By Charles Spencer, Special to Washington Techway Tuesday, November 21, 2000; 1:04 PM The world's biggest real-time weather information network isn't run by the National Weather Service. And if your child uses weather equipment at school chances are good that it's doing a lot more than monitoring temperature, humidity and wind speed. In the Washington area, automated weather stations at 427 schools are part of a nationwide network of 4,500 weather sites that provide data to one of the stickiest sites on the Web. They also feed information to local weather gurus like Bob Ryan at 135 television stations around the country. The network, operated by AWS Convergence Technologies of Gaithersburg, is growing by about 30 reporting stations a week. It is several times larger than what a National Weather Service spokesman said is the federal government's closest equivalent, the Automated Surface Observing System, a joint effort of the Weather Service, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense, with 419 sites nationwide. The Weather Service has a total of about 1,100 observing sites. "We are the only source, bar none, for neighborhood weather conditions," said 34-year old co-founder, president and CEO of AWS Robert S. Marshall, a University of Maryland engineering graduate. "The other weather providers get data from the National Weather Service. It's pretty much a commodity. They're going to tell you what's going on at [regional airports]. That's where they have a reporting station. But nobody lives there. It's not relevant. It's not real-time, and who cares what's going on at the airport?" The company's formula of "hyper-local" neighborhood weather is being applied to amateur sports as well. AWS' goal with InstaSports, launched in September 1999, is to become the ESPN.com of local youth, high school and adult recreation league sports. Everything from stats to schedules to pictures and stories is entered by team representatives onto a Web interface. Local TV sportscasters refer viewers to the page for updates, allowing them to differentiate their broadcast from competitors.' In addition, AWS' free desktop Internet weather software, WeatherBug, launched four months ago, has spread to more than 400,000 users and is being downloaded at a rate of about 275 new users every hour. Nielsen/Net Ratings said WeatherBug.com has 25 million page views per month and is growing at a rate of 40 percent a month. It is the sixth-stickiest site on the Web, drawing average monthly visits of nearly three hours, contrasted with an industry average of about 30 minutes, according to AWS. The Internet research and audience measurement company Media Metrix named WeatherBug the stickiest site in July and the fourth-stickiest site in August, but WeatherBug did not make Media Metrix's Top 10 in September. The PC-compatible software - a Mac version is in development - provides local data on weather conditions, forecasts and real-time Web cam images, along with accompanying advertising. The desire for weather information seems insatiable: Weather news consistently ranks at or near the top among both Internet users and television viewers. A November 1998 survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed that among Internet users, 39 percent said they sought online weather news and other local information, making weather the single biggest draw on the Web. On television, "a higher percentage of viewers want to watch weather besides any particular story," said John Doolittle, a broadcast veteran and an associate professor at American University's School of Communication. "Weather is outpacing sports on anybody's scale." Meteorologist Ryan of WRC-TV Channel 4, the NBC television affiliate in Washington, said the AWS network of school weather reporting stations is important in setting his broadcast apart from others in the market. His station, along with corporate co-sponsors, picks up half the cost for any school that wants to buy AWS' equipment and become part of the network, giving WRC an opportunity for community outreach. Over the years, the station has helped pay for AWS equipment at more than 300 area schools, which costs about $5,000 per weather station, he said. "It's also a good way of demonstrating [to students] what science is about," Ryan said. While private weather companies like AWS are nothing new, the big change these days is the rush to the Internet, said Ron Gird, customer service program manager with the National Weather Service. The Weather Service, too, has developed a Web presence - users can get all of their weather information from its pages. Certainly the Web has helped AWS, formerly known as Automated Weather Source, since its founding in 1993. Before starting the company, its four original partners - two now remain - realized that the environmental monitoring instruments they were developing for the Army at a defense contractor near Baltimore could, with a little tweaking, become remote weather stations. The problem: who would buy them? The answer came from Marshall's wife, Lorraine, who was then a middle school math teacher. Some quick research showed there were more than 110,000 schools around the country. Market problem solved. In the past few months, AWS has added about 30 employees, taking it to 85 staffers, and could grow to 150 at the end of next year. The expansion has been fueled largely by a $14 million cash infusion in June from HarbourVest Partners LLC in Boston, and another $1 million from other investors. "This is not a start-up company," said Michael Taylor, a principal in HarbourVest. "It has revenue and profitability." Convergence was also a key point in favor of investing in AWS, Taylor said. "They're No. 1 in local weather. It makes sense that they can do it on the Internet." Marshall declined to give revenue figures for the privately held company, but said it follows a profitable model of generating revenue from product sales, advertising and licensing fees to broadcasters. One huge dot.com expense it has avoided is the need to create a brand name. "The difficulty that other content companies have is the cost associated with building content and ... with building brand," Marshall said. "We're not out to build an AWS brand. We're branded: It's the NBC4-WINDS program in Washington. In San Francisco it's the [KPIX-TV Weather Everywhere Program]. So our broadcasters promote our products in every single newscast every day. They're key partners for us. We add a lot of value for them and differentiate their newscast, but at the same time we work in partnership to build the content base, expand our offerings, bring users to the Web page and to the desktop and to the wireless applications. So we partner with the TV stations. We're a TV-Internet convergence company." While AWS may have no direct competition in its niche of "hyper local" weather, 800-pound gorillas lurk in the background. Landmark Communication's Weather Channel, for example, whose Web site Weather.com is consistently ranked among the most-visited Web sites according to Media Metrix, is joining AWS in the world of desktop information delivery. Landmark, like AWS, provides wireless delivery via devices like Palm Pilots. However the competitive landscape develops, it seems likely that the desire for weather news won't run dry. "Weather gets bigger and bigger every day," said Marshall. "Weather is No. 1 on the Internet, it's No. 1 in TV news. It impacts everybody's life on a daily basis. It's information you need to know, whether you're taking the kids to the bus stop or getting ready to play a round of golf." Charles Spencer is a freelance writer in Maryland. This article appears in the Nov. 27 issue of Washington Techway.