A state-of-the-art weather monitoring system called WeatherBug® will deliver severe weather notifications to Broward County schools beginning this fall. “Florida averages 10 deaths and 40 injuries due to lightning each year,” said Jerry Graziose, the District’s Safety Director. “Half of those deaths and injuries occur during recreational activities.” The WeatherBug® Community Safety Solution system, when fully implemented, will automatically send alerts via E-mail to school-based computers and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) and relay that information to select cell phones in an effort to protect students during their outdoor activities on the playfield, sports fields or while on field trips.

Severe weather often approaches quickly, and many times without warning. This system will alert school officials in time to move students to safety when severe weather threatens – before it’s too late. Working with the District, Broward Sheriff’s Office and Broward County Emergency Management Agency during the past year, WeatherBug® installed more than 55 tracking stations across Broward County on public safety facilities, and at 20 schools and other District sites. Each station reports live neighborhood-level weather conditions including lightning predictions, lightning strike alerts, weather alerts, (including temperature, heat index, winds and wind gusts) and National Weather Service severe weather warnings.

District Safety Director Jerry Graziose explains how WeatherBug® alerts will be communicated by cellphone to school personnel.

The District’s Safety Department is online as a tracking station and is part of the monitoring network in Broward County. Over the summer, WeatherBug®, working with Sprint/Nextel, tested and modified the location-based weather alerting system. This phase involved tying in special cell phones equipped with Global Positioning Systems (GPS). In late July, the special cell phones were distributed to all high school athletic directors, head football coaches and band directors. As the 2006/07 school year gets underway, additional cell phones will be distributed to schools and the remaining alerting phases of the program will be implemented. Those phases will include school-based computers and an educational component for science teachers.

With a network of more than 8,000 tracking stations across the United States, WeatherBug® can provide live local weather information at the neighborhood level. Alternative sources are typically based on computer modeling from airport data, which can be up to an hour old.

“The safety of our students and staff members is of paramount concern. With this system, we can warn them of severe weather before it occurs and ultimately keep them safer,” said Graziose.