The Weather Company, an IBM Business, in collaboration with RainWise, a leading manufacturer of professional grade meteorological equipment for consumer, enterprise, and industrial applications, will jointly deliver world class technology-enabled curriculum to Chennai based Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) using data and monitoring tools to understand weather and its impact on people and the environment.

This is a first of-its-kind collaboration which will allow The Weather Company to continue to contribute to the future of forecasting by educating and enabling young budding journalists with the most effective means of interpreting weather data, drawing actionable insights and creating engaging content to serve their audience’s needs in the most captivating way. Students will be exposed to weather forecasting and weather reporting by tapping into expertise from meteorologists, climate experts and journalists.

Comments Sashi Kumar, chairman, Asian College of Journalism, “We are indeed happy to collaborate with The Weather Company to create a professional awareness about monitoring, reporting and covering weather as part of journalism. The changing role and crucial importance of weather in our lives makes this awareness – and the journalistic expertise to cover the weather in all its predictability and unpredictability – an indispensable part of new age journalism.”

The students and staff will have access to the Personal Weather Station (PWS) provided to the college by RainWise. The PWS will enable students to have the most localised weather information available to interpret weather data for improved reporting and presentation. Empowering students with on-site weather data through the PWS will equip them with information to report weather with confidence. The PWS will provide weather conditions for an exact location. It will also allow students to visualise the station data through graphs and dashboards.

Hyperlocal weather reporting becomes critical in the event of severe weather conditions when life and property are at risk. The Weather Company allows broadcasters to choose from among the most advanced sets of weather data and visualisation features to produce a winning weathercast.

“Our collaboration with Asian College of Journalism will seed the future for an effective and accurate story-telling to our news presenters, who with this technology, can easily create and distribute the most accurate, compelling and cost-efficient weathercasts. This will also equip news channels to drive better engagement and deliver accurate weather updates to a targeted, brand-loyal audience (across devices) while they are on the move,” says Himanshu Goyal, India business leader, The Weather Company.

India has started to see changing weather patterns which are diametrically different to what we have seen in the last 30 years and these include serious weather perils which create tremendous economic losses and at times pose risk to lives. Hence it is imperative that we bring in the right information about weather at the right time.

Also available to students, and all Indians, is The Weather Channel app and weather.com, free public resources that provide weather forecasts and information to help plan activities or stay safe in the face of storms. The Weather Channel App, available on Android and iPhone, focuses on weather relevant to India, with features such as a cricket forecast and pollution forecasts, as well as Monsoon and Summer sections.

Chennai based Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) is a postgraduate college designed to provide students with world-class journalism education adapted to the specific needs of India and other developing countries in Asia.

Atlanta, Georgia (USA) headquartered The Weather Company, an IBM Business, helps people make informed decisions and take action in the face of weather. For more information, visit https://newsroom.ibm.com/the-weather-company.