*** Read the article printed in the Morganton News Herald from March, 2005 ***

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March 7, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Burke County Internet Weather Site Adds New Features!

(Valdese, NC) - Less than six months after creating a local weather site, Valdese entrepreneur Joseph Ellis has added several new features to www.ValdeseWeather.com. “One of the most important features of a weather site is the radar display,” explains Ellis. “I wasn’t happy with the radar images that were available for free, so I purchased some special software that is popular with storm chasers. In addition to having a great radar display, this software also provides real-time updates of weather warnings and watches, displayed on a map of North Carolina,” Ellis continues. “The map display covers just about any warnings, watches or weather statements you can think of.” Visitors to the site can view this map by clicking a button. Affected counties are highlighted by different colored backgrounds or outlines. But the map isn‘t the only method for displaying important warnings. For wind- and rain-based warnings, the radar display includes colored outline ‘overlays’ around the affected areas. Tornado warnings have a red outline. Severe Thunderstorm warnings feature a yellow outline and Flash Flood warnings have a green outline.

The web site also includes two new text scrollers that display important weather information. One scroller is located directly under the navigation bar, and displays summaries of nearby warnings and watches. The second text scroller is located below the radar display, and displays important weather statements from the National Weather Service. “For those who are really into the weather, I’ve created an email newsletter that broadcasts Zone Forecasts and other weather statements several times a day,” Ellis explains. “Of course, users have the option of having all the bulletins mailed out once a day in a digest. Or, they may simply visit the archive page and browse the bulletins at their leisure.”

Another feature that has been added to the site in recent months is the MESONET map. “The MESONET map was a lot of work to set up, but it was worth the effort,” jokes Ellis. The map covers most of Western North Carolina, with parts of Tennessee and South Carolina. Several dozen personal and official weather stations are displayed as color-coded icons. The colors reflect the temperature (which is also printed inside the icons). Users can hover their mouse pointers over any icon to view more details, or click on the icons to be taken to a page with even more details. “Our map is very interesting because of the wide range of elevations that are represented. You can often see dramatic temperature differences between the North Carolina mountains and the lower elevations, such as Charlotte,” Ellis points out.

Always thinking about future expansion, Ellis has also registered www.MorgantonWeather.com. This domain currently points to the Valdese weather page, but Ellis hopes to work out a deal with a Morganton business at some point in the future, putting a physical weather station within the Morganton city limits. In the meantime, Valdese and Morganton are close enough that the Valdese readings are very pertinent.