Ann Arbor’s Weather Underground hits No. 2 in weather web traffic

If you live in the Ann Arbor area and check the Internet for weather forecasts, surf local and go to Weather Underground.The Ann Arbor-based company runs the second most visited weather website in the U.S. — and in the world. That has translated to upping its revenues and profits by 75 and 25 percent, respectively, in 2009. Last year the firm made four new hires and hopes to add another three in 2010.Weather Underground ranks as the No. 56 most visited website now (mainly because weather systems have been making headlines) and drops only as low as the 70s when traffic is slow. It averages about 10 million page views per day.”That puts us a little bit ahead of the New York Times,” says Jeff Masters, director of metreology for Weather Underground.The company spun out of the University of Michigan in 1995, thanks to a few academic types plunging into entrepreneurship with the help of the university and some National Science Foundation funds.”That was the year the world wide web went commercial,” Master says. “It was a bit of untested waters for us.”Weather Underground has its headquarters in Ann Arbor and an office in San Francisco (where most of its employees are based). It is now looking to grow in overseas markets.Source: Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for Weather UndergroundWriter: Jon Zemke