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Case Study

MicroWeather. Micro Decisions. Macro Impact

Make the right call in every weather condition. Know when to send out crews and when to call it a day.
42°21'02.1" N 71°03'27.6" W

About

For more than 30 years, White Castle Roofing, a Nebraska-based, family-owned and operated external remodeling company, has been in the business of residential and commercial roofing, guttering, and siding replacements / repairs.

Challenge

Precipitation, high winds, lightning and extreme temperatures can hold up projects, cause equipment/asset damage, and pose a safety risk to crews.

  • With 3 offices and projects in a 200 miles radius, White Castle Roofing was looking for a jobsite-specific weather forecast and early warning system for severe weather.
  • In the past, each manager and foreman checked multiple local weather services numerous times throughout the day. If a storm was moving in, management reached out to the foremen individually, wasting time and resulting in people not always receiving timely information.

Solution

Traditional weather companies repackage the same government data sources and models. ClimaCell sees the world differently, and turns everything around us – from cellular towers to windshield wipers – into virtual weather sensors feeding proprietary weather models. The results yield minute-by-minute, street-by-street forecasts and alerts.

One system for management and foremen – easy to operate, on web and mobile, and translating weather data into jobsite-specific implications and alerts.

Better operational efficiency and asset damage prevention thanks to ClimaCell’s jobsite-specific text alerts and minute-by-minute data.

  • For residential jobsites (steep roofs), crews need 15-30 minutes to secure the exposed roof provisionally from precipitation, and thus receive a customized text alert one hour before it starts raining.
  • For commercial jobsites (flat roofs), crews require 1.5-3 hours to prepare for rain. Thus, management gets alerts for each affected jobsite 6, 5, 3 and 1 hours before the weather event occurs, while their foremen receive the last two messages.
  • Management and foremen don’t have to constantly worry about the weather, but can concentrate on their work while getting the lead time they need.

Proactive decision making and optimal crew safety by leveraging customized, hyperlocal weather data per jobsite.

  • White Castle Roofing needs to understand the heat index to prevent roofers from suffering heat strokes. ClimaCell provides ‘feels like’ temperature indices for each jobsite to keep roofers safe.
  • Heavy winds on high apartment buildings pose a risk from falling tools and objects. Similarly, lightning is a serious danger for any person working outside in heights. With ClimaCell, White Castle can add wind and lightning alerts to jobsites, and monitor lightning strikes and their 15 and 30 min path forecast.
  • White Castle loses thousands of dollars each time it decides not to send out crews because of erroneous and imprecise predictions of bad weather; jobs are delayed and new ones can’t be accepted. Avoid false-positives by using ClimaCell’s high-fidelity, hyperlocal weather forecast.
"We knew there should be a better way how we, as a company, track weather and integrate it in our business. ClimaCell brought to light exactly that. The goal of ClimaCell, as we see it, is to give us the most immediate alert system and to help us - and especially our guys in the field - anticipate rain at the jobsite. It is very user-friendly. Our biggest problem is when everything suggests that the weather will be good, we send our crews out, and then a thunderstorm hits seemingly out of nowhere. Now, with the alert system, we are automatically informed in advance. I have set it up for >0 precipitation, and everyone gets customized text messages - depending on which jobsite is affected and which is the required lead time".
Zach Clarke, Director of Residential Operations, White Castle Roofing