You're a regular user of WeatherOps Commander and are probably accustomed to seeing the same features each day when you access the system. Have you ever experimented with some of the other options of this robust suite of services? Let's look at a few that may prove useful!
Most clients open the Interactive Map and see radar data displayed. If you're viewing the entire U.S., our native radar mosaic is the best tool to use. Moasic imagery is stitched together from WSR-88D radars across the country. However, the data is smoothed and, while it is a great product to obtain a quick, general idea where weather is happening, it is not the timeliest data available. In the image below, both the mosiac and RadarScope data are turned on. You can see that the RadarScope data are plotted ahead of the mosaic data. That's because these data are updated more frequently. So, once you have figured out that it is raining in your area of interest, turn off the mosaic view and turn on the single-site RadarScope view. You can then choose the radar site closest to your asset to get more detailed information about the storms.
There is a new addition to the lightning data you can view on Commander. You now have the ability to toggle between both cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud lightning. While it is the cloud-to-groud strikes that injure most people, the cloud-to-cloud data can also be valuable depending on your asset. If you haven't noticed, hovering over the color legend reveals the age of various lightning strikes; from five to 60 minutes with older strikes fading into tranparency. Clicking on a particular strike provides additional data, including the peak current amps.
Have you ever taken a look at the surface observations? If not, you can select that option and see the temperature at thousands of locations around the world. When you click on an observation, you can also learn the sky condition, dew point, relative humidity and more. If you live on the coast or have assets offshore, then buoy and ship observations data are for you.
Did you notice all the different background maps I used in the examples above? Changing your map style is another option found in the Control menu. And if you want to see temperatures in Celsius or wave heights in meters, the Control menu allows you to change units too. So, give these products a try and take a few minutes to look around at other features that come with your system. It's highly likely you'll find products that are highly valuable to your business that you didn't know existed. How do you use WeatherOps Commander to manage your day-to-day operations?