Precise hyper-local weather data
LEADING global commercial provider UBIMET specialises in precise meteorological services, providing companies with high-resolution forecast data, advanced lightning detection and tracking, and time critical severe weather warnings.
The company’s precise, hyper-local weather solutions increase efficiency and ensure safety within a number of industries, including mining, construction and other critical infrastructure.
One particular solution, the Weather Cockpit, is a web-based portal that showcases everything UBIMET does in one place, from in-house numerical forecast models to unique severe weather warnings and lightning detection.
“Our Weather Cockpit has been used to provide critical weather data to partners such as Formula 1, Frankfurt Airport, the Austrian and German federal railways and PORR, an international construction company,” UBIMET Australia general manager Casey Palmer said.
“PORR uses the Weather Cockpit to keep its construction workers safe and better deploy resources.
“It provides all relevant weather information at a glance for better decision-making, sends warnings when conditions are no longer safe for working on rooftops and helps identify the best time to set up a crane.”
In Australia, UBIMET has long-standing relationships within insurance and in sports, and has recently started new projects in mining and the construction industry.
“We have built our own lightning network here in Australia, covering even the most remote areas,” Ms Palmer said.
“It is the newest and most advanced technology here, and our partners in mining have been particularly interested in this data.
“The Weather Cockpit is designed to reduce risk, prevent damage and ensure safety, and accurate lightning data is a critical piece of data for making that happen.
“We track all strikes in real-time, and mining clients have reported that they have reduced false alarms and prevented downtime incidents.”
In cases when a suspension of operations could not be avoided, mining companies have reported significant reductions in downtime while maintaining confidence in the safety of all personnel.
Lightning alerts are generated when the first strike is detected within a set radius of a site, which UBIMET customises depending on specific operational requirements.
“However these alerts are just the first part of the service – mine sites also need decision making support on when to resume operations, and there are no clear standards and how much time needs to pass before it is deemed to be “all clear”,” Ms Palmer said.
“We have actually conducted a large-scale study calculating the risk of another lightning strike after the last strike has occurred within a set area.
“This was done by analysing more than one million events over multiple climate zones and topographical areas.
“This has allowed us to develop All Clear messages based on safety buffer times specific for each site, allowing mine sites to further reduce downtime.”
In some cases UBIMET has reduced downtime from one to two hours to less than 20 minutes.
UBIMET invests more than 25 per cent of its global revenue into research and development every year.
This allows the team to create industry and customer specific products and services to continually improve forecasting and weather related services for its end customers and keep UBIMET at the forefront of weather technology and services.
“Lightning is a particularly interesting topic for us in Australia, especially as there are parts of the country without radar coverage,” Ms Palmer said.
“We’ll be implementing more features around lightning tracking and related decision making.
“We have seen partners throughout a number of industries reduce downtime by between 50 and 70 per cent, simply by commissioning the lightning study for a particular site, so this will be a focus for us over the next year.”