Weather Apps Leading You Astray?

October 7, 2015 // Article by: Nick Marguccio

Quick Snow Removal’s manager can finally relax. His guys just cleaned up an impressive foot of snow from all of the company’s sites and have applied deicers for the night. He checks his weather app one last time, sees no more snow is expected overnight, and tells his crews to head home. After sleeping just a few hours, his client calls frantic because it’s almost morning and all the lots and sidewalks are covered with a fresh inch of snow! What happened?

What Quick Snow Removal Didn’t Realize

When viewing a weather app, most of the time you are looking at a computer generated forecast. Whether it’s daily or hourly information, these automated forecasts can have issues during an active weather situation. In this case, the app didn’t take into account an upper level disturbance behind the storm and the potential for snow squalls overnight. A meteorologist would have seen the risk and alerted the client when the snow squall was imminent. The moral of the story is that even in an age where technology dominates, nothing helps more in your critical decisions than interacting with an actual meteorologist.

Who Can I trust?

There is just so much weather information out there these days and a lot of it is conflicting. From social media and apps, to the newscaster and the water cooler, it’s hard to make an informed decision for your company. The scary thing is there are even a lot of ‘fake” experts stirring up false hype on social media, so do your homework! Build a relationship with a reputable weather company, with many meteorologists on staff. Some companies even provide 24/7 unlimited phone consultation and weather related “heads-up” calls/texts for their clients, which is the case with WeatherWorks Storm Alert Service. Rest assured that our meteorologists are ready for anything, even that crazy overnight snow squall.

Look, new technology and weather apps are great inventions, but let’s not forget the advantages of the human element and experience with respect to weather. If you want more information about our Storm Alert Service, email Kevin Hopler or call our toll free number 1-800-427-3456.

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