Sandwiched between flatlands and hill country with an enrollment of over 47,000 students sits Round Rock ISD, a school district located in a suburb of the US’s fastest-growing city, Austin, TX. Among the few in the district tasked with keeping the students safe from the weather are John Horsley and Matt Owens, head athletic trainers at two of the district’s largest high schools.

Texas Weather Conditions

Despite being in the southern half of Texas, Round Rock experiences a wide variety of weather conditions including extreme heat, hail, sleet and hurricane weather from the coast. Texas also has the highest number of lightning strikes annually across all states. This mix of weather conditions makes for a challenge when making decisions that impact the schedules of hundreds of athletes.

Round Rock ISD’s need for a reliable weather safety platform

“Before Perry Weather we had Thor Guard. We also had coaches using WeatherBug and Weather Channel and no one was on the same page. ‘Should we get off the field? Should we not get off the field?’… Now with Perry Weather, everyone’s on the same page.”

Matt Owens, Head Athletic Trainer, Cedar Ridge High School

The need for a reliable, district-wide solution for monitoring weather was clear for Round Rock. Given the size of their district, it was important to have a solution in place that monitored the weather conditions at each school, and through a district bond, they were able to install five Perry Weather stations across their high school stadiums.

Upgrading to a dependable lightning detection and alert system

In the past, Round Rock used Thor Guard as its solution for keeping students safe from lightning, however, the system performed so poorly that Matt Owens had to push for a change.

“I was covering baseball, and we had a bolt of lightning go across the field with kids on the field. Zero from the system ten minutes later, then it goes off after we’ve pulled everybody off the field.”

Matt Owens, Head Athletic Trainer, Cedar Ridge High School

The illusion of lightning prediction

Thor Guard boasts that its system can predict lightning and this leads their customers to believe that the system will save them from the first strike in a storm cell. In theory, this capability would be an answered prayer for many schools.

In reality, lightning prediction is impossible and often results in unreliable warnings, sounding warning sirens when no lightning is in the area, or worse, missing actual strikes altogether. When Thor Guard does detect a strike, there is often a significant delay between the system detecting the strike and the signaling of the warning siren.

How Perry Weather keeps Round Rock ISD safe from lightning

Since Round Rock ISD switched to Perry Weather, there has been a significant improvement in lightning safety. 

“In February of 2024, we’re hosting a baseball tournament and the Perry Weather system goes off. This was late at night. We’ve been playing baseball all day long. The system goes off and we pull all the kids off and about 10-15 minutes into the delay, we hear a big boom, and one of our light poles gets struck by lightning and catches fire.”

Matt Owens, Head Athletic Trainer, Cedar Ridge High School

The reliability of the Perry Weather system is now something that Round Rock can trust to detect lightning and warn people in time to seek shelter using its audible sirens and visible strobe lights. Perry Weather systems don’t just stop at lightning detection. Round Rock gained access to multiple other useful features as well:

• Text-to-speech PA functionality – Type a custom message into the Perry Weather mobile app and send it to each outdoor warning system to all members or personnel on the course.
• Web dashboard & mobile app – Monitor the radar and each individual lightning strike in the Perry Weather mobile app or the web dashboard on your desktop.
• Lightning countdown timer – After a lightning strike is detected, Perry Weather initiates a countdown timer & the timer resets with each new strike. Once no further strikes are detected during the countdown, the all-clear signal is given.
• 24/7 live meteorologist support – Call, email, or message Perry Weather’s meteorologists to get custom forecasts for games or other outdoor events.

How Perry Weather helps Round Rock ISD comply with UIL heat stress policies

Another critical factor of weather safety, especially for Texas schools, is heat safety. The University Interscholastic League (UIL) sees heat safety as a growing issue and is taking steps to address it. They have released a set of recommendations based on Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) aimed at keeping students safe during outdoor activities. 

WBGT is the gold standard for monitoring heat stress, as it takes into account several environmental factors that play a part in how the human body responds to severe heat. Unlike the heat index, which only measures ambient temperature and humidity, WBGT also accounts for sun angle and wind. This results in a more precise reading that better reflects the human body’s response to heat stress.

Once these new recommendations become policy, Texas schools will need a way of accurately measuring WBGT to stay compliant. While a new process for many schools, Round Rock began using WBGT long before it became a recommendation.

“We’ve been able to get ahead of the curve on complying with the new UIL guidelines with wet bulb, which next year will go into mandated policy. Having this in place for us already, it’s already built into the app.”

John Horsley, Head Athletic Trainer, Westwood High School

Why Round Rock ISD switched from handheld Kestrel WBGT devices to Perry Weather

Before using Perry Weather, Head AT John Horsley used a Kestrel handheld WBGT unit. There were several downsides of using the Kestrel WBGT device.

The downsides of Round Rock’s previous method of measuring WBGT – Kestrel WBGT devices.

• Completely manual – monitoring and recording WBGT take time away from ATs
• 30-minute “warm-up” period – ATs have to set up the system before games or practice 
• No direct power – ATs have to keep up with the device’s battery to make sure it is fully charged
• No Easy way to track historical readings – ATs have to manually record the historical readings

Adopting Perry Weather addressed all of these issues and gave AT John Horsley more time back in his day.

“We don’t have to go out and set up another unit before practice. You don’t have to wait and calibrate something to make sure everything’s ready. You don’t have to rely on batteries to be ready to go. We can check it from inside. It takes less time out of our day. Everybody knows what’s going on.”

John Horsley, Head Athletic Trainer, Westwood High School

WBGT monitoring made easy

Unlike other systems that require manual setup and calibration, Perry Weather is automated. When the WBGT exceeds the school’s requirements, the system sends an alert to the ATs and coaching staff letting everyone know what to do. 

Depending on the intensity of WBGT, it can require different plans of action from modifying practice to canceling altogether per the UILs new recommendations. Perry Weather automatically sends a notification when the WBGT hits a certain level so that everyone is on the same page.

With Perry Weather, the district not only meets the UIL guidelines but also saves athletic trainers time, allowing them to focus on doing the part of their job that they love.

The importance of a unified weather safety strategy for large school districts

At a school district the size of Round Rock, where each school is spread up to 15 miles apart, there are a few significant problems posed regarding communication and the accuracy of weather data. 

Because of the distance between each school, Round Rock ISD chose to add a weather station at each of their high schools, giving them accurate wind, precipitation and WBGT readings at each location.

District-wide coverage

Despite being in the same district, changes in elevation and geographical location greatly affect the WBGT at each of the locations, which affects what course of action is taken in response. 

Perry Weather notifies ATs at each school only when the conditions at their location require action. Although initially buying Perry Weather for its weather monitoring capability, Round Rock also uses the system for lockdown drills. 

“We’ve actually used it for school lockdown procedures. When we’ve had a lockdown and athletes are out on the football field, we can broadcast the alert so they know what’s happening inside the buildings.”

John Horsley, Head Athletic Trainer, Westwood High School

Perry Weather has quickly become one of the most valuable tools for safety and communication at Round Rock ISD and is a significant improvement over prior systems. Perry Weather ensures that no one is left out of the loop and that everyone is in the know right when they need to be. Round Rock ISD can be confident when extreme weather rolls in knowing that Perry Weather will keep students safe and keep all of their staff on the same page.