by Brianna Crandall — June 17, 2016 — When MetLoop first demonstrated its precision weather-forecasting technology to Jay Butch of CertainTeed Corp., the director of CertainTeed’s contractor programs says he knew it was something that contractors should have at their disposal on a daily basis, since “MetLoop’s technology is as state-of-the-art and cutting-edge as it gets.”
As a result, Metloop and CertainTeed, a dominant force in the North American building products industry, entered into partnership discussions and have now announced an agreement in which CertainTeed’s thousands of credentialed contractors receive exclusive access to MetLoop’s technology at special discounted rates.
MetLoop’s technology enables contractors to know if a hurricane, tornado, or any other weather disaster is going to directly hit a particular home or building — and when — with 95 percent accuracy. The technology was created by a team of contractors, meteorologists, and developers who detected huge inaccuracies with weather-forecasting companies.
Butch explains:
Nothing like this has ever been available before to contractors. This is a great tool for our credentialed contractors. It is a game-changing technology because it’s predictive versus reactive. To me, that’s the biggest plus. It allows contractors to see what’s coming and know exactly where a storm is going to hit. It gives them a jump on the competition and gives them another critical touch point with their customers. It’s a win-win all the way around.
Previously, only the U.S. military had access to this unique technology (see video) that provides the most accurate weather forecasts possible. MetLoop negotiated a deal to re-purpose the military-grade weather-forecasting technology for the civilian market, bringing a new level of accuracy and specificity that it says did not previously exist.
“In the military, with lives and equipment at stake on the move or in battle, military forecasters have to be accurate,” said Rocco Calaci, MetLoop’s chief meteorologist who has 40 years of experience, including 20 years as a senior meteorologist for the U.S. Air Force. “We now use the same technology. We provide the highest degrees of accuracy from the first alert to the time of impact.”
MetLoop is reportedly the only company that only uses meteorologists who are both military-trained and NEXRAD certified. The combination of this uniquely trained team with a proprietary system “changed the industry landscape,” says MetLoop Chief Global Strategist Trevor Leeds. “We have address-specific alerts — not broad-area forecasts but alerts based on precise locations.”
Severe weather forecasts and alerts have been typically broad-based, covering large geographical areas that include many properties that are not directly impacted despite receiving weather alerts. “This is because the alerts are based on algorithms that are not designed to be highly specific and often miss smaller weather events altogether,” points out Calaci.
MetLoop, on the other hand, receives real-time, raw data from every Next-Generation Radar (NEXRAD) station across the country, as well as thousands of smaller weather-monitoring devices.
It also uses military-trained, operational forecasters to interpret this data and produce highly-granular alerts and forecasts down to the individual building level, 24/7. MetLoop claims its alerts are 95% accurate, while other weather-forecasting companies are often closer to 65%-70%.
