Boston startup Understory announced that it has received a seed round of $1.9 million for the development of ground-level weather stations.
The weather company believes that measuring conditions on the ground rather than using traditional methods of atmospheric condition detection will provide better forecasts, according to VentureBeat.
"The primary source [of weather information for enterprises] uses a lot of radar and satellite measurement," said Alex Kubicek, CEO and founder of Understory. "They do use a little ground-level observation, but with 40 kilometers of the middle of Boston there might be three [on the ground] stations."
Kubicek added, "We would put 50 stations in the same area."
Understory was founded in 2012. The startup was previously known as Subsidence, but officials later adopted the name Understory from the term that describes the area in a rainforest under the forest canopy.
Understory uses hardware that can detect rain, wind, hail humidity, ambient light and other factors as they move through an area, TechCrunch reported. The data can be used by companies to track weather in real-time and anticipate needs, such as committing resources to an area during or after a storm.
Kubicek said insurance providers can use the information that the startup provides to monitor bad weather and reach out to its clients in advance, offering to send adjusters to check for damage before clients call to make requests. He said this opportunity can help improve customer satisfaction.
The weather stations could also be used in the future for models that may improve predictions of weather systems. This might help predict different storm events, TechCrunch reported.
Each Understory station is part of a data grid that the company networks together through cellular connections, VentureBeat reported. Samples of wind, hail and rain are collected from sensors in each station in three dimensions, which allows the sensors to record details such as the size and angle of hailstones.
Kubicek said that the service may at one point be available to individuals, but the startup will first focus on providing it to insurance, agriculture and broadcasting companies. Understory will deploy its first network for American Family Insurance in Kansas City, Mo.
