StormChaser is a mobile forecast center. The first piece of equipment you’ll see is a mobile weather station, which is mounted on a mobile tripod that we can deploy wherever we go. It consists of a wind vane, anemometer (measures wind speed), thermometer, hygrometer (measures dew point), barometer and rain gage. All of which operate wirelessly and are powered by solar panels which recharge a lithium battery along with 2 AA alkaline batteries as back ups.
The instrumentation can be deployed up to 300 feet from the truck. The data is transmitted back to the truck via a 433 MHz frequency, similar to a cordless phone, to a base unit which is attacked to one of our laptops. We can then display live weather conditions back to the station or to www.wcnc.com. We may eventually add a web cam that will transmit a photo every 5-10 seconds along with the data.
The second piece of equipment is something called Threat-net Plus. It’s a piece of software that allows us to receive weather data live into Storm Chaser. This data includes radar data across the U.S., live lightning strikes, sea surface temperatures, satellite data and just about anything else we may need. We also can receive our own Live Doppler Plus for tracking storms in real time.
With the weather technology and the broadcast technology we will be able to give you live weather reports before, during and after severe weather. Not just from the WCNC-TV studios, but from where it’s happening and while we are driving/chasing storms.
Be on the lookout for 6NEWS Storm Chaser when the skies threaten or wherever large outdoor events are occurring. Not to mention at a school near you.
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