Springfield Local Schools, located in far northwestern Ohio, serves over 3,000 students across three elementary schools, one intermediate school, a middle school, and a high school. Ensuring the safety of these students is a top priority, especially when inclement weather strikes. This is where Dustin Hamilton, the Director of Facilities and Maintenance, plays a crucial role.
With inclement weather, comes the risk of closing the school, cancelling events, mechanical failures, and most importantly–putting students and staff at risk. Insert BAM Weather, allowing Hamilton and his staff to make decisions with help directly from meteorologists.
“Before I started using BAM Weather, I followed what the local news said,” Hamilton said. “The local news is great, but they are forecasting for a wide range of areas, whereas BAM Weather gives me a forecast specific to Springfield.”
Winter weather is one of the biggest factors where hard decisions need to be made at schools.
“Whether it is a snowstorm that we need to schedule staff to come in and plow, get our buses started earlier in the morning, or decide to delay or not, we are always watching the weather,” Hamilton explained.
The challenge with winter weather is that automated systems can easily get thrown off by the many variables in play, leading to inaccurate forecasts. That’s where human meteorologists at BAM Weather make a real difference. The tools available through BAM’s Clarity platform are vital for accurate, localized predictions.
“I especially use the hour by hour tracker with snowfall amounts to determine what is the best time to start plowing or salting parking lots and sidewalks,” Hamilton stated.
Though winter poses its own set of challenges, safety is a year-round concern. In the spring, severe weather becomes a new risk, especially with outdoor sports like baseball, softball, tennis, and track kicking off.
“We use the [Clarity] app to decide if we need to cancel games or keep kids inside during storms,” Hamilton explained. “If strong winds are expected, especially near playgrounds with a lot of trees, we keep kids inside. I’m always checking the app and staying in touch with the BAM Weather meteorologists.” 
The meteorologists at BAM Weather always strive to go above and beyond because they know that safety is the number one priority for schools. This became very clear in the spring of 2024 when severe weather was in the forecast for Springfield Local Schools.
“I received a text from one of the staff members at BAM Weather who warned us of severe weather that was in the forecast for our area,” Hamilton recalled. “Letting us know was huge, but he also told me to warn other area schools who are not BAM Weather customers. To me, that speaks volumes that it wasn’t about getting subscriptions, but rather about protecting our kids in the schools.”