Weather Graphics software

[weatherwiz]

I've been searching for some programs to draw surface weather maps for my practice broadcast class.  I have been using frontal painter which is AWESOME, however, the professor isn't fond of the background coloring and while you can make adjustments I can't seem to get it.  When you change the color scheme for ocean it does landmass as well and when you try to change landmass color nothing happens.  Does anyone know of any other programs or who has perhaps used frontal painter and know how to input a map onto it?  I've tried that but no luck

[Jim Marusak]

have you ever thought of maybe designing line styles or paintbrushes on something like Paint Shop Pro, Adobe CS, Corel Draw, or something like GIMP? because those graphics software packages would not only allow for layered graphics (which frontal maps are), but because they allow easier manipulation of the background images.

as well, if you want to get better drawing capability, you should consider getting a WACOM tablet. they aren't expensive, and once you get used to it, quite nice.