Weather Stations "Fill gaps in weather information" for Emergency Management Operations

MIND THE GAP: The reality is, relying on publicly available weather data doesn't get you the detailed, hyper-local information you need to make informed decisions. Chatham County Emergency Management in North Carolina recognized this dilemma and implemented a plan to increase weather monitoring coverage.

Emergency Management Director Steve Newton described how:

"Chatham County Emergency Management (Pittsboro, NC) partnered with the county’s Emergency Communications department to install Columbia Weather’s Orion sensors on public safety radio towers to fill gaps in weather information used to inform decision making at the Emergency Operations Center. We installed fixed Orion Weather Monitoring Systems at radio towers in four “corners” of the county (NE, SE, SW, NW) and one centrally at the Emergency Operations Center.

"For incident-specific weather data, we have an Orion Nomad Portable Weather Station as well as a sixth fixed Orion Weather Monitoring System mounted on solar power camera trailers. We can monitor all cameras simultaneously through the cloud, and for the Nomad and weather sensor equipped camera trailer we can also connect directly to the unit using the Weather Master Software."

Purchasing multiple weather stations in one order made their weather monitoring network even more cost-effective, taking advantage of CWS’s quantity discount to provide improved weather monitoring across the region.

Orion Weather Station

Chatham County Website