EarthCam, a company specializing in live camera technology, content and services, has introduced its live weather service. The service uses an onsite, wireless, solar-powered sensor array to detect and calculate 16 points of weather and environmental data. This data is combined with NOAA observed conditions and radar maps to create localized microclimate information.
Live jobsite camera imagery is overlaid with weather data to create an environmental record for the lifetime of each project. Project managers now have a searchable archive of activity at each location, with the added context of graphical weather visuals.
“It’s always nice that on your dashboard, you have the weather interface and the wind speed,” said Paul Smedburg, project executive at C.D. Smith Construction. “For a general contractor that could end up in a dispute on a force majeure claim on weather events - it’s very common in the industry to have some initial blowback - ‘well it really didn’t snow that much!’ EarthCam has been a godsend for me.”
High resolution time-stamped imagery with weather data creates a permanent record of conditions, and all data is automatically uploaded to project management software, such as Autodesk Build or Procore daily logs. Fully wireless and solar-powered, EarthCam’s new system provides local monitoring and analysis in seconds instead of hours, to both predict and document weather events for project managers and site safety personnel.
EarthCam’s live weather system automatically alerts teams to the approximate distance of lightning as far as 25 miles from the jobsite – more than twice the distance that thunder can be heard. These alerts give crews more time to prepare for an oncoming storm and take necessary precautions.
EarthCam’s system calculates whether a storm is approaching or receding based on lightning strike distance data and counts the number of strikes to help assess risks in detail.
Live weather’s configurable alerts combine real-time jobsite microclimate data with forecast information, including up to 128 different advisories, watches and warnings powered by NOAA. EarthCam’s new live weather service – including the onsite sensor array – is available now at an MSRP of $1500.
