WX Channel launches ‘My Friends’ Weather’

The Weather Channel has launched “My Friends’ Weather,” a component of its “Breaking Now” service, that integrates with Facebook to provide users with information about friends and family who might be affected by severe weather events.

By integrating with Facebook’s Open Graph protocol, the new service adds a special red strip across weather.com pages during severe weather events that, based on geographic data provided by your friends, lets you know who might be affected.

The service is also available via Facebook’s site.

To use this new feature, users must have a Facebook account and authorize the app to access specific data, a common feature for social apps like this. The Weather channel emphasizes, however, that it does not share information about what Weather Channel content users are reading or viewing like so other news apps do.

In addition to providing users with alerts, they will also be able to directly comment and communicate with Facebook friends who might be affected by severe weather.

This latest integration is part of an overall strategy by the Weather Channel to utilize social media and its own content and reach to provide innovative new services. Back in July, the Weather Channel become one of the first users of the new Foursquare Connected Apps platform.

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For complete details on the new service, including detailed installation instructions, check out the Weather Channel’s page announcing the new feature.