# Weatherzone

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Weather service in Australia

This article is about the Australian meteorological services provider. For the American conglomerate now owned by [IBM](/source/IBM) using the name, see [The Weather Company](/source/The_Weather_Company).

This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Find sources: "Weatherzone" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2008)

[33°49′58″S 151°12′14″E / 33.8329035°S 151.2040019°E / -33.8329035; 151.2040019](https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Weatherzone&params=33.8329035_S_151.2040019_E_scale:5000)

Weatherzone Formerly The Weather Company Type Private Industry Weather Founded October 1998; 27 years ago (October 1998) in Australia Founder Mark Hardy Headquarters Sydney, Australia Number of locations 4 (2020) Area served Australia, South Africa, Taiwan, Japan Key people Mark Hardy(CEO) Products Aviation Watch | Blast Dispersion Modelling | Opticast | Weatherzone's Total Lightning Network, WZTLN | Stormtracker | WxBrief Services Data analysis, meteorological consulting, weather forecasting Owners TBG AG, Mark Hardy Number of employees 60 (2020) Parent DTN Website weatherzone.com

**Weatherzone**, known before 9 August 2010 as **The Weather Company** and still trading under this name, is the main provider of value-added meteorological services in Australia.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] Their main business lines are services to energy, utilities and mining companies. They also provide services to ports, insurance and large retail corporations. They specialize in aggregating content from a large range of private and government funded organisations (e.g. [Bureau of Meteorology](/source/Bureau_of_Meteorology), Environmental Protection Authority, [World Meteorological Organisation](/source/World_Meteorological_Organisation), [Australian Broadcasting Corporation](/source/Australian_Broadcasting_Corporation) etc.). Weatherzone is the major commercial weather company that provides meteorological services in Australia.

## History

Weatherzone was founded in 1998 by former Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) meteorologist, Mark Hardy, providing graphics, scripts and weather briefings for television weather presentations.[1] In 2008 in response to an increasing demand from industry for more accurate and more frequently updating weather forecasts, Weatherzone developed the Opticast forecast system. This system takes information from over a dozen computer models including variants of the in-house operated [Weather Research and Forecasting](/source/Weather_Research_and_Forecasting_Model) (WRF) model. The Opticast algorithms are run every hour ensuring the forecasts are continually staying abreast of rapid and previously unforeseen meteorological changes. The accuracy of Opticast allowed weatherzone to make a successful foray into the lucrative energy and mining weather forecasting markets. Over subsequent years, many of Australia's major electricity companies commenced using weatherzone's Opticast forecasting products including AGL, Snowy Hydro, Origin and AEMO.

On 25 June 2008 [Fairfax Media](/source/Fairfax_Media) acquired a 75% share in Weatherzone (then known as The Weather Company) with 25% still owned by the founder, Mark Hardy who retained the Managing Director role.[1] On 9 August 2010 The organisation changed its name from *The Weather Company* to *Weatherzone*. [*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] It still trades as *The Weather Company Pty Ltd*.[2]

Weatherzone was part of Fairfax's Digital Ventures group of companies and in September 2013 Charles Solomon was appointed Managing Director.

In 2015 Weatherzone expanded into Africa with an investment in South Africa based AfricaWeather.[3]

Weatherzone also operates the largest total lightning detection network in Australia.[4]

On 1 October 2019 Fairfax's 75% stake in Weatherzone was acquired by US-based [DTN](/source/DTN_(company)) for an undisclosed sum.[5]

## Services

Weatherzone runs their own [WRF](/source/Weather_Research_and_Forecasting_model) computer model which is used to produce content for the subscription product, Weatherzone Pro (formerly Weatherzone Silver), and feeds into their Opticast forecasting model. It employs a team of meteorologists to offer a meteorological alternative to the [Bureau of Meteorology](/source/Bureau_of_Meteorology) (BOM). Weatherzone also provides services for displaying weather on websites. Some large sites that use this include [Elders](/source/Elders_Limited), an Australian agricultural site, [News Corp Australia](/source/News_Corp_Australia) (formerly News Limited) and [Fairfax Media](/source/Fairfax_Media).[1]

Advanced forecasts and alerting products are also produced for the energy, mining and insurance industries.

Weatherzone publishes its own weather site and smartphone apps which combines their own content with Bureau of Meteorology information and that from several global providers into a user friendly and customizable interface.

Weatherzone sources surf data from [Swellnet](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Swellnet&action=edit&redlink=1), Australia's most popular source of online surf reports, surf forecasts and live surfcam vision. It provides these weather services, for among others, The [Australian Broadcasting Corporation](/source/Australian_Broadcasting_Corporation), and world weather reports for [Bloomberg Television](/source/Bloomberg_Television).

Weatherzones Apple iOS app includes iPhone, iPad and WatchOS apps, enabling users to view 10-day forecasts, rain radar and BOM warnings at a glance. The iOS apps also include WeatherPulse, a daily video magazine. The app offers both a free ad funded version and a paid for subscription.

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-AustMedia_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-AustMedia_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-AustMedia_1-2) ["Fairfax Digital acquires The Weather Company"](http://www.australian-media.com.au/index.php?c=home&p=news&article=10837). Australian-Media.com.au. 2008-06-25. Retrieved 2008-06-25.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Join Weatherzone"](https://www.weatherzone.com.au/join/). Weatherzone. Retrieved 17 June 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Weatherzone buys AfricaWeather, forecasts more African acquisitions"](https://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/weatherzone-buys-africaweather-forecasts-more-african-acquisitions-20150611-ghm6t8.html). *The Sydney Morning Herald*. 15 June 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Total Lightning Network"](https://business.weatherzone.com.au/products/total-lightning/). Weatherzone. Retrieved 17 May 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["DTN Acquires Weatherzone, Australia's Leading Weather Company"](https://www.dtn.com/dtn-acquires-weatherzone-australias-leading-weather-company/) (Press release). Minneapolis: DTN. 30 September 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-21.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Weatherzone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherzone) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherzone?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.