The Weather Channel Interactive Puts Live Interactive Traffic Maps in Desktop Weather

The Weather Channel Interactive Puts Live Interactive Traffic Maps in Desktop Weather

Free Application Targets Commuters with Live, Local Traffic Conditions Together with Weather

ATLANTA, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The Weather Channel Interactive (TWCi), today announced the addition of live traffic maps and conditions in the newest version of Desktop Weather by The Weather Channel. The interactive traffic maps from Traffic Pulse(R) will include dozens of major U.S. cities. Commuters will be able to zoom and pan in on maps showing traffic flow and incident reports, side-by-side with convenient rush hour weather conditions.

Desktop Weather, available now at www.weather.com/desktop, is a free application which continually updates and delivers severe weather alerts from the National Weather Service, the current local temperature to the system tray and instant access to the ten day forecast. It also offers users featured video and maps, radar and hourly forecasts for over 100,000 worldwide locations. Desktop Weather is the only weather application that delivers reliable forecast information from The Weather Channel, the most trusted source of online weather data according to Nielsen NetRatings.

"We know our users and they check Desktop Weather first thing in the morning, before their commute and just before they leave work," said Matthew de Ganon, vice president of consumer application software for The Weather Channel Interactive. "Giving them traffic and weather together at rush hour makes Desktop Weather the perfect rush hour assistant."

As the industry leader, The Weather Channel sets itself apart through the knowledge and experience of more than 100 meteorologists and its Global Forecast Center. This includes renowned experts in tropical weather, climatology, severe weather and winter weather who both appear on The Weather Channel and apply their skills to providing the local and national information consumers receive from weather.com, TWCi mobile products and Desktop Weather.

The Weather Channel experts combine their skills with state-of-the-art weather technologies, including the exclusive HiRAD(TM) system, a new weather reporting technology that continues to function during local or widespread outages of land-based sensors. HiRAD carefully aggregates weather information from professionally maintained sensors including National Weather Service stations, satellite data, and Doppler radar and uses computer modeling to create exclusive, high quality assessments of weather conditions less than one mile from any location. This enables users to find current conditions in the places that matter most to them, close to home or across the country, giving them the weather information they need to plan their lives.

Source: The Weather Channel

CONTACT: David Blumenthal, +1-770-226-2611, or dblumenthal@weather.com

Web site: http://www.weather.com/desktop

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