Don't get caught in the eye of the storm

Imagine the savings or gains in efficiencies if you were able to accurately predict extreme weather events. Some examples include the following:

• Insurance companies can significantly reduce losses due to hail damage
  
• Courier companies can determine alternative routes and alternative schedules can be calculated
  
• Municipalities can issue warnings to residents in affected areas

Providing this type of timeous information is not a new concept, but the availability and latest developments in technology is making it easier to access and disseminate, more relevant and extremely accurate.

In a landmark partnership, technology innovation company AfriGIS and SA Weather Service (SAWS) has made available numerous SAWS extreme weather feeds for current and historic events via a simple-to-use location-sensitive application programming interface (API).

Says Magnus Rademeyer, Managing Director of AfriGIS, “Easy access to location information and answering the question ‘Where?’ is the backbone of the AfriGIS value proposition. It is a privilege to add SAWS storm, hail and lightning prediction to our various data feeds.”

The AfriGIS Weather API gives access to various historical and real time information datasets, including storm intensity and the shape and direction of movement of the weather activity. To understand storm impact at a specific point, developers can pass a coordinate, mobile number and/or address ensuring an accurate current and predicted storm condition for that location. New features are continuously added and soon prediction and probability of hail and lightning strikes will be included in the API. The application of this proposition has endless value propositions for various use cases and can be executed in bulk or in a tracking context with information delivered as both SMSs or notifications inside applications.

Organisations who successfully blend extreme weather events with their own information will gain a significant competitive advantage – this will be accelerated as the development of the sensor network informing the Internet of Things ecosystem, matures. The successful prediction of weather patterns for the immediate future can save lives, save money and ensure business continuity.

Go to AfriGIS Weather to view the weather activity in your area. For more information on AfriGIS Weather data email az.oc.sigirfa@stcudorp