After much hard work, collaboration, and research, Banks County Middle School science teacher Jeff Caudell secured the first-ever weather station at BCMS.
The station is located on the roof of BCMS. It offers real-time data and a live stream of local weather conditions by collecting local readings from the atmosphere.
The information collected includes the amount of rain, temperature, humidity, and threatening weather such as lightning and wind gusts.
Caudell worked with county public safety officials to get funding for this new project. The project is funded solely by grant funds.
"Our dream has become a reality," Caudell said.
WeatherSTEM is a company based out of Florida, and they offer weather stations to help monitor everyday weather conditions and potentially dangerous weather. The unit also comes with a Tornado Siren.
"We have found out through researching Atlanta's and Greenville's weather radar that our county is in an area that is harder to predict the weather precisely," Caudell said. "This unit will allow crucial data to be sent back to Greenville and Atlanta to give them a better set of 'eyes' to forecast this area better."
He adds, "The University of Georgia and the University of North Georgia have the same system, so between all three of us, we can help fill in some gaps for the meteorologists."
“Every citizen in Banks County will now have the ability to access the free app (WeatherSTEM) on their smartphone device from the link: https://banks.weatherstem.com/bcms.”
Caudell stated that WeatherSTEM also offers teachers and the community educational resources to learn and research weather globally and locally.