You should see a farm scene in the background, with green grass and dark clouds overhead.

Apparently compressed graphics and Java on AOL do not get along together very well. Thanks to the AOL webmaster, we now have a solution for this pesky little problem. You must change the graphics setting on the AOL browser, clear your page cache and restart the AOL browser. Please perform the following corrective steps to change the graphic preferences on your AOL browser:

These Steps MUST be followed in the order indicated.

1. Select the menu options in the following order from the top AOL toolbar:"My AOL", "WWW", "Web Graphics"
2. Uncheck the "Compressed Graphics" option on the "Web Graphics" preference panel. This will provide non-compressed graphics from AOL.
3. Close the "Web Graphics" preference
4. Refresh "The Storm" web page by clicking on the refresh button on the AOL browser toolbar (That's the little circular symbol with an arrow on the toolbar. Place your mouse on this icon and after a moment it will indicate 'Refresh').
5. Sign Off and Close (exit) your AOL browser.
6. Restart your AOL browser and go to "The Storm" page.

For those that are not on AOL and experiencing this problem, I would suggest that clear cache, exit and restart your browser, then go back to "The Storm". Insure that you have the latest browser and operating system updates.

You may wish to try the alternative views of "The Storm" from our other display page.

If you only see a grey rectangle in the middle of the page, then your Java applet is not running. You should check the settings in your browser "Options" to insure that you have not turned off the capability of supporting Java. Check on one of the other Java applets on this site to see if they will run. There may be a possibility that you are accessing "The Storm" from behind a corporate firewall that has been configured to block active content (Java, ActiveX). "The Storm" does not run on browsers not supporting Java including WebTV.

"The Storm" is rich in sound clips. The first sound to load and continue to run is the background sound of rain. The hear these sound you must have an operating sound board in your computer and your sound system turned on. You may check a long sound on another page within this site (please give the audio file a chance to load) or use the short test below. If you have a BIG sound system, then the sound effects in "The Storm" are pretty awesome.

You should hear "Good Morning" when you click on the sound test button above. If no sound is heard, you will need to insure that your audio system is properly connected, is in operating order and the sound is turned up. If all you see is a simple grey rectangle, then your Java support for the browser is not enabled, or the Java sound applet is not loading.

The sounds of "The Storm" are designed to turn off when you exit the page displaying "The Storm" to go to another web page, and certainly when you exit your browser. You should not have to reboot to stop the rain! If you have a difficulty with this it is probably due to an "oops" due to a timing problem within Java. (Who said Java was perfect, anyway?) This will probably be a random boo-boo. If it persists, please send us an email note describing the condition, your operating system and version, your computer model and CPU speed, your Internet browser model and version. Also specify if the problem occurs every time you load "The Storm" page or just randomly.

If you experience any other difficulty displaying "The Storm" please jot us an email note describing the condition, your operating system and version, your computer model and CPU speed, your Internet browser model and version. Also specify if the problem occurs every time you load "The Storm" page or just randomly.