By Liz Barfield

ImageIn May of 2000, JT Johnson, Mike Eilts, Kirk Whitener, and Richard Carpenter started Weather Decision Technologies with money they had saved collectively and with the help of some friends and family.  JT, a fellow Sooner Rotarian, spoke to us on Tuesday about his company and their journey over the past 14 years.

First, JT gave us a weather related vocabulary test, and wow did we need to get schooled again.  Once we passed the test, he explained the different applications of weather studies.  There are three sections: the academic, the private, and the government.  Being a part of the private sector, they mostly work on applied research and industry specific forecasts as well as product innovations. The governmental side of the industry works with operational forecasting and the National Weather Service.

New offices opened in Houston in 2013, and by 2014 they had 85+ employees, with 40+of them having their masters and/or doctorate.

Though the main focus of Weather Decision Technologies is weather, their technology company also partners with Earth technologies, Boeing, ACCU Weather, Devon, OG&E, Chesapeake, CNN, COX, Washington Post, ABC, Bing, Microsoft, as well as energy companies and other international clients, selling them systems and aiding their businesses.

Weather Decision Technologies has created two apps: Radar Scope 2.2 and Weather Radio, which now has 7.5 million users!