1. The Weather Underground Experience: 1991 - 2012
Dr. Jeff Masters
Director of Meteorology
The Weather Underground, LLC

2. A Humble Beginning: the UM-WEATHER telnet service, 1991

4. Where did the name “Weather Underground” come from?
The original Weather Underground (the Weathermen), founded in 1969,
was the radical wing of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
The Weathermen got their name from the the line,
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”
from the 1965 Bob Dylan song "Subterranean Homesick Blues".
Logo of the original Weather Underground

6. Jeff Ferguson and Perry Samson at a 1993
Blue-Skies, : A successful NSF-funded interactive science education program
Jeff Ferguson and Perry Samson at a 1993
K-12 teacher Blue Skies training workshop

7. Disaster in the Classroom, 1994: a failed experiment in interactive science education

8. The Weather Underground Goes Commercial: 1995

9. We make the front page of the Ann Arbor News: 1997

10. Wunderground launches blogs: 2005

11. What to blog about? Some blog highlights from 2005:
April 26: National Weather Service forecasts to be banned?
“It may soon be illegal for the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue non-severe weather
forecasts under the provisions of the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005, introduced
April 14 by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa…The time to kill this bill is now! If you're interested,
you can sign a petition opposing the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005,
or write your Senator if he or she is on the Senate Commerce Committee.
August 27: New Orleans to Pensacola at high risk from Katrina
“I'm surprised they haven't ordered an evacuation of the city yet. While the odds of a catastrophic
hit that would completely flood the city of New Orleans are probably 10%, that is way too high in
my opinion to justify leaving the people in the city. If I lived in the city, I would evacuate NOW!
There is a very good reason that the Coroner's office in New Orleans keeps 10,000 body bags on
hand. GO! New Orleans needs a full 72 hours to evacuate, and landfall is already less than 72 hours
away.”
September 5: Katrina—an unnatural disaster
“It was certain that New Orleans would sooner or later get hit by a hurricane that would breach the
levees. But the Congressmen we elected and the politicians the citizens of New Orleans and Louisiana
elected didn't care about the poor people in New Orleans. Those poor people don't have a lobbyist in
Baton Rouge or Washington. Why spend money that would be wasted on a bunch of poor people?
The money was better spent on projects to please the politicians' wealthy campaign contributors.
So the plan was to let them die. And they died, as we experts all knew they would.”

13. The comments section of Jeff Masters’ Wunderblog:
Not for the faint of heart! Beware of trolls and nastiness,
but also expect great links, commentary, news, and inspiration.

17. Customer support: essential for a successful business

18. Weather Channel buys Weather Underground, July 2012
Front Entrance of The Weather Channel headquarters, Atlanta, GA, August 2012

19. Thanks for listening! Send us your wunderphotos,