AI WEATHER AND Lightning monitoring for offshore wind crews
Three warning distances you choose for every site, strikes on the map as they happen, and an alert to the people who call the stand-down — by text message, WhatsApp or a push notification from the AyWOS app — then a second one when the threat has passed.
Rings you set around every site
Each site gets three distances — danger, alert and caution — in miles or kilometres, and a sound for each. When a strike lands inside a ring, that ring's alarm sounds on every console watching the site, so the call to stop climbing or to hold a vessel is made on the same picture by everyone.
Why lightning matters on a wind farm
A wind turbine is the tallest structure for miles, and a technician in the nacelle or on the transition piece is exposed long before a storm arrives: lightning can strike ten miles or more from the storm that makes it. The US National Weather Service's guidance is to wait 30 minutes after the last thunder before going back outside; most offshore procedures set their own distances and hold times, and the rings are there to apply yours.
Opt-in alerts by text, WhatsApp and push, and the all-clear
Site administrators invite the people responsible; each person enrols their own number, chooses text message or WhatsApp and which messages they want, and signs the consent themselves. Anyone using the AyWOS app or the browser console can add push notifications on the phone in their pocket. Messages go only when lightning approaches a monitored site, plus an all-clear afterwards. Reply STOP to stop and HELP for help; nothing is ever sent for marketing. The whole procedure is published at how SMS consent is captured.
Several sites at once, and the rest of the picture
Watch several wind farms together, and stack the lightning map with the storm radar or the vessel traffic, so the strike, the storm that made it and the boat in its path are on one screen.
Lightning information supports, and does not replace, your site's lightning safety procedure.
Questions
How far away can lightning strike?
Strikes ten miles or more from the parent storm are well documented, which is why warning rings reach well beyond the storm you can see.
When is it safe to resume work?
Follow your site's lightning procedure. As a general rule the US National Weather Service advises waiting 30 minutes after the last thunder; the rings help a crew apply its own rule the same way every time.
Who receives the text messages?
Only people who enrolled their own number and signed the consent, for the sites they are responsible for. An administrator can invite but cannot enrol anyone.
Related
Put rings around your own sites.
Tell us your sites and vessels and we will show you the console on your own wind farm.