Speaking at HOPE Number Nine!

My talk: The Weather is Not Boring: Forecasting, Following, and Photographing Storms was accepted to HOPE Number 9, the biennial hacker conference. I've been going to this conference for about ten years (writeups here), and I spoke about entertainment technology at the last conference in 2010; you can hear that talk here.  Below is the talk's description, should be fun!

In recent years, real-time weather data and numerical forecast model information has moved from proprietary systems and closed distribution methods to the Internet, and huge amounts of taxpayer-funded weather data in easy to understand formats is now free for all to use. This has made it easier than ever for anyone to get a good forecast any time and anywhere, while also allowing storm chasers to leverage their meteorologic knowledge and use mobile Internet technologies and GPS location tracking to chase tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning, and other severe weather. The presentation will give an overview of weather data gathering methodologies, from ground stations and radar to satellites and weather balloons; give an overview of free or cheap web resources and forecasting models; explain the difference between a “watch” and a “warning;” and show some results from both urban and rural storm chasing.