Have you ever stepped out the door and wished someone would just tell you whether you’ll need that extra sweater? Or planned an outdoor event and spent days checking your weather app, worrying that it might rain on your big day?
Personalized weather advice is a dream for people ranging from event planners to avid hikers to homeowners planning a cookout. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is helping to make this dream a reality by supporting Weathervane Labs, a small business that uses personal weather intelligence to help people make better decisions about their time spent outside.
With the help of SBIR funding, Weathervane Labs created Climatize – an app that combines individual factors, weather factors, and proprietary models to predict how environmental conditions will feel for individual users. The Climatize software uses cloud micro-services to process data in real-time that includes biometrics, clothing and activity decisions, data from multiple weather sources, and innovations like solar radiation models. The result is personalized weather advice that moves beyond the generic “feels like” temperature to tell you whether you will be hot, cold, or comfortable outside.
The Weathervane Labs Climatize platform is a perfect example of the NOAA SBIR program achieving its mission – helping to move innovative technology and business ideas from concepts to real, marketable products that support the American economy.
According to Weathervane CEO Brian Smoliak, “[s]upport from NOAA’s SBIR program has been transformational for Weathervane. Our team started with a vision and a plan to pursue it leveraging innovation; NOAA SBIR resources like grant funding and commercialization assistance have fueled our journey from concept toward practical applications. The effect has been research and development of a scalable software platform that empowers people to get outside more confidently and comfortably with personal weather intelligence.”
Weathervane is currently onboarding user for beta test on iOS and Android, and people can request access to the Weathervane mobile app at www.weathervane.io.