The forecast funnel:
Have you ever sat in a crowded place and just watched people go by? Try it sometime. You'll notice that most folks have their head down and are glued to their electronic device. We read the news about not texting and driving all the time. However, people are still not always aware of their surroundings. My father, the Marine Corps Sergeant, always told me to be aware of my surroundings. If you ask professional soldiers and security folks, for the most part, they will tell you that the best thing you can do is to be aware of what is going on around you. The point I am making here is that this same mentality should be applied to the weather for your operations. Our WeatherOps service takes this sage advice and puts it into practice with our Weather Ops services. We call this our forecast funnel and it applies situational awareness to your location for weather that would impact you. How it works:
WDT will provide a comprehensive suite of weather risk mitigation services including a combination of WeatherOps team forecasts, alerts, and risk communication along with automated alerts (e.g. lightning proximity, NWS watches and warnings, and, heavy rain). Our team of forecasters will directly monitor and provide custom alerts and forecasts for any asset location on the globe. We commit to monitor and provide awareness regarding potentially destructive weather events as well as provide guidance for operational activities.
Our meteorologists will communicate with your customers in a clear and concise manner, offering weather forecasts and alerts via email. Our proposed risk communication services include daily forecast and real-time weather monitoring and alerting services as outlined below.
Daily Planner (7-Day)
Each morning as you arrive to work, an email is sent with a daily planner that is focused on the location(s) that they choose with a color coded table in green, yellow and red based on their weather trigger thresholds. This tool provides a quick glance for situational awareness out to the next 7 days. Many clients choose to forward this to members of their team.
Hazardous Weather Planner
WDT meteorologists will provide monitoring and assessment of potentially hazardous weather development for each region in which you have assets located. Proprietary event commentaries address the possible threat for each asset location for the following event types: Severe Thunderstorms, Heavy Rain, Heavy Snow, Freezing Precipitation, Excessive Anomalous Heat, Excessive Anomalous Cold, all for Days 1-7.
Weather Check
If our WeatherOps meteorologist determines that the next couple of days look to pose a risk to your location. Weather Checks will be issued (twice daily). This is a location-specific outlook broken down into 2-hour increments out to 48 hours. The Weather Check also uses the same green, yellow, and red threat matrix based upon triggers to give you a more detailed risk analysis for operational decision making.
Tropical Weather Planner
During the tropical season, WDT meteorologists will provide monitoring and assessment of potential tropical developments anywhere on the globe. Proprietary storm commentaries and track forecasts address the possible threat for each location and include a detailed update of tropical changes and tropical cyclone status.
Tropical Early Warning Notifications
WDT will issue special products regarding track, intensity, and storm effects for active tropical cyclones (Tropical Depressions, Tropical Storms, or Hurricanes/Typhoons) in any active basin that has been identified as a threat to land. WDT will advise you of a tropical weather threat in a given region within 5-7 days of anticipated impact.
WeatherOps Generated Alerts
As our team monitors your location(s), and we determine that a threat is possible we will issue a WDT WeatherOps alert. This is the ultimate conclusion of our forecast funnel; narrowing to your location and providing details on exact timing and threat type. WDT issues short-fuse, event-driven alerts covering Severe Thunderstorms, Lightning, Heavy Rain, Heavy Snow, Freezing Precipitation, Excessive Anomalous Heat, Excessive Anomalous Cold, and Significant Temperature Volatility as soon as they are forecasted or predicted to be a threat to your staff or assets.
Lightning Proximity Alerts
WDT’s automated systems and data streams provide real-time lightning proximity alerting and all clears for locations. This system detects and sends lighting alerts via email. Clients have great flexibility in setting the distance of proximity and time sequence for all clears. WDT’s WeatherOps experts can aid in this determination with best practice guidelines.
National Weather Service Alerts
As a situation may progress and the National Weather Service (US based Only) gets involved and begins issuing watches and warnings, WDT automatically filters and sends those alerts to you specifically for your location. WDT delivers standard National Weather Service watches, warnings, and advisories for weather events such as tornados, winter storms, floods, wind, tropical and fire via email, and they are displayed within our mapping capabilities.
Being aware and communication is the hallmark of a professional business continuity operation. As a call to action please take advantage of our free demo to see just how powerful this is!
Mike Gauthier
405.618.2239