Douglas was helpless to answer such queries. His forecast was based largely on information from the National Weather Service, which predicts the conditions for a 12-kilometer by 12-kilometer area and whose predictions have nothing to say about how the weather varies within that area. And even if Douglas could make such localized forecasts, there was no way he could disseminate the personalized information effectively. And then it hit him: maybe he could give everyone a customized weather report. Two years later, in 1999, he founded Minneapolis-based Digital Cyclone, which predicts weather events over six-kilometer-by-six-kilometer areas and offers the information over mobile phones. Digital Cyclone is just one of several companies taking weather forecasting to new levels of usefulness and precision. The Weather Channel in Atlanta, GA, for one, now provides eight-kilometer-resolution maps and an alert service for desktop computers. And AccuWeather in State College, PA, generates one-kilometer-resolution weather maps that are available on personal digital assistants and Internet-enabled phones. Fed by the availability of vast reservoirs of cheap computer power, new mathematical techniques for fine-tuning weather models, and high-tech observation systems, these firms are exploiting the much neglected facet of weather forecasting Douglas calls the "short game": that is, advising people about the particular weather conditions in their individual neighborhoods or towns, not just their regions.
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机译：道格拉斯无奈地回答了这样的疑问。他的预测主要基于国家气象局（National Weather Service）的信息，该信息可以预测12公里乘12公里区域的条件，而其预测却无话可说。即使道格拉斯可以做出这样的本地化预测，他也无法有效地传播个性化信息。然后让他震惊：也许他可以给每个人定制的天气预报。两年后的1999年，他创立了位于明尼阿波利斯的Digital Cyclone，该公司可预测六公里乘六公里区域的天气事件，并通过手机提供信息。 Digital Cyclone只是将天气预报提高到新水平的实用性和准确性的几家公司之一。佐治亚州亚特兰大市的气象频道现在可以提供八公里分辨率的地图和台式机警报服务。宾夕法尼亚州立大学的AccuWeather可以生成一公里分辨率的天气地图，该地图可以在个人数字助理和支持Internet的电话上使用。在大量廉价的计算机资源，微调天气模型的新数学技术以及高科技的观测系统的刺激下，这些公司正在利用被人们忽视的天气预报方面，道格拉斯称之为“短游戏”： ，向人们提供有关其各个邻里或城镇（而不仅仅是所在地区）的特定天气条件的建议。
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