Weather Bug launches service for GPS Based Mobile Phones

WeatherBug has launched the Smart Notification Weather Service, a GPS equipped mobile phone based weather alert service. The next step in their mobile alert system involved GPS based phones that allow Weather Bug to send you very specific weather related data to you not based on a zip code that may or may not be right at the current time, but instead on your current location.

Smart Notification Weather Service is an actionable system that generates, authorizes and delivers severe weather alerts to subscribers when severe weather, i.e. hurricanes, lightning, floods, wind gusts, tornadoes, is detected within their proximity. Powered by WeatherBug and Send Word Now, the joint service utilizes the live, streaming weather information from the WeatherBug Network of 8,000 WeatherBug Tracking Stations in the U.S, the USPLN lightning network and the National Weather Service to plot the current weather condition on a 5km (3.2 miles) grid map. Traditional alerts are primarily zip-code based, covering areas from approximately five to 30+ miles. Although they provide valuable information, they lack the precision and relevance to meet the needs of modern businesses and public safety organizations, as they typically rely upon airport data that can be up to an hour old.

The Send Word Now Smart Notification Service is the first alert system capable of matching standard or customized weather alerts to each subscriber’s specific location (Read – “GPS based phone”) and weather profile. The Service then formats the appropriate alert for the supported devices (phone-voice, phone-SMS, email and pager) and relays the alert to each individual. This unprecedented improvement in weather granularity provides subscribers with greater accuracy and relevancy than was previously available with traditional alerting systems. Subscribers at businesses, schools, recreational sites, government agencies, retail companies, transportation firms and more can subsequently safeguard their property and lives -- in advance of a serious threat.

Unlike traditional, one-way, text alerts, the Smart Notification Weather Service supports two-way messages for voice and SMS text email messages, providing the issuer a delivery status and user response. The service also can be extended to serve as a broader notification platform, enabling administrators and other officials to initiate their own alerts.

"We are very pleased to have WeatherBug and Send Word Now Smart Notification Weather Service included in our arsenal of emergency management tools," said Jason Jackson, Wal-Mart's Director of Emergency Management. "We believe these tools are necessary to generate warnings to our 3,800 stores on local weather conditions. A quicker notification time allows maximum time for proper preparations, which minimizes life safety concerns and mitigates impact to our bottom line."

Smart Notification Weather Service: Advanced Alerting Technology vs. Traditional Services

As severe weather is becoming more frequent across the U.S., only WeatherBug and Send Word Now can offer the data, technology and experience to deliver immediate weather advisories where people work, play and live.
“Traditional weather alerts services lack the accuracy and relevancy to meet the needs of modern businesses and public safety organizations,” said WeatherBug President and CEO Bob Marshall. “These traditional services deliver alerts that are often far away, too early, too generic, too frequent or irrelevant to their actual location.”

The Smart Notification Weather Service offers dramatic advancements in alerting by proactively monitoring and advising subscribers of storm threats, notification of potential lightning (and. actual strikes noted in traditional warnings), dangerous wind gusts, extreme heat and humidity (heat index) and heavy precipitation: