Dive Brief:

• IBM and Weather Channel parent The Weather Company are joining forces to integrate real-time weather insights into business operations. 
• Data from The Weather Company’s business unit, WSI, already informs apps for Apple, Google, Microsoft and thousands of other companies.
• The alliance will offer analytics that integrate historical and real-time weather data; cloud and mobile app development tools, and advice from thousands of IBM experts. 

Dive Insight:

Weather can sway business results nationwide as much as $500 billion per year, IBM says, and by bringing The Weather Company’s data into the IBM cloud, retailers can better predict customer buying patterns, fulfillment disruptions, and other operational effects of the weather.

IBM will soon combine Watson data analytics and cloud services with the 10 billion forecasts produced every day by The Weather Company’s business-to-business unit, WSI. WSI data already informs weather apps for Apple, Google, Microsoft and thousands of companies including retailers and airlines.