon pilot, next to flying, weather is everything to me. The Weather Channel is a tool I use regularly and often and it has always been there since before I became a pilot. I can’t imagine life as a balloon pilot with out it. When I attend a rally and we’re housed in a hotel without TWC, my stress level jumps automatically at the thought that I cannot monitor the weather for myself. (Organizers please note!) So, when watching The Weather Channel one recent evening, and seeing an ad for their new CD-ROM product, Everything Weather, it seemed only natural to investigate.
While I have been around computers for a decade or more, I’m no CD-ROM expert. Indeed this is the first one I’ve even played with. Everything Weather scored big with me right away for its amazingly easy to browse layout. After a brief opening musical interlude you are greeted by a desktop. No, not the computer type, but a picture of a real desktop. On it is a telephone, a daily planner (calendar), a set of weather instruments, two books (US and Global Climate Data) a computer monitor, keyboard, user’s manual and a window to gaze out of.
To find anything on the CD you simply point and click at one of the items on the desktop. Want to know about the sky (clouds)? Click in the sky outside your window. Forecasting? Click on the weather instruments. Climate Data? Check out either the US or Global book. Need help? Click on the User’s manual. Simple, simple, simple. As an added treat, the scene on the computer monitor changes to confirm which subject you are about to explore. Let’s look at the sky. Pointer in the window. Click!
We are now presented with a menu featuring Low Clouds, Middle Clouds, High Clouds, Vertically Developed Clouds, and Art in the Air (Clouds as Art). Click on one to select. Now you find a screen with three easy to understand icons: a still camera (to view still photos), a book (to read text about the subject) and a movie camera (to view short Quick-Time movies). No matter the subject of your interest, each is treated in the same easy to understand manner.
So much for its organization, let’s talk goodies! This CD-ROM is packed with them. For example, the collection of still photographs of weather phenomenon is incomparable. Tornadoes, lightning, fog, sunsets, rainbows, clouds, water spouts, etc. they’re all here. The movies range from old news footage of the Johnstown flood to modern era video caught by amateurs looking out their front doors.
While the electronic images are almost overpowering (both still and moving) one would be remiss if he did not spend some time reading the accompanying text. From the history of forecasting and evolution of the word "weather" to lessons in how thunderstorms, lightning, and hail are formed. Here you will also learn a few new terms, like sun dogs and Crepuscular rays. (Sorry, you’ll have to get your own copy and find out for yourself!)
Some of you may recall the cloud chart published by Balloon Life a few years ago. Now Everything Weather has updated this as a multi-media test that you can take. You click your way through 22 photos of clouds and select (multiple guess format) the right, or wrong, answer. (I scored 20 of 22 correct.)
Select a date, any date, on the daily planner and you learn some significant weather fact that happened on that date. Pick up the phone, rather click on the one on your desktop, and (with your modem) you can immediately download current conditions and 3-day forecasts for any 150 US and 50 International cities. (Each call cost 75-cents). This feature (and the daily planner) can also be loaded separately on your computer as utilities allowing you to access them even when not running the CD.
Planning a trip? Going to an out of state or country balloon rally? Search the US or Global Climate Data books and you will find average high and low temperatures, average humidity, the number of days above 90 and below 32 , average precipitation, snowfall, even the number of days with thunderstorms for any time of the year, for over 500 locations here at home and more than 200 abroad. For example the average high temperature in the month of May for my home in Longview, Texas is 84 F. You have to understand the relative small size of Longview to appreciate the joy this discovery brought me.
Why there’s even a hurricane tracking chart to keep busy with on those days when we can’t fly! At the same time you can increase your weather vocabulary by studying the glossary of 480 weather terms.
If interactivity is your goal, this CD delivers again. I’ve already mentioned the downloadable forecasts and the Name that Cloud test. The next time a thunderstorm threatens, use the Lightning Time feature to calculate how close the storm is to you. (Be sure to have your computer plugged into a surge protector!) Did I mention you can even take a behind the scenes tour of The Weather Channel’s broadcast facilities in Atlanta?
In short, Everything Weather delivers across the board as promised. It’s easy to use, provides hours of entertainment for any age, and with a little study, you can unquestionably broaden your understanding of weather, its forces and its impact on our lives. Will it help you to make that go-no go decision next Saturday morning? Probably not. But it will entertain, inform and educate you.
I said at the outset I could not remember a time without The Weather
Channel. Well there was one. The Weather Channel signed on the air for the first
time on May 2, 1982. Just another little fact found on Everything
Weather!
P.O. Box 2249
Livonia, MI 48151-2249
or call: 1-800-544-6206
