Landing the Big One

Landing the Big One

Friday, December 23, 2005

Guiding ships from Oklahoma

Reported here,something to make every Midwestern heart fill with pride- Nebraska has the Strategic Forces Command and now OKlahoma has ...Weathernews:
An office in landlocked Norman is helping ship captains around the world navigate hazards and find the best possible route for their cargo.
Flat-screen monitors and movie-screen size maps of the world fill the office of Weathernews. Employees look between multiple computer screens to determine where potential hazards could be for companies transporting goods and commodities all over the world.

Weathernews, a Japanese company with offices worldwide, is taking advantage of the University of Oklahoma's meteorology program and the steady supply of qualified workers. From its Norman office, ship captains in the Arctic Ocean are warned about icebergs and captains off the coast of Somalia are cautioned about pirates.
Of course, when they are done for the day, the Weathernews staff is still in Oklahoma (not that there's anything wrong with that...). The US Navy weather guessers (at Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center) hang out in Monterey, California. Let'see. Norman, OK or the Monterey peninsula? Which would you choose? Sometimes civilians do not get the better deal...

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