Keystone Today

AccuWeather -- which is located in State College, Pennsylvania -- is expanding its MinuteCast feature to all of Central and South America, Mexico and the Caribbean, according to Cision PR Newswire.

"We are so pleased to be extending the safety, convenience and comfort afforded by AccuWeather's MinuteCast to these new regions,"   AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter told Cision PR Newswire. "This tool has proven to be one of our most popular features on our apps and on our website, precisely because people find it most useful to plan before stepping out and at multiple points along their journey. Our users rely on MinuteCast to determine the best time to venture out to walk the dog, go for a run, stroll to dinner or how to dress for a sporting event, like 'futbol.' Because it's central to the interface on our free app, this tool literally puts convenience right in the palm of people's hands."

The MinuteCast service will help farmers in the newly expanded coverage area, the company said.

"South America alone accounts for approximately 10% of the global agricultural product export," Cision PR Newswire said. "Central and South America supply a significant portion of the world's corn, soybeans, wheat, coffee, bananas, cocoa and more, where irregular weather patterns in the region have already driven up global prices of some of these commodities. The ability of farmers to adjust activities based on accurate precipitation forecasts can help maximize their seasonal crop outputs."

MinuteCast, coupled with AccuWeather's Hurricane Tracker, which is also available in Central and South America, Mexico and the Caribbean, "can be lifesaving tools that provide people the lead time necessary to secure their assets and get to shelter as the Atlantic hurricane season continues through November," Cision PR Newswire said. "This season, we have already seen category 3  Hurricane Grace cause several casualties in Mexico, as well as storms damage the Caribbean islands as they headed north."

The new offerings will allow for these areas to receive more accurate radar coverage locally, regionally and throughout the world through a new radar product that is a hybrid of ground-based and satellite-based radar, which eliminates the gaps that previously existed in radar weather tracking. The new precipitation forecasting radar tracking will be able to show occurrences up to four hours before it happens, and this comes at a critical time in Central and South America, as October is known to be the rainiest season of the year for that area of the world.