The University of Miami’s Office of Emergency Management relies on WeatherSTEM stations throughout its campus to monitor, record and publish real-time weather updates.
WeatherSTEM then updates a website, mobile application, Twitter and Facebook page with that information so all students, faculty and staff can stay up-to-date on weather conditions, reports U Miami News.
The system monitors local temperature, dew point temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity, solar and ultraviolet radiation, rainfall accumulation and intensity, wind chill, heat index and wet bulb globe temperature to make accurate readings.
Wet bulb globe temperature is particularly important to South Florida because it is an effective way to assess the risk of heat stress on the human body, explained Ed Mansouri, CEO and founder of WeatherSTEM.
“When you think about the climate in South Florida, which tends to be unpredictable, getting a reading from a weather station two miles away can be all the difference between sunshine and thunderstorms,” said Matthew Shpiner, director of emergency management for the University.
When different parts of Florida face threats of thunderstorms, tropical cyclones, hurricanes and evacuation, it is crucial to get accurate information out to the entire U Miami community, he added.
“The WeatherSTEM units are weather stations comprised of state-of-the-art technology that feed real-time hyperlocal information from a sky-view ultra high-resolution cloud camera to a user-friendly web dashboard,” Shpiner said.
By the end of 2020, there will be 50 new WeatherSTEM units installed across the state of Florida that will be solar-powered, cellular and able to withstand winds up to 185 mph.
“We hope to use this experience to gain new knowledge that can lend itself to further enhancing and modernizing the systems that are on the University of Miami campus,” said Mansouri.
