Probably like most, it started for me as a personal interest.
So about 15 years later - I have a following that has grown and somewhat depend on what I provide. I live on a lake in a very small community, most of the homes are peoples vacation homes, their actual residence can be more than a 100 miles away. With the internet they can now get real time information about weater conditions perhaps within feet of their house, when they are not here. Sometimes weather varies greatly in short distances, a general forecast in my area might say 1 to 3 inches of snow, well, 10 miles to the north of me down in the valley, they might get 2 inches of snow, 10 miles south of me - no snow and because I am some what in the elevations I might have 6 inches of snow, and people sitting a 100 miles away seem to like to know that.
I'm not sre I like peple "depending" on what i provide, but boy, about 3 years ago, in one of our winter storms, our power was out for about 3 days, the people new because my weather station was down, so they had people check on their houses, so pipes wouldn't freeze and so on. I was presently surpised, when I had 2 neighbors thank me for my information, not only thanks but a wonderful apple pie and a expensive botte of bourbon, lol.