"I am a hot air balloon pilot and I fly large passenger loads daily in the commercial balloon ride tour business. I often check weather morning, noon, and night. Weather is everything to our business. Clouds, wind, rain, visibility, humidity, high pressure, low pressure, temperature...EVERYTHING about weather is critical to our business. We need to make a go/no-go decision before the flight. So we depend heavily on the information we get online. Since all of our work is in the sky and the fields outdoors, we enjoy the beauty of the weather and all the atmospheric phenomena. Thanks for a great website, wunderground.com!"
-Wunderground User
"My husband and I own and operate a very small screen printing business about 75 miles NW of Chicago near the Wisconsin state line. Weather has always been a factor in our screen-making process. When it is very humid, our silkscreen emulsions sometimes develop almost invisible areas on the screen which then prevents the inks from passing through onto the parts. Since we are so picky about the print we do for our customers, we periodically have to reshoot the screens if our attempts at cleaning them with chemicals won't work. Because of our company size, we don't air-condition our facility, however we have found that running a de-humidifier is sometimes necessary. Often my hubby will go in late at night to shoot a screen when the temperature drops. The cooler the air, the less the humidity."
-Wunderground User, IL
"We are Nathan's Nearly Famous Gourmet Kettle Corn, which is a popcorn coated with sugar. We cook at local arts and crafts festivals, car shows, and farmer markets. We cook exclusively under a folding canopy in the outdoors. Our business is dependent on weather conditions. Very cold, (less than 40°F in the south) with winds over 10 mph, will keep away most patrons. But it is great for cooling our product quickly, though. 45° - 70°F is the ideal temperature for our product to sell well. People think of it as "hot fresh popcorn" and sales drop off above 85°F. If the humidity is above 90% the product goes soft or spongy very quickly and we stop production. If a show is forecasting cold, windy, and rainy we tend not to go even after paying booth fees. We rely on wunderground.com exclusively when packing for a festival. I like the forecast in the 2-hour increments. If we have two hours leeway between the end of a show and a 80% chance of rain starting, we will risk it."
-Wunderground User, GA
"I own and operate a pet sitting, dog walking, property management business, and the weather is a very important part of my daily planning and scheduling. I have the National Weather Center and Weather Underground as my home page on my computer to be sure it is the first thing I see each day, as well as throughout the day. Every day I am out in the elements walking dogs, driving, and checking on properties. I am located in west central Florida, a hurricane prone area, and from what I know it is also the lightning capital of the USA, if not the world. I deal with weather extremes, heat, rain, wind, lightning, etc. but have, over 10 years, figured out how to manage my indoor/outdoor business around the weather. The pets in my care have figured out how to deal with it too!"
-Wunderground User, FL
"I run a small business in New Orleans, LA. We're a bicycle shop and weather affects us everyday.
When it rains all day, business usually drops a bit, but if it rains a few days, we actually end up with above average sales. Rain brings in more flat repairs because the tires are softened and the debris is less visible. It also pushes up sales of fenders, rainwear, and waterproof bags. However, it generally dampens (haha) new bike sales because people want to test-ride the bikes. Our winters are generally mild (except the recent one) and cyclists ride year 'round here. Winter slows the tourist season and with that our sales dip too. The heat is what we deal with most often. 98°F and 98% humidity turn the city into soup. The intense heat shifts our business to the late afternoon."
-Wunderground User, LA
