Having been at weather.com from the beginning, Wilson has been able to shape its culture. One reason that members of the management team work well together, she says, is that "the interpersonal relationships here are built on trust." Jody Fennell, who is weather.com's vice president and executive producer, says that Wilson sets a positive tone. "Debora is an older sister to five siblings, and I think that influences her style of management," says Fennell, 39. "Debora has been an amazing mentor. She knows how to bring out the best in people. She's one of the most diplomatic people I've met in my life."

A diplomat? Running an Internet company? It's just one more unlikely ingredient in weather.com's unlikely success. You don't need a weatherman to know which way these winds are blowing.

Chuck Salter (csalter@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer based in Baltimore. Contact Debora Wilson by email (debora_wilson2000@weather.com).

Sidebar: Weather Watchers

There is no better barometer of the passion that some people have for the weather than the message boards on weather.com. Since the boards went online in July 1999, users have posted more than 100,000 comments. Weather fans debate which storms are the most ferocious. They share survival stories -- about chasing twisters and about being devastated by them. They follow all the latest meteorological technology.

The following messages were posted to the "weather fanatics" online bulletin board in July.

Caren: Friends just don't understand my love of bad weather.

ARIZWX: "After 28 yrs at this, I really don't expect anyone to understand.... To see that storm brew and spool up is humbling and exciting."

La-lady: "When a tropical system is in the Gulf or Caribbean I am glued to the TV. Can't help it, I love 'bad' weather."

Hi: "You want to feel the wind rise, and watch as the trees bend and break. Then you see it for the first time, a nice formed funnel cloud coming down ready to rip, twist, and destroy anything. Yes I love this feeling you should to."

Lisa Felty-Porter, 33, a banker turned stay-at-home mom, is one of 16 volunteer moderators for the daily chat rooms. About one-third are mothers with young children, but there's also a teacher, a couple of college students, a hardware-store owner, and, until recently, a car salesman. "People who aren't into weather don't think you can talk about weather all day, but you can," says Felty-Porter. "The more you learn, the more fascinating it is."

As much as die-hard fans enjoy discussing the weather, nothing compares with seeing it in all its wondrous and terrifying beauty, either up close or in pictures. When weather.com added a gallery of users' weather photos, it wasn't even advertised, and yet is still generated 12 million page views in the first six months.

Donna Pistilli-Sauer, 27, can appreciate the passion people have for the weather. A self-professed "weather geek" who majored in meteorology at Penn State, she, until recently, reported and wrote for weather.com's news center. Weather is a problematic hobby, she says, because what aficionados find thrilling ahs the potential to do tremendous harm. "Just to see these big storms come together and to see how much power they have, you can't help but be interested in how they work," says Pistilli-Sauer. "They're strong enough to change the landscape, but at the same time, because they change landscapes and change lives, they're awful. You just hope that they stay offshore."

Sidebar: The Tao of Weather

Picture this, Gene Kelly singing and dancing and getting thoroughly soaked in the rain. "Check weather.com," the announcer says. Then, after a long pause, "to find out when it's going to rain."

If you don't recognize the ad, you're not alone. It hasn't aired yet. In fact, it hasn't even been made. But it has appeared endlessly in Alex Kaminsky's imagination.

As VP of marketing at weather.com, Kaminsky has the rather delicate job of taking the Weather Channel -- one of the best-known media properties around -- in a new direction. It's not that the Weather Channel failed to establish a successful brand, he says. Far from it. The company has established itself as one of the most reliable sources for weather information. But he believes that its reliability is part of a larger story. "I hate to sound like a naysayer," Kaminsky says of the channel's image, "but it's boring. We've done a great job delivering all the functional attributes, but you now what? We forgot the stuff that makes us magnetic."

He half-jokingly calls himself weather.com's "resident artist-philosopher." he's that and more: a marketing veteran who worked at MindSpring, ESPN, and Turner Entertainment Group before joining weather.com in December 1999. At ESPN, Kaminsky helped create that network's popular in-house ads. One of this favorite ads involved "recently discovered" footage of Ty Cobb waxing about the game. (It was actually an actor doing a dead-on portrayal.) Kaminsky would like to find a way to honor weather's heroes, like Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, whom he calls "our Babe Ruth."