Do You Know Where Your Spring Storm Is?

It's officially Spring here in the United States. The flowers are in bloom, pregnant rabbits run about and here in Texas, it's thunderstorm season! On the change that you have never experienced a thunderstorm in Texas, well you have just not lived. Having been born and raised here, I don't think you ever get use to them and the only thing scarier is a thunderstorm in Oklahoma!

If you have been around the Windows Mobile world for any amount of time, you have undoubtedly seen posts from Beverly Howard. Bev, as he is often referred to in the groups, has been an MVP in the Windows Mobile arena for several years now (check out his storied life on his MVP Profile) and always have a good view, tip or bit of information to share. But the role of MVPs is not just to share information, but to share our passions with fellow Windows Mobile users and put forth information that is helpful to those who have the same passion - or those who might!

One of his passions is meteorology. During the recent hurricane outbreaks in the United States, Bev posted several times in the newsgroups about radar and weather information that was readily available for Windows Mobile users. Now that the Gulf Coast is slowly getting back on its collective feet, Bev has created a terrific little site off his main BevHoward.com site specifically for radar information on the go!

The link is http://bevhoward.com/storm/ppcrad.htm and from it, you can get to any number of radar sites in the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam. When a radar site is selected, you are automatically taken to the NOAA animated radar for that location.

For those of you who are Windows Mobile Smartphone users, don't let the "Pocket PC" moniker scare you away. Because Bev's site and the NOAA site are using standard HTML, any HTML client will work! On Smartphones, when the main map is displayed and the Action button is tapped, crosshairs are displayed so you can scroll using the D-Pad to the radar site you want to visit.

Because of the screen size limitations on a Smartphone - and some Pocket PCs for that matter - you may find it easier to view the radar images and the navigation map with Pocket Internet Explorer in Desktop View (Menu>View>Desktop). By doing this, you will have a much closer view of the United States map and thus be able to pin-point your radar selection more easily.

Beverly doesn't charge for this information so feel free to link up to the site. While it is true that you could go to the NOAA site directly to get this information, Bev has made it easy for all of us by putting all of the information in one, easy-to-use site.

This is another good example of how an MVP really serves the Windows Mobile Community.