Patent ID: 8610566

Claim:
An apparatus for providing weather alert information on a subscription basis to a subscriber comprising: (a) a mobile, addressable workstation assigned to a subscriber, the workstation comprising a global positioning system receiver and a cellular communication means; (b) a computer system comprising (i) a database which stores the address of the workstation assigned to the subscriber, a set of subscriber-defined thresholds related to weather events and GIS mapping information related to segments of freeways, highways and other roads, and automatically stores location information related to the position of the subscriber comprising a unique site mapping around the position of the subscriber, at least some of such location information generated by and transmitted from the global positioning system receiver of the workstation to the computer system; (ii) a weather server application which controls the computer system such that the computer system automatically ingests weather data, automatically converts the weather data into at least one GIS-compatible format, automatically compares the weather data to the subscriber-defined thresholds related to weather events, automatically performs a GIS spatial analysis by mapping a dynamically estimated coverage area reflecting actual dimension and intensity of weather events, in a manner unconstrained by a set of predefined shapes or areas stored on the computer system, to a current position of the subscriber and locations of segments of freeways, highways and other roads to determine if the subscriber is likely to encounter adverse weather conditions corresponding to the subscriber- defined thresholds; and (iii) a communications server application which controls the computer system such that the computer system automatically transmits at least one weather alert message to the workstation assigned to the subscriber if the subscriber is likely to encounter such adverse weather conditions.