Manage your Weather Compliance with Existing Technology | ComplianceGO

Manage your Weather Compliance with Existing Technology

We’ve been talking about weather a lot lately, mostly because now is the time when it’s starting to rain for many people. We’re going to do it one more time, but this time I want to talk about how to leverage existing forms of technology to manage your weather monitoring needs. Some of these items will be familiar, but in this article, I’m going to give a higher-level view on how to bring together everything into a coherent system.

Weather Radar

Here at ComplianceGO, we are big fans of weather radar as opposed to using data from weather stations or from rain gauges. There are a lot of reasons that we have talked about before, but it comes down to this: good weather data is more likely to lead to efficient compliance. When you get information for your site, you won’t waste time doing inspections because it rained at a weather station 10 miles away but not at your site. It will also help you be more compliant because if it doesn’t rain enough at the weather station 10 miles away, but you get enough rain on your site, you know that you have to do an inspection.

Automated Tracking

Life is busy. If you’re like everyone else, you’re going to forget things. That’s why you have an alarm, a calendar, lists, sticky notes, and everything else you use to remind yourself of all the things you need to do. Apply these concepts to your compliance efforts with your weather events. Set up systems that will give you the relevant data before you even know it’s needed. Weather can be unpredictable, making forecasts difficult to trust. You need a system that will help you keep on top of your weather inspections by alerting you about rain events and forecasts that are specific to your site. With a system like this, your compliance becomes much easier, because you’ll minimize any missed data and events. 

Cloud Storage

In today’s world, there are a lot of places to keep things. You’ve got traditional filing methods (cabinets, folders, etc.), computer hard drives, your phone, your tablet, that drawer in the kitchen everyone has where misfit items end up. While this may work for leftover screws from your latest furniture construction project, for weather data you can’t be scrambling to figure out where you put something. If a regulator shows up, you need to be able to pull up the weather information and show it to them. The only place we’ve found you can reliably do this is in a cloud based system. Storing your files in the cloud keeps them accessible wherever you happen to be and allows you to access them with whatever device you have on hand.

Electronic Communication

It’s 2021. No one wants to talk on the phone anymore. Add Covid into the mix and no one wants to meet in person anymore either. We keep being promised normal days ahead, but the reality is that it’s unknown. Either way, you have other options. Emails, text messages, and other forms of electronic messaging can all be leveraged to increase coordination. The beauty of electronic messaging is that people can get to it when they are able. You’re busy. They’re busy. No one has time for a meeting so send an email or a text and let them get to it when they can. Whatever meeting you were going to have probably could have been an email anyways, and even if someone does drop the ball, there’s a trail to follow to understand where the miscommunication happened so it can be corrected. Weather needs attention from many different people, so being able to communicate effectively is critical.

Mobile Friendly

Weather does crazy things sometimes. So whatever you’re going to do, you need to be able to do it at a moment’s notice. If you drive out to a project or facility and it turns out that you need to do a weather event, you don’t want to have to lug a laptop around in the rain, or drive back to the office, print off forms, and then drive back out to the project or facility. You need to be able to do your inspection instantly so you can move on to other things. Chances are you’ve got a phone in your pocket and if you utilize that phone correctly, you can do everything you need to without having to use any other device. If you set up your system correctly to leverage the technology that exists, everything you need to stay compliant with weather information is something you have with you all the time.

By: Charley Beesley