City of Kamloops pilots new weather station technology to improve road safety
New weather stations in Kamloops will help the city be more responsive to winter weather
The City of Kamloops is the first community in Western Canada to pilot new technology aimed at helping improve road safety.
The city is working with WeatherBrain, an Edmonton-based company to try out four weather stations.
The stations track the road's surface temperature along with snow depth, snowfall and relative humidity. Unlike conventional stations, these new weather stations gather data from other stations owned by Environment Canada and airports, making it cheaper for cities to get real-time data.
"Right now, the main weather station is around the airport, but now we have weather stations at the top of Aberdeen, end of Barhartvale, Westsyde," said Kamloops streets and environmental services manager Glen Farrow.
"Within the City of Kamloops, there can be such differing weather from one part of the community compared to another."
The city will use the data when deciding how to deploy equipment like plows and sand trucks.
"This kind of technology changes the game for municipalities so they're not just dealing with the situation as it's occurring, they can deal with it before it occurs," said WeatherBrain spokesperson Mike Burton.
However, drivers on Kamloops roads shouldn't expect to see too much of a change. Farrow says. even with the technology, the city has the same amount of staff and equipment.
WeatherBrain technology was first piloted in Quebec and Ontario.