Weather Central and News Over Wireless (NOW) unveiled WeatherNOW at NAB 2011. WeatherNOW is a local weather application that allows broadcasters and other media companies to offer an iPhone and iPad app to their viewers. The hyper-local app combines Weather Central's content with the local expertise of local TV station meteorologists and the media company's brand. WRAL-TV is the first media company to make the app available to its viewers.
The app, which is available from NOW and Weather Central, is preconfigured with each media company's content and logos. Once a media company launches its app through the iTunes App Store, the weather data delivered by Weather Central automatically updates with no effort on the part of the media company.
Features of the app include user-customizable city forecasts, location-based interactive radar and mapping from Weather Central, Weather Central's location-based Interactive Futurecast and mapping, integrated station-specific content, and forecast pages with customized graphics based on time of day and current conditions.
WRAL-TV branded the app as the "O-Fishel Weather app," named for long-time its chief meteorologist, Greg Fishel. The WRAL O-Fishel Weather app has 10 content categories including forecast, location-based maps, video, Dual-Doppler, weather alerts and storm tracker. Users can download the app for their iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad by searching for "WRAL Weather" in iTunes.
