Rick Patrick
rick@greenepublishing.com
People everywhere now have a new, colorful way to keep up with the weather in Downtown Madison. A new and innovative Weatherstem monitoring station is now perched atop the Smith Abstract and Title building, at the corner of Range Avenue and Pinckney Street, in Downtown Madison. People from anywhere in the world can get a live view of the historic Madison County Courthouse and see current weather conditions.
According to system developer Edward Mansouri, what makes this system different from others is “a revolutionary new product called ‘Bright.’” This new system uses “weather controlled lighting.” The lighting at the station changes color and intensity, based on current weather conditions. Colors range between purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. These various colors coincide with weather conditions and any possible alerts from the National Weather Service. For instance, bright red can indicate a severe thunderstorm warning.
The system has already appeared on local news channels and on national media outlets such as The Weather Channel and Fox Weather. Smith Abstract and Title owner Margaret Ann Smith, along with Mansouri, will be interviewed about the system on The Weather Channel with Jim Cantore, live on Tuesday, April 7, at 8:30 a.m. They will be discussing the notion of “weather for your hometown” and ways in which a system such as this can be a valuable resource for communities in terms of public safety, activities, etc.
The downtown Weatherstem system can be accessed any time, day or night, by visiting https://madisonweatherstem.com/downtown. There is also a companion system at Cherry Lake which can be accessed at https://madison.weatherstem.com/cherrylake.