Weather Emergency Operations And Preparedness

As weather emergency preparedness technology progresses forward, so does the available data that is derived from this progress for students to learn from. WeatherBug’s own Eric Weller, director of GIS and data services, recently gave a talk at 22nd Annual Geographic Information Sciences Conference. In his talk, he explained accessing data from GIS platforms translates into a Common Operating Picture that emergency workers can use to make the safest decisions possible during emergency weather conditions. Because let’s face it, when extreme weather hits the fan, you need to know what is going on live, in real time, with all of the affected zones as part of the greater picture.

And with this growing convergence, there is also a lighter side that is seen with a side benefit of this new weather technology being used these days. This is perhaps best highlighted by WeatherBug’s educational efforts to help today’s students to learn about how math and science relate to extreme weather and the tools used to provide maximum accuracy. In the past, students have used WeatherBug’s weather data to further their math and science studies, as they relate to their own local weather events. Future lessons however, will soon include atmospheric physics, electrical engineering, climatology and meteorology. Participating students will find themselves immersed in these advanced disciplines as WeatherBug rolls out the new data set for schools currently part of WeatherBug School’s program.

But perhaps most valuable of all, is seeing more schools jumping on board with WeatherBug’s latest mobile technology which now includes WeatherBug’s real-time GPS-enabled mobile weather alerting service and WeatherBug Total Lightning Network.

Speaking for myself, if I had kids on a school outing and we lived in tornado country or happen to have oncoming lightening storms, I would want those teachers on the outing armed with mobile devices empowered with live, GPS enabled weather alerting technology that provided real-time data on the fly. The same would be said even if the students were in their classrooms. Before the closing bell rings for the day, teachers and facility need to know what is going on outside as well as what is taking place within the walls of the school. It’s a simple matter of safety.

Despite all of this technology to keep students safe, one has to ask themselves - are we all really prepared should extreme weather events take place in our communities? Chances are even with people using the technology described above, many of us are not truly as “ready” as we might think. There is still less high-tech preparation that should be considered yet often is not. And this is something that schools and households alike, really ought to consider.

So to remedy this, I will be doing a series of articles this week in which we explore what each of us can do to best prepare ourselves, families and even communities, should weather emergencies take place without warning.

WeatherBug and GIS platforms certainly play a big part in being prepared for extreme weather, but there is still work to be done by the individuals relying on this technology should they wish to truly be in the best position possible should things come crashing down during extreme weather events. Stay tuned, we will discuss this further later in the week.