TYLER, Texas — The Smith County Fire Marshal’s Office recently installed a Weather System Station at the Emergency Operations Center to give both emergency officials and members of the public real-time access to weather data.
WeatherSTEM gives residents the ability to see a large amount of information about the weather without having to sign up. People can just go to smith.weatherstem.com/oem to view a forecast specific to different health conditions, Smith County Emergency Management Coordinator Brandon Moore said.
“WeatherSTEM’s accessibility makes it a useful tool for the whole community and will enhance the abilities of emergency services,” Smith County Fire Marshal Chad Hogue said. “Realtime weather information, such as wind direction and speed, is vital during fire and hazardous materials incident responses.”
According to Smith County, WeatherSTEM gives a 15-day forecast and can generate hourly forecasts. It also has a live-feed camera that updates every few seconds and produces daily historical time lapses. The website can provide monthly totals of rain, heat guidance forecasts, Almanac history and information on the sun, moon and planets.
“We are making this available to every city and both Smith County Emergency Service Districts for internal notifications,” Moore said.
WeatherSTEM will help Smith County 911 Dispatch, law enforcement, EMS and other responders during inclement weather.
“It will allow me to monitor and track weather, plus provide us with historical data for planning and prevention purposes,” Moore said.
The fire marshal’s office can look at historical lightning data for fire investigations, and there are plans to incorporate additional weather patterns, such as fire behavior for the fire departments, the announcement read.