Weather severity and characterization system

• US 7,788,036 B1
• Filed: 10/19/2007
• Issued: 08/31/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DTN, LLC (TBG AG)
• Original Assignee: WSI Incorporated
• Inventors: Harris, Ron Alan, Crawford, Todd Michael, Callahan, William Joseph, Kleist, Michael Robert, Kozinets, Masha, Neilley, Peter Paul, Bayer, Paul Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Raymond; Edward
• Application Number:
  US11/975,747
• Time in Patent Office: 1,047 Days
• Field of Search: 702/4, 702/3, 702/2, 702181-183
• US Class Current: 702/4
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/02 Instruments for indicating weather conditions by measuring two or more variables, e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature, cloud cover or wind speed G01W1/10 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/10 Devices for predicting weather conditions computers per se G06; display devices G09

Abstract

A method of presenting weather phenomenon information including receiving weather data. At least one weather phenomenon represented by the weather data is identified. A plurality of current parameters related to the current state of the at least one weather phenomenon is determined. A plurality of historical parameters corresponding to one or more previous states of the at least one weather phenomenon is associated with the current state of the at least one weather phenomenon if at least one previous state of the at least one weather phenomenon has been identified. A plurality of forecasted parameters for the at least one weather phenomenon is calculated. Characteristics of the at least one weather phenomenon based on at least a first subset of the current parameters, the historical parameters, and the forecasted parameters are displayed.

Claims

1. A method of presenting weather phenomenon information using a computing system comprising at least one computer, the method comprising:

(a) identifying, by the at least one computer, one or more weather phenomenon;

(b) obtaining, by the at least one computer, a plurality of parameters related to the one or more weather phenomenon;

(c) determining, by the at least one computer, a set of severity indices using the plurality of parameters, each severity index describing an impact to at least one of property, population, and infrastructure from at least one different threat associated with the one or more weather phenomena; and

(d) presenting a display of the time variation of one or more of the severity indices for the one or more weather phenomena.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(e) determining a composite severity index from the set of severity indices, wherein the composite severity index represents an aggregated impact to at least one of property, population, and infrastructure from two or more threats associated with the one or more weather phenomena.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each severity index of the at least one severity index and the composite severity index are presented using the same numerical scale.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters includes historical, current, and future parameters corresponding to at least one past time, the present time, and at least one future time, respectively.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each severity index of the set of severity indices is obtained using at least two different parameters of the plurality of parameters.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein parameters predicted for one or more future times are used to determine the severity indices for the present time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the magnitude of at least one severity index does not represent a one-to-one correspondence to the magnitude of any one parameter in the plurality of parameters.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one weather phenomenon is a convective storm.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one severity index represents at least one of lightning severity, tornado severity, flooding severity, hail severity, and wind severity of the at least one weather phenomenon.

10. A method of presenting information about a weather phenomenon using a computing system comprising at least one computer, the method comprising:

(a) obtaining, by the at least one computer, a plurality of parameters for one or more past times, the present time, and one or more future times, the plurality of parameters being obtained from a set of weather data;

(b) associating, by the at least one computer, the plurality of parameters with one or more weather phenomena identified from the weather data; and

(c) determining, by the at least one computer, a set of severity indices from a subset of the values of the plurality of parameters, each severity index describing an impact to at least one of property, population, and infrastructure from at least one different threat associated with the one or more weather phenomena.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

(d) determining a composite severity index, wherein the composite severity index is an aggregate of two or more of the other severity indices.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the set of the severity indices is normalized.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein each severity index is determined using at least two parameters from the plurality of parameters.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein parameters predicted for the one or more future times are used to determine the severity indices for the present time.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the parameters for at least one of the present and future times are determined using some of the parameters for the past times.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the set of weather data is obtained from one or more primary sources of weather data and one or more secondary sources of weather data, the primary source providing weather radar data and the secondary source providing non-radar weather data.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the future parameters of the convective storm are determined by synthesizing the data obtained from the one or more primary sources and the one or more secondary sources.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the data obtained from the one or more secondary sources includes future predicted data related to the one or more weather phenomena.

19. The method of clam 10, wherein the one or more weather phenomena include convective storms.

20. A method of presenting information about a convective storm using a computing system comprising at least one computer, the method comprising:

(a) obtaining, by the at least one computer, a plurality of parameters for one or more past times, the present time, and one or more future times, the parameters being obtained from a set of weather data;

(b) associating, by the at least one computer, the plurality of parameters with one or more convective storms identified from the weather data;

(c) determining, by the at least one computer, a set of severity indices from a subset of the plurality of parameters; and

(d) determining, the at least one computer, a composite severity index from the set of severity indices, the composite severity index describing an aggregated impact to at least one of property, population, and infrastructure of different threats associated with the one or more convective storms.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein each severity index describes an impact to at least one of property, population, and infrastructure from at least one different threat associated with the one or more convective storms.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the composite severity index represents a normalized impact.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the severity indices are forecast for the one or more future times using the plurality of parameters.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein each severity index in the set of severity indices is determined using at least two parameters from the plurality of parameters.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein parameters predicted for the one or more future times are used to determine the severity indices for the present time.

26. A computing system comprising at least one computer for presenting weather phenomenon information, the computing system comprising:

means for identifying one or more weather phenomenon;

means for obtaining a plurality of parameters related to the one or more weather phenomenon;

means for determining a set of severity indices using the plurality of parameters, each severity index describing an impact to at least one of property, population, and infrastructure from at least one different threat associated with the one or more weather phenomena

means for presenting a display of the time variation of one or more of the severity indices for the one or more weather phenomena.

27. The system of claim 26, further comprising:

means for determining a composite severity index from the set of severity indices, wherein the composite severity index represents an aggregated impact to at least one of property, population, and infrastructure from two or more threats associated with the one or more weather phenomena.

28. An article of manufacture for presenting weather phenomenon information, the article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable storage medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:

(a) identifying one or more weather phenomenon;

(b) obtaining a plurality of parameters related to the one or more weather phenomenon;

(c) determining a set of severity indices using the plurality of parameters, each severity index describing an impact to at least one of property, population, and infrastructure from at least one different threat associated with the one or more weather phenomena; and

(d) presenting a display of the time variation of one or more of the severity indices for the one or more weather phenomena.

29. The article of manufacture of claim 28, further comprising:

(e) determining a composite severity index from the set of severity indices, wherein the composite severity index represents an aggregated impact to at least one of property, population, and infrastructure from two or more threats associated with the one or more weather phenomena.

30. The article of manufacture of claim 28, wherein each severity index of the set of severity indices is obtained using at least two different parameters of the plurality of parameters.