Unexpected but Prepared

Vacations are a rare thing for me during the severe weather season, but at the urging of my wife I decided to travel with her to Kansas City on a short weekend excursion. Of course, I packed the laptop "just-in-case" but promised not to work.

My sister-in-law was playing an outdoor concert near Kansas City and it sounded like a great opportunity to connect with my family and get away from the grind for a few days.

Well, I did in fact break out the laptop, but not to work. Turns out that eastern Kansas was under a "Moderate Risk" for severe weather the day of the concert and I could tell from observing the wind and humidity patterns on the ground that things could get ugly fast.

In addition, I was among 500 or so other concert-goers who were plainly exposed in open air to any and every weather threat coming our way.

I booted up Weather Defender on my laptop and using a Sprint EVDO card for Internet access, I created a 20-mile Alert Perimeter around the concert site, monitoring for Lightning, Severe Thunderstorm or Tornado Warnings. I configured the alerts to go to my cell phone as well as my wife's phone just in case we were separated. Leaving the laptop running in my sister's tour bus, I returned to the concert.

The storms did indeed come, but skirted north of us by about 25-30 miles. Everyone enjoyed the concert and went home safely. It really made all the difference to me knowing that Weather Defender was continually watching the skies for potential threats.

I don't know if you call that a working vacation, but it was definitely a happy ending.

Best Regards,
Rory Groves

Founder & CEO
SWIFT Weather

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Also in this update:

In The News

Severe storms, tornadoes batter Missouri

Dirk VanderHart, Springfield News-Leader

 

Suspected tornadoes tore through southwest Missouri this morning, killing an elderly man and ripping the roof off of a high school as students fled the building.

 

Shortly before noon, the National Weather Service here said nine tornado tracks had been reported in the area, though none have been confirmed as tornadoes. The service reported winds of 60 to 80 mph.

 

Full Story >>

Wildfire imperils Santa Barbara

By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON, AP

Powerful winds during a night in which "all hell broke loose" have pushed a raging wildfire to the doorstep of this wealthy coastal city, threatening to destroy dozens more homes and leading to the evacuation of more than 20,000 people.

Firefighters were putting out roof fires Friday as gusts drove the flames down from the steep canyons above Santa Barbara and started burning homes in the residential flatlands. Once tame, the fire front now stretches for five miles, city Fire Chief Andres Dimizio said. "Literally last night, all hell broke loose," he said.

Full Story >>

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Brian Vauter

San Antonio, Texas

 

Username: sacaver

Silver Defender

 

Occupation: Cavern Geologist/ Operations Manager/IT guy for Natural Bridge Caverns, Inc.

 

We are a commercial cave operation located near San Antonio, Texas in the Texas Hill Country.

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