Challenge

As one of the 20 largest school districts in America, with 230 schools and 150,000 students, the Dallas Independent School District has a huge population to keep safe when dangerous weather strikes. Coaches and athletic directors in particular need to make quick decisions about canceling games or practices when lightning is nearby.

Historically, like many others, Dallas ISD used the old “flash to bang” approach when making the call for lightning safety – counting the number of seconds between lightning strikes and thunder. However, they knew that a more reliable, accurate system would be critical for student safety.

Dallas ISD needed a comprehensive system to give them detailed, accurate information for making quick decisions about clearing fields for safety – and restarting activities when bad weather passed.

Solution

Perry Weather’s real-time lightning and weather safety platform gave Dallas ISD a fully comprehensive, cloud-based solution for making better weather safety decisions.

Using advanced weather radar software and proactive lightning detection for both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground strikes, Perry Weather delivers instant weather notifications via text message and push notifications, and arms Dallas ISD with the knowledge to make safety calls with confidence.

Outdoor warning systems positioned at each of the Dallas ISD’s nine athletics facilities also broadcast clear alerts and instructions, so people can head indoors to safety.

Dallas ISD also leverages Perry Weather’s full-time meteorologists for additional forecasting support through phone, email, and text message.

Outcome

With the Perry Weather system in place, Dallas ISD can now gauge impending weather quickly and easily, and be more efficient in clearing fields and resuming play.

Perry Weather gives Dallas ISD valuable information and confidence when deciding to move game times or cancel games.

“Now with Perry Weather, we hear the warnings and remove ourselves from the venue. Then we monitor the weather indoors and wait for the all clear. It has made it much easier and reliable. The new system is totally wireless, which mean no interruption in power service or the internet.”
– Corey Eaton, Assistant Director of Athletics, Dallas ISD