GOTHENBURG—A Norwegian meteorological Web site, yr.no, has stirred up the Scandinavian weather forecasting world by offering free weather information, breaking from the European norm of charging for forecasts.
When Anton Eliassen became director of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (DNMI) in 2000, he discovered that selling weather forecasts was difficult. He decided to provide the information for free, and two years ago yr.no was launched, in cooperation with Norwegian state-sponsored public service radio, NRK.
“Information produced by a state-sponsored activity should be free,” says Anton Eliassen, founder of the weather site. The Web site attracts 2.3 million unique visitors each week, on average.
Yr.no now reports the weather for about 700,000 locations in Norway alone, and 6.3 million locations worldwide and provides detailed forecasts as well as other information.
Since a quarter of the visitors to the site are Swedish, the Swedish equivalent of DNMI, SMHI (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute), has followed suit. Svenska Dagbladet, the Swedish newspaper reports that in the near future SMHI will launch its own free weather site. Finland and Denmark are also considering changes.
Meteorological institutes in Europe generally charge money for forecasts, whereas in the U.S. and Japan they are mostly free.
When Anton Eliassen became director of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (DNMI) in 2000, he discovered that selling weather forecasts was difficult. He decided to provide the information for free, and two years ago yr.no was launched, in cooperation with Norwegian state-sponsored public service radio, NRK.
“Information produced by a state-sponsored activity should be free,” says Anton Eliassen, founder of the weather site. The Web site attracts 2.3 million unique visitors each week, on average.
Yr.no now reports the weather for about 700,000 locations in Norway alone, and 6.3 million locations worldwide and provides detailed forecasts as well as other information.
Since a quarter of the visitors to the site are Swedish, the Swedish equivalent of DNMI, SMHI (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute), has followed suit. Svenska Dagbladet, the Swedish newspaper reports that in the near future SMHI will launch its own free weather site. Finland and Denmark are also considering changes.
Meteorological institutes in Europe generally charge money for forecasts, whereas in the U.S. and Japan they are mostly free.
