Weatherstem installs weather station at Starkville Academy
If you look at the press box at the Starkville Academy football stadium, you may notice something new. That is the school's newest weather station that will deliver real-time weather data in the area.
Earlier this week, Starkville Academy joined Mississippi State University as the first homes in Mississippi with a Weatherstem independent weather station.
An anonymous donor has paid for Weatherstem to install the independent weather station at Starkville Academy. SA and Mississippi State University are the first two entities in the state to obtain these weather stations, and they will allow students and their teachers access to real-time weather data. The data also will be available for public consumption and the development of education curricula. For both MSU and SA, the notifications related to lightning and warnings will be invaluable to any outdoor academic or sporting event.
Starkville Academy Head of School Jeremy Nicholas says having real-time weather data in one stop that you can see is “extremely beneficial and important” for a school that has to deal with Mississippi's weather.
“We are extremely excited to be adding a Weatherstem weather station on campus because it serves multiple functions for us,” said Nicholas. “Obviously, it will help make real-time, informed weather decisions that have applications from tracking lightning for games and practices being played after school, to even tracking the heat index and making sure that conditions are safe to be practicing.”
In terms of other opportunities, Nicholas says there's an “academic component” that comes with the station.
“Weatherstem is very much interested in combining the health and safety mindset with the academic mindset. For us, we had our AP environmental
science teacher come in and look at some of what they could do, and so they have already created lessons that sometimes are generic and can be used anywhere you go,” said Nicholas. “Once they create a partnership with a school or a university, like in this case with us and MSU, they will come up with a module that will be ‘Mississippi Climate.'
You can see the modules for Louisiana, for Florida, for Texas, and for Michigan, because they already have partnerships in place with groups in those states.”
Nicholas says the station allows Starkville Academy to further enhance some existing classes, and that goes all the way down to the elementary level.
“When you're in elementary and you're studying weather and climate, you can pull up and see real-time weather data here or if you want to compare it to schools or cities around the SEC,” said Nicholas. “Let's be honest, in our world, it will engage kids more when it's our own weather.”
To see the real-time weather data from the Weatherstem station at Starkville Academy, you can visit www. weatherstem.com, search for Starkville Academy in the “Find your Weatherstem unit” search box, and you'll be able to see real-time weather data in the area.
Although the station is on the Starkville Academy campus and is decked out in blue and orange, Nicholas doesn't view the device as only Starkville Academy property.
“We'll share this information with other schools,” said Nicholas. “One of the other neat features is that because we have cameras on it, weather and new stations have the ability to get access to our live feed from the station through the company if they need it.”