Public weather sources are a necessity for public safety — but are they right for your business needs?
There is an ever-increasing need to predict weather events globally and reduce the amount of resulting damage they may cause. As the need has grown, so has the quality and volume of data accessible to companies and organizations seeking it. Interpreting this data — available from government organizations and myriad other sources — may seem easy, but this task is far from simple. Let's explore several factors to consider when choosing between a public or private weather provider for your business’s data needs.
Public weather and environmental data: The foundation
Public weather sources are the foundation upon which the world of private weather data, LLMs, and other weather-integrative solutions is built. These sources are critical to public safety and situational awareness — but when it comes to making informed decisions for your business operations, a more robust solution is needed.
Private weather data providers: The frame
Where public weather data is the foundation, private weather data is the frame, supported by the base while supporting the floors, rooms, and systems contained within.
Private providers like Xweather, tomorrow.io, and AEM all rely on public and private sources, collating the raw data and running it through custom-developed models and algorithms. The result of this? Actionable insights used by governments, businesses, and other organizations across the globe.
At Xweather, we also use this proprietary data to improve hyperlocal forecasts with software products like Xweather Insight and Wx Horizon.
Factors to consider when weighing public versus private providers
Is a public or private weather data provider best for your needs? Here are several factors to consider when deciding.
Sheer volume (an especially important for historical analysis and machine learning)
Weather is one of the largest data generators on Earth. Even datasets from a public provider for a smaller time period can take up enormous amounts of storage space. Private providers handle the storing, analysis, and interpretation of this data for you, often archiving it — perfect for use in training forecasting models.
The Xweather API interprets and converts terabytes of data daily.
Although private providers aren’t free, the investment pays off fast. For large and small businesses alike, weather sensitivity can be the difference between turning a profit or losing money in, say, goods lost to temperature swings during the delivery process. Down-to-the-minute, hyperlocal data is a benefit unique to the top-tier weather data providers — and when protecting vulnerable inventory and assets, each minute and every degree of change matters.
Delivery options
Private weather providers are able to offer something that raw data cannot: Intelligent data delivery formats. The Xweather API, for example, offers both classic REST API responses and a pushed data option, alerting on critical changes within seconds. This option is especially important in cases where accurate data is needed immediately.
Some private providers also offer weather mapping. Xweather in particular offers both a raster and vector mapping option — the former uses tile mapping technology, while the latter leverages the data from our API and WebGL technology to create actual visuals of the weather data itself.
Outages and update intervals
Many global public weather data providers are managed by government or nonprofit teams. Update intervals for these individual sources can vary — not enough to impact daily decisional weather needs for the public, but enough so that changes in the forecast between updates— despite being potentially vital to businesses — may come too late. Private sources have a leg up here, combining data from numerous sources and models (with varying update frequencies!) to provide the most accurate and consistent data as often as possible.
Beyond this, many private providers offer extensive support options. For us, our Customer Success team works tirelessly to handle technical needs for clients.
Public weather data sources, built and maintained by some of the most brilliant scientific minds, are a necessity for public safety and protection. This is an indisputable fact. But for businesses, the world of weather, ever-evolving, generates countless nuances. Overcoming these nuances requires more than weather data — it require weather confidence: The knowledge and trust that business operations will prevail in the face of weather challenges; the security in knowing their decisions are based on accurate, local data. Lucky, that’s just what Xweather delivers.
