ImpactWeather is pleased to announce our latest client-specific weather service, the ImpactWeather Gmaps Interactive Mapping System. An overview is available in the 2-minute video http://impactweather.com/gmaps/

Following many months of development and testing, we’re pleased to debut this new union of weather information with super-accurate mapping capability.

Quick Summary
• New full weather maps utilizing the highly dynamic Google Maps tool
• Offered in three formats: Basic (free to current clients), Standard and Professional
• Global coverage: local, regional, international
• A web-based, continually updating, heads-up representation of the weather that affects your business
• Displays ImpactWeather’s StormWatch customized, proprietary hazardous weather forecasts (Standard and Professional levels only)
• Gmaps will include the suite of weather products you already rely on from ImpactWeather:
o Radar
o Visible and infrared satellites
o Current Temperatures
o Dew point
o Relative humidity
o Atmospheric pressure
o Wind
o National lightning summary
o National Weather Service (NWS) watches and warnings
o Even more features in development
• Allows for pan and zoom clickability and changeable map backgrounds
• Completely customizable: show only the types of weather that you want to see with the locations you want
• Allows integration of your company’s proprietary, non-weather information for a complete “situational awareness” solution (Professional level only)
• Features breakthroughs in the newest, high-precision weather radar

The Details
ImpactWeather clients can click on the new Gmaps link which now permanently resides at the top center of their weather website. When they do, a new Google Maps window will open. To the left of the new Google Map, different types of weather options appear which can be used to layer over the displayed maps.

ImpactWeather clients do not have to download any software to utilize these great new features. They can simply use their web browser as they normally do to access your weather website.

Gmaps Options
ImpactWeather is providing Gmaps Basic to all clients completely free of charge. However, due to licensing restrictions placed on us by Google, we are required to charge a small access fee for each Standard and Professional license as well as any applicable programming charges for customization.

Gmaps Basic: All of the weather data listed above . . . layered on Google Maps.
No action is required by clients; Gmaps Basic is activated for all users who are allowed to access their client weather website.

Gmaps Standard: Displays Your Weather Department Information and Locations
Clients can request that their current TropicsWatch and StormWatch locations – as well as most of the map-oriented TropicsWatch and StormWatch items that they’re accustomed to displaying on their weather websites – now also display on their Gmaps. This enables them to display, for example, their locations along with hurricane track information . . . and radar . . . and NWS info . . . all at the same time on a single map for them to view at any time.

Gmaps Professional: Display Your Weather Department Information and Add More Locations and/or Customized Information
In addition to all the upgrades included in the Basic and Standard Gmaps options, clients may also want to consider having the ability to display other assets/locations or points of interest on their ImpactWeather Gmaps. For example, they can now display their other assets/facilities, key supplier locations, or perhaps service area outlines . . . even their organization's regional management structure outline.

In addition to fixed information, they can also automatically display certain dynamic information such as earthquake alerts or wildfire information on their Gmaps system display. They can also display other frequently changing status-related information (via an automated data feed that their organization provides) such as indicators showing which of their locations are open/closed, or even the constantly updated locations via a GPS feed of their vehicles as they are travel down the highway.

Many ImpactWeather clients have already taken advantage of the immediate benefits available through Gmaps Standard and Professional.

For more information or to see a quick demo of how your organization could benefit from upgrading to the Standard or Professional levels, give us a call at (877) 792-3220.

Houston, July 14, 2009 – ImpactWeather, Inc. is pleased to announce that crisis management and business continuity veteran Mike Thomson has joined the company effective 06 July 2009. As Senior Business Continuity Program Manager, Mike will head up ImpactWeather’s new Business Continuity and Crisis Management practice.

According to ImpactWeather VP Paul Hastings, “We’ve noticed an increase in market demand across a spectrum of industries for consulting services relevant to formalizing and honing crisis response plans. By forming this new unit, it’s our intention to provide our clients with professional expertise to create the best response plans possible – regardless of the type of weather threat.

“To help us build this business unit,” Paul continues, “we brought Mike in as a full-time crisis management professional. Mike comes to us with a very strong background, not to mention a productive track record, in business continuity consulting and emergency response planning.”

Mike is President of the South Texas Chapter of the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP) and previously headed a Houston-based business continuity consulting practice before joining ImpactWeather.

As a seasoned 30-year expert in the crisis management field, Mike successfully lead corporate responses to 9/11, the massive 2003 Northeast U.S. power outage, the post-9/11 anthrax threat and Hurricanes Isabel, Ike and Dolly. A former head of business continuity at a Top 100 law firm, he has managed the consulting teams that helped build the business continuity programs at several Fortune 500 companies. A member of the Energy Security Council (ESC), Mike also serves on ACP's national committee on U.S. business preparedness standards and practices. He is a retired colonel and former agent with the United States Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI).

According to Mike, “Our new business unit will help clients integrate ImpactWeather services and products into their contingency planning and crisis management efforts. By combining the two disciplines, we’re really looking forward to the value and synergy it generates for our clients.”

Mike can be reached at (877) 792-3220 or mthomson@impactweather.com.

More information is available at http://www.impactweather.com/tropics_mobile.php.

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