WeatherOn!

Thursday, October 25, 2012
8:52 P.M.

I am more than pleased to announce the beginning of my career at WeatherOn, which is the website and brainchild of Tanner Petersen, a FRESHMAN (in high school!) who lives in Marysville. Tanner is an incredibly talented, determined, and ambitious young man. Shannon O'Donnell, of Komo 4 News, once called Tanner "The hardest working kid on this side of the Mississippi!" Well, there's one thing wrong with this statement. He's the hardest working kid on both sides of the Mississippi. He has extensive knowledge of HTML programming and web design, well beyond his years. And he's pretty darn good at forecasting the weather as well.

The thing is that anybody can really forecast the weather. It's not that difficult. It's probably the only job where you can be wrong on a consistent basis and not get fired. But web programming, that's a completely different story. That takes a whole bunch of hard work. I may seem like I know a lot about the weather (and to be fair, I do), but when it comes to programming, I know less than Bill O'Reilly knows about tides. I've only taken an introductory Java class, and I had to take it twice. It's really hard stuff! And the fact that Tanner is able to create a very complex website shows that he is extremely dedicated and intelligent. I mean, you can even get weather alerts from him by texting "ALERTS" to  (805) 419-9229 and you will get automated text messages whenever interesting or potentially stormy weather comes through the region. So while I may be good at throwing out entertaining pictures, adding some personality in my blog, and forecasting snow (I actually have a really good track record on that), I don't know squat about computer programming, and Tanner is an absolute genius.

Weather websites are becoming more and more common, descriptive, diverse, and thorough.  And if you look at all the weather websites out there... the Weather Underground is a great one, Accuweather is hit or miss, and of course looking at the models, they became known because of people who have a thirst for knowledge, are familiar with computers, and most importantly, are extremely dedicated and hard working. People like Tanner Petersen.

How did Tanner get started? Here's a brief history.

from chuckgoolsbee.org - December 22, 2008

In 2008, Tanner witnessed the legendary snow storm of 2008. All of you Seattlelites should remember this one. But as hard as Seattle was hit, Marysville was hit even harder. Take a look at the sheer amount of snow on that post! I'm pretty sure that picture was taken in Marysville, but I'm not positive. After this, Tanner started writing little five-day forecasts for his friends and family, and hung them around the house for all to see. He was in 5th grade at the time. And he was already making nifty little graphics, like the one below. He named his fledgling company "Tanner's Local Weather." There was no website at this time though.

Pretty groovy!

On September 2, 2010, Tanner's Local Weather went public on Facebook. Check out the 5-day forecast above. This was Tanner's very first forecast! And yes, he designed the graphics all by himself.

In November of 2010, Tanner finally got his very own website up! At first, it was called TLWofficial.webs.com. This was a huge step for Tanner. Look at that beautiful website. It was officially changed to TannersLocalWeather.com on September 19, 2011.

By 2011, Tanner's Local Weather was improving in many ways. Tanner was getting better at forecasting, and the graphics were just getting prettier and prettier.

Another HUGE step came in 2012, when Tanner completely redesigned the website. Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, it did. The picture explains itself. The new website is a work of art.

In August of 2012, Tanner released a mobile version of his site. How he did this, I have no idea. But he did, and it's awesome. I have a ghetto phone, so I can't access the website, but all you people who are up to date with today's technology can access the site from your iPhone, Nexus, etc.

VERY recently (October 12), TannersLocalWeather.com became WeatherOn.net. Tanner was trying to go for a more universal domain name to truly establish himself as a viable organization in the weather cyberspace world.

So professional!

And here's the cool part. On October 17, Tanner hired me as the very first employee at WeatherOn! I am now the official long range blogger for WeatherOn. I will continue to post on this blog, including the occasional long range outlook, but the posts on WeatherOn will not be found on this blog. They are exclusive to WeatherOn.net, and that is the only place you will find them. You wanna contact me? No problem. Tanner made me a business card too. :)

This kid is the real deal. I'll start posting long range forecasts soon. I have a midterm tomorrow and two next week, but I'll get one in before the weekend. And remember, you can ONLY find them on WeatherOn.net. 

Additionally, on November 1st, Tanner and I will jointly release our winter outlook for the 2012-2013 season. It will cover the ENTIRE US, with a little more attention paid to our corner of the country.

I cannot give Tanner enough praise. He's so dedicated, and he's also extremely nice. I look forward to developing WeatherOn into the best site in can be. And trust me, at the rate it is going, it's going to become a major, worldwide known site. We won't stop until it does.

Oh yeah, a category 4 hurricane/winter blizzard could hit the East Coast. I'll blog about that tomorrow. But for now, a siesta, and then, back to studying.

Take it easy, and visit http://www.weatheron.net/!

Charlie