StormGeo announces wildfire risk assessment to combat growing risk caused by climate change

Houston – StormGeo, a leading provider in weather intelligence and decision support solutions, today announced the launch of Wildfire Risk Assessment to help U.S. businesses protect against the increasing threat of wildfires. In recent years, wildfires across the western U.S. have caused major impacts each year, destroying thousands of homes and businesses and costing insurers $13 billion in 2020 alone. Reports show that the number of fires is increasing every year, and climate change is a major driver due to temperature rise, early snow melt and dry conditions.

The new product, Wildfire Risk Assessment, combats wildfires’ costly impacts by utilizing StormGeo’s weather data to report on a fire’s size, smoke and air quality, and forecasts the risk of a fire developing or spreading.

“StormGeo [wildfire] forecasts allow our deployment teams to place generators at high-risk cell sites well in advance of active fire conditions,” said Jay Blessing, Market Manager of Development and Engineering at T-Mobile, America’s third-largest wireless network operator with over 100 million subscribers. Blessing continued, “As we receive alerts, crews are deployed to activate the generators as they are needed. This level of advance preparation is a big undertaking, but it is important that ensure we are bulletproof, seamless, and have very minimal outages in the event of a power shutdown or fire taking over the cell site.”

Wildfire Risk Assessment looks at the three main risks wildfires pose businesses—current active fires, smoke and air quality, and forecast fire danger, which includes public safety power shutoffs. The solution then calculates the potential risks from each of these areas and delivers a report that enables businesses to effectively launch their response plans as early as possible.

Courtland Keith, VP of Cross Industry for StormGeo added, “As the effects of climate change have become more prevalent in weather patterns each year, the need for solutions like the Wildfire Risk Assessment is significant. We understand the crucial nature of keeping communication lines open during disaster, so providing businesses with the tools they need to stay protected is of the utmost importance to us at StormGeo.”

Blessing concluded, “I’ve been in this industry for close to 30 years, and when it comes to preparedness within T-Mobile’s National Emergency Management, the program is second-to-none. StormGeo’s data and services are critical to that success.”