AccuWeather strengthens its Wichita office
AccuWeather's Barry Lee Myers says his company's $2 million investment in Wichita's WeatherData Services will make it a stronger business.
"We expect to build it up (even more)," Myers said Wednesday.
Myers, CEO of the State College, Pa.-based company, is in Wichita this week for the grand opening of WeatherData's new suite on the seventh floor of the Bank of America Center downtown.
He said the company's new investment in WeatherData includes its lease at the building at 100 N. Broadway.
WeatherData, which was previously in the Farm Credit Bank building, opened for business at the Bank of America Center on Oct. 6.
The 8,000-square-foot space will allow it to add staff beyond the 27 it currently employs.
The suite also has dedicated space in which to broadcast breaking television reports on severe weather.
Myers said the AccuWeather Television Network is broadcast in 70 markets — including New York and Philadelphia — reaching 55 million homes. Locally it is available on AT&T's U-Verse television service.
But the television component is a small part of the service WeatherData provides. Its most important function is to support 200 commercial clients, including manufacturers such as Caterpillar and railroads such as Union Pacific.
Myers said following AccuWeather's acquisition of WeatherData in 2006, Wichita became the center of AccuWeather's commercial sales.
That has a lot to do with AccuWeather's expertise in forecasting severe weather, he said.
In February 2008 a tornado struck Oxford, Miss. A WeatherData meteorologist notified officials of a Caterpillar plant near Oxford — but away from sirens —of the impending tornado, Myers said.
About 100 employees worked at the plant, which was directly hit by the tornado, according to Myers and a Caterpillar statement.
"There was not a single death," Myers said. "That's the kind of work that's done here and not anywhere else.
"The Wichita growth opportunity is really huge."
Mike Smith, WeatherData's CEO and founder, said the company also is heavily involved in research and development work related to weather products. For instance, part of WeatherData's staff includes computer programmers.
They develop weather-related software.
One of the company's newest projects is software that eliminates most of the ground clutter associated with weather radar images, Smith said.
This story was originally published November 12, 2009 at 12:00 AM with the headline "AccuWeather strengthens its Wichita office."