Norman, OK, February 22, 2012 – Weather industry leader Weather Decision Technologies^® (WDT) today  unveiled HailExpress HD™, the next generation of HailExpress™, a service that provides hailswath and hail size visualization on an interactive map.  HailExpress HD’s interactive mapping allows customers to assess possible hail damage within minutes of a hail storm event or for events that have occurred in the past.

WDT is the undisputed pioneer and leader in hail fall and hail size verification reports and services including HailTrax™, HailAnalysis™ and HailHistory™.  This latest release of HailExpress HD  provides faster access, better resolution, and improved tools to integrate customer information with the mapped hail data. HailExpress HD remains the only nationwide service providing hail fall and size data overlaid on Google Earth to provide an interactive map for all hail events, no matter how small, so that all opportunities to serve those impacted by hail can be addressed.

With HailExpress HD, customers have access to hail fall and size information at the onset of the storm and it updates automatically every five minutes. In addition, HailExpress HD offers more hail size contours than ever before.  Contours for hail start at three-quarters of an inch, and increase by quarter-of-an-inch increments, up to four inches in diameter.

Other key features and differentiators of HailExpress HD include:

• Eliminates missed hail events or poorly mapped storm paths due to radar outages by using nationwide overlapping radar coverage.  

• Color coded hailswaths allow quick identification of the most significant hail areas.

• Easy and intuitive Google Earth interface with familiar panning and zooming navigation tools.

• Rapid updates allow quick determination of potential hail impact in metro areas even before the first hail report is received from the National Weather Service.

• Human observations of hail are conspicuously plotted on each map, and each hail report can be easily interrogated for time and location information with a click of the mouse.

• Convenient calendar control to quickly access data of interests, monitor subscription status or extend subscription term.

• Download KMZ files for use in Google Earth on a computer. Allows overlaying of multiple storm dates or a customer’s own data, in addition to easy printing.

Customers can order HailExpressHD on weatherforensics.com after account registration. Once registered, customers must login and select “Order HailExpress” option, and may choose a single day or subscription service and region(s) of interest. After purchasing, the HailExpress data is available instantly.

 “With almost 10 years’ experience in providing forensics weather reports to industry leaders in the Insurance community and to the construction and restoration folks who strive to address those in need after a damaging weather event, we continue to believe that our customers want and deserve the best that science can provide. Building on resources and capabilities cultivated over the years in a myriad of industries WDT serves as well as the relationships we have with the National Severe Storms Laboratory, and the research community at Universities across the U.S. uniquely positions us to provide best in class products and services.” said David VandenHeuvel, Sr. Vice President, Enterprise Solutions, WDT.

HailExpress HD services are available for purchase on line at any time covering 24 hour periods starting at 7am CDT. Users can enjoy access to continuously updating data as the day progresses, and are provided with perpetual access to their selected 24-hour time period, even after the period ends.

The same world class ordering, backend, and Google Earth systems is used for HailExpress HD as for its predecessor, HailExpress.

About Weather Decision Technologies

Founded in 2000, Weather Decision Technologies has become a global leader in providing state-of-the-science weather detection, nowcasting, and forecasting systems and services to our partners and customers. WDT's iMap services provide dynamic, web-based and mobile interactive applications and mapping solutions for the world's leading local media companies and consumers. WDT is headquartered in Norman, Oklahoma. wdtinc.com and weatherforensics.com.