System and method for providing personalized storm warnings

• US 6,654,689 B1
• Filed: 11/06/2000
• Issued: 11/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: DTN, LLC (TBG AG)
• Original Assignee: Weather Central, Inc. (The Weather Company)
• Inventors: Wiggins, Randall T., Marsh, Victor W., Kelly, Terence F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoff, Marc S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gutierrez, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US09/707,104
• Time in Patent Office: 1,114 Days
• Field of Search: 702/3, 340/601, 455/404, 379/37, 379/221.11, 342/357.13
• US Class Current: 702/3
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 2203/00 Application of thermometers in cryogenics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/005 with transmission via computer network
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/006 with transmission via telephone network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4547 for personal communications, i.e. using a personal identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

A system and method for generating storm warnings which are precisely tailored automatically for a particular individual or business user'"'"'s geographic location of interest. The user establishes an individualized user profile, in which the user may define a particular location of interest and a contact address to which a personalized storm warning is to be delivered. The user may also establish a storm profile defining characteristics of a storm for which the user desires a storm warning to be provided. A detailed and accurate storm track is generated. Generated storm tracks are compared to individual user profiles. Personalized storm warnings are generated for user profiles defining locations of interest within a predicted storm track, if the storm track characteristics of the storm meet the characteristics specified in the storm profile established by the user, and may be delivered to users via e-mail, cell phone, pager, etc.

Claims

1. A method for generating a personalized storm warning, comprising the steps of:

(a) establishing a plurality of user profiles wherein each of the plurality of user profiles includes a user defined and changeable address location of interest by providing a plurality of user profile set-up menu user interfaces wherein each user profile set-up menu user interface allows a user to establish a user profile;

(b) receiving first weather information from a first weather information source;

(c) generating automatically a storm track of severe weather conditions from the first weather information;

(d) generating a personalized storm warnings for the user locations of interest automatically from the user profiles and the storm track by comparing each of the plurality of the user defined locations of interest independently to the storm track of severe weather conditions to determine whether any ones of the user defined locations of interest are within the storm track and generating the personalized storm warnings for the user defined locations of interest determined to be within the storm track; and

(e) providing the personalized storm warnings to the users.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of establishing each user profile includes the step of establishing a user contact address and wherein the step of providing a personalized storm warning to the user includes the step of delivering the personalized storm warning to the user contact address.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the user contact address is an e-mail address, the step of generating a personalized storm warning includes the step of generating a personalized storm warning e-mail message, and the step of delivering the personalized storm warning includes the step of sending the personalized storm warning e-mail message to the user contact e-mail address.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the user contact address is a phone number, the step of generating a personalized storm warning includes the step of generating a personalized storm warning voice message, and the step of delivering the personalized storm warning to a user includes the step of sending the personalized storm warning voice message to a phone at the user contact phone number.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the user contact address is a pager number, the step of generating the personalized storm warning includes the step of generating a personalized storm warning text message, and the step of delivering the personalized storm warning to a user includes the step of sending the personalized storm warning text message to a pager at the user contact pager number.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of establishing each user profile includes the step of establishing a storm profile including at least one storm profile condition.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of establishing a storm profile includes the step of establishing at least on storm attribute characteristic storm profile condition.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of establishing a storm profile includes the step of establishing an advanced warning storm profile condition selected from the types of advanced warning storm profile conditions consisting of time conditions and distance conditions.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of generating personalized storm warnings for the user locations of interest includes the step of comparing the storm track to the storm profiles and generating a personalized storm warning only for the user locations of interest wherein the storm track satisfies the storm profile condition.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the first weather information source is NEXRAD.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of generating a storm track of severe weather conditions from a first weather information source includes the steps of receiving first weather information periodically from the first weather information source, determining a current position of a storm cell from the first weather information periodically each time the first weather information is received, determining an updated current position of the storm cell at least once between each reception of the first weather information, and determining a predicted track of the storm cell extending from the determined current position of the storm cell.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of determining an updated current position of the storm cell includes the step of determining an updated current position of the storm cell based on direction and speed of movement information for the storm cell contained in most recently received first weather information.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of determining an updated current position of the storm cell includes the steps of receiving second weather information from a second weather information source at least once between each reception of the first weather information, the second weather information including an updated current location of the storm cell, and determining the updated current position of the storm cell from the second weather information.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the second weather information source is live radar and the second weather information is live radar information.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of generating personalized storm warnings for the user locations of interest includes the step of determining arrival time information for the severe weather conditions at the user defined locations of interest, and wherein the personalized storm warnings include the arrival time information and an indication of the severe weather conditions.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of providing the personalized storm warnings to users includes the step of providing the personalized storm warnings to addressable devices.

17. The method of claim 1 comprising additionally the step of providing a personalized internet web page address to each user, and wherein the step of providing the personalized storm warnings to a users includes the step of providing the personalized storm warning so as to be accessible at the personalized internet web page address.

18. A personalized storm warning generating system, comprising:

(a) user profile generator means for establishing a plurality of user profiles wherein each of the plurality of user profiles includes a user defined and changeable address location of interest by generating and providing to users a plurality of user profile set-up menu user interfaces wherein each user profile set up menu user interface allows a user to establish a user profile;

(b) means for receiving first weather information from a first weather information source;

(c) storm track generator means for generating automatically a storm track of severe weather conditions from the first weather information; and

(d) storm warning generator means for generating personalized storm warnings for the user locations of interest automatically from the user profiles and the storm track by comparing each of the plurality of the user defined locations of interest independently to the storm track of severe weather conditions to determine whether any ones of the user defined locations of interest are within the storm track and generating the personalized storm warnings for the user defined locations of interest determined to be within the storm track.

19. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 18 wherein the user profile generator means, the storm track generator means, and the storm warning generator means are implemented in at least one general purpose computer.

20. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 19 wherein the user profile generator means includes means for providing the user profile set-up menu user interfaces to a users over a computer network.

21. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 18 comprising additionally means for providing each personalized storm warning to an addressable device.

22. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 18 comprising additionally means for delivering each personalized storm warning to a user contact address.

23. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 22 wherein the user contact address is an e-mail address and the storm warning generator means is adapted to generate a personalized storm warning e-mail message.

24. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 22 wherein the user contact address is a phone number and the storm warning generator means is adapted to generate a personalized storm warning voice message.

25. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 22 wherein the user contact address is a pager number and the storm warning generator means is adapted to generate a personalized storm warning text message.

26. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 18 wherein the user profile generator means includes means for establishing for each user profile a storm profile including at least one storm profile condition.

27. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 26 wherein the at least one storm profile condition includes at least one storm attribute characteristic storm profile condition.

28. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 26 wherein the at least one storm profile condition includes an advanced warning storm profile condition selected from the types of advanced warning storm profile conditions consisting of time conditions and distance conditions.

29. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 26 wherein the storm warning generator means includes means for comparing the storm track to the storm profiles and generating personalized storm warnings only for the user locations wherein the storm track satisfies the storm profile condition.

30. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 18 wherein the first weather information source is NEXRAD.

31. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 18 wherein the storm track generator means includes means for receiving first weather information periodically from the first weather information source, means for determining a current position of a storm cell from the first weather information periodically each time the first weather information is received, means for determining an updated current position of the storm cell at least once between each reception of the first weather information, and means for determining a predicted track of the storm cell extending from the determined current position of the storm cell.

32. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 31 wherein the means for determining an updated current position of the storm cell includes means for determining an updated current position of the storm cell based on direction and speed of movement information for the storm cell contained in most recently received first weather information.

33. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 31 wherein the means for determining an updated current position of the storm cell includes means for receiving second weather information from a second weather information source at least once between each reception of the first weather information, the second weather information including an updated current location of the storm cell, and means for determining the updated current position of the storm cell from the second weather information.

34. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 33 wherein the second weather information source is live radar and the second weather information is live radar information.

35. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 18 wherein the storm warning generator means includes means for determining arrival time information for the severe weather conditions at the user defined locations of interest, and wherein the personalized storm warnings include the arrival time information and an indication of the severe weather conditions.

36. The personalized storm warning generating system of claim 18 comprising additionally means for providing a personalized internet web page address to each user, and means for providing each personalized storm warning as a web page accessible at the personalized internet web page address.