Weather Underground

Meteorology, TV, and weather enthusiasts will intersect in a new way starting on August 24 with the debut of Weather Underground , a two-hour program to air weekdays from 6:00 to 8:00 pm ET on The Weather Channel. The show carries the geeky, informal imprint of its namesake, which was founded in 1995 as the Internet's first weather service. Based in San Francisco, Weather Underground became part of The Weather Company in 2012. Drawing on the Weather Channel's history of making weather accessible to the public, the new show will embody the future of interactive science television. Fans will be able to submit questions via #WUTV across social media, report current conditions in their area, contribute to the creation of show segments, access behind-the-scenes live-stream video via wunderground.com and participate in weather roundtables live on air. Science-grounded and community-based, the Weather Underground network includes more than 120,000 personal weather stations that feed into WU's widely used website and apps, enhancing their strength at local forecasting. The new show will appeal to WU members as well as everyone's inner weather geek, with insights into breaking weather events and the science behind forecasting. The show's basement-style set will reflect WU's quirky, independent style, with a full bar, lounge chairs and state-of-the-art 3D visuals. Viewers will also get to know the WunderFriends, four characters created by WU artists that will come to life in animated form. "Weather Underground" will be hosted by Mike Bettes, an Emmy Award-winning meteorologist and storm tracker.