Weather swells into big business

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The weather used to be such a simple matter. Once, the nation was satisfied with forecasts gleaned from folk wisdom — or delivered by an earnest guy in shirtsleeves at the tail end of the evening news.

That has all changed. It's both natural phenomenon and business brand in a 24/7 culture.

Americans take in about 300 billion forecasts a year, with each of us consulting our print, broadcast or online weather oracles three to four times a day. This daily weather fix translates into cold cash: Weather predictions appear to motivate consumers.

"These forecasts generate a median value of $285 per household, per year, or about $32 billion nationwide," said Jeffrey Lazo, director of the Weather Information Societal Impacts Program for the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.

Mr. Lazo will present his findings before the 11,000-member American Meteorological Society, which begins its annual meeting today in New Orleans under the motto "Enhancing the Connectivity Between Research and Applications for the Benefit of Society."

The gathering is a showcase for weather and all it has become. This week, assorted atmospheric scientists, climatologists, hydrologists, emergency responders, storm chasers, authors and celebrity forecasters will discuss space weather, flash floods, atmospheric chemistry, aircraft icing, snow cover, stream runoff and paleoclimate (the study of climate change during the entire history of Earth gleaned from ice core samples, tree rings and sediment).

Weather is not necessarily a neutral topic, either.

Chris Mooney, author of "The Republican War on Science," will be among featured speakers at a communications forum for weather specialists titled, "What We Know We Didn't Know But Convinced Ourselves Otherwise." Another session will highlight last year's top weather stories in the press.

Americans are very keen on such fare. Included in the Top 20 stories that the public followed the most closely last year were "winter weather," ranked No. 7, "tornadoes" at No. 11 and "hot weather" at No. 13, according to a Pew Research Center analysis released in late December. In the past two decades, only news of war and terrorism has eclipsed Americans' interest in weather news, according to a Pew study released in August.

"Why should weather news engage the nation so deeply? Perhaps the answer lies in four aspects of weather-related stories: Weather news is easily understood, it implies danger, it has the potential for catastrophe and it is close to home, not so much geographically as psychologically," the study stated.

The Weather Channel, meanwhile, gets more visitors to its Web site than CNN or the social networking site Facebook — about 36 million a month.

"Users turn to us every day to help them plan their lives," spokesman Joe Fiveash said, citing "compelling content" as the biggest attraction.

None of this is lost on retailers, particularly when the whims of weather holds sway over the shopping public. We can't control the weather, but we can at least "manage" it, according to some.