– Seymour, IN
Knowing the importance weather plays in their operations, Seymour Community Schools’ Superintendent Brandon Harpe and Assistant Superintendent Talmadge Reasoner grew an interest in the weather and importance on the role it plays in their operations.
“Over the years, we had developed our own set of weather apps and sources,” said Reasoner. “When making decisions (about outdoor events or road conditions), we realized that it was not safe to be checking all of them at once.”
Whether it was talking to their neighbors at Brownstown or other school administrators in South Central Indiana, the name BAM Weather kept coming up to those at Seymour Community Schools.
“Brandon is in a group chat with multiple superintendents across the area where BAM’s name was talked about,” Reasoner recalled. “The comment was made ‘If we would have paid attention to them every time there was a questionable situation, we would have been right 100% of the time.’”
Following these discussions, Seymour ultimately partnered with BAM Weather in 2022.
A Few Key Tools Utilized:
- 24/7 Chat Feature
- Wet Bulb Globe Temperature Forecasts
- Meteorologist Commentary (insights, nowcasts and videos)
Similar to many who utilize BAMWX, they find the ability to chat with a live meteorologist 24/7 on the Clarity platform a powerful tool to implement in their decision-making process.
“People don’t realize sometimes the challenge that you take on deciding whether to get ~5,400 kids and 40+ buses out on the road,” Reasoner noted. “I can recall one time earlier this year texting with one of the meteorologists about heavy, dense fog one morning and they were spot on with it!”
Another tool in Seymour’s arsenal to assist with outdoor event decisions and student athlete safety are wet bulb globe temperature forecasts. The accuracy of Clarity’s WBGT readings is on par with their real time readings at the school, making it even easier to track athlete safety in one source.
However, what sets Clarity and BAM Weather apart from all the other sources: the ability to communicate when model and app data may be struggling with the use of hourly and daily forecast insights that include direct commentary from BAM’s team of meteorologists.
“They [other weather sources and apps] can show a model, but not have a way to communicate to the user the inconsistencies or potential variances with it,” Reasoner explained. “When you’re in a role like us, we are learning from your insights to help us understand the weather better and make better decisions.”