Weather conditions change over time. These changes affect industries at various levels, including local, state, and national. Additionally, these impacts can be either positive or negative. For instance, rain is considered a blessing in some agricultural industries and a disadvantage in others.
As climate change effects intensify, precise monitoring and weather forecasting become increasingly critical.
Various industries contribute to a nation’s economy, development, and trajectory. If these sectors are negatively affected by weather conditions, the overall economy will also feel the brunt of such events. Aside from extreme weather conditions like hurricanes and heatwaves, some industries are affected by regular changes in the weather.
These include agriculture, sports, mining, construction, and retail. Also, the weather impacts on these industries include productivity loss, increased sales, delayed completion of projects, and many more.
These industries rely on weather monitoring to manage these impacts. Don’t worry if you don’t understand the relationship between weather monitoring and the named industries. This post discusses why weather monitoring is vital to these industries. If you’re wondering what to look for in all matters of weather monitoring, the linked article is a good place to start. Keep reading to learn more.
The Impact of Monitoring & Weather Forecasting on Various Industries
Below are five key industries that depend on accurate monitoring and weather forecasting.
Let’s take a look at each one:
1. Agriculture and Food Production
Agriculture is an essential industry in every country. It’s the source of the food you consume, and all agricultural stakeholders and players need to be productive. One of the factors that influence agriculture productivity is weather monitoring.
Through monitoring and weather forecasting, farmers and the like get to know about the following:
- Soil and air temperature: Some crops germinate and grow in hot temperatures, while others do well in cold temperatures.
- Humidity: Humidity is used to predict the probability of which pests and diseases will attack your crops. With this information, you can prepare yourself with suitable pesticides.
- Rainfall: The right time to sow seeds is before the onset of rain. Therefore, you’ll know the right time to plant.
- Soil moisture: How much water is in the soil in a particular area.
- Evapotranspiration and many more.
With this information, you can plan other activities such as harvesting, fertilization, and wind protection. As a result, you’ll avoid dealing with yield losses and other adverse effects of weather.
For more on weather forecasting and weather monitoring instruments work, check out this video by Purdue Extension:
2. Sports and Recreation
One of the hobbies you may have is playing sports. Yet you can’t enjoy your sporting pastimes anytime you want due to factors such as time and weather.
Weather influences the sports you can play at a given time, which is why weather monitoring and weather forecasting help you schedule for various sports. Through monitoring and weather forecasting, you become aware of the weather that’ll prevail at a given time, and with this information, you know which sports you can play and which you can’t.
The following are the type of weather conditions and the sports they affect:
- Rain: This weather interferes with outdoor sports as it affects your visibility. Also, rains make the ground slippery. Therefore, you should have outdoor sports when the weather is sunny instead of rainy.
- Hot temperatures: Heat doesn’t favor all sports. For instance, playing in the heat for too long may lead to dehydration and heat stroke if you’re a hockey player. Thus, if you’re expecting hot temperatures soon, you should take preventive actions. You can practice for three hours daily, increase your sodium intake, avoid consecutive double practices, and have breaks to rest and hydrate.
- Cold temperatures: This weather is favorable for sports activities such as ice skating. Therefore, weather monitoring lets you know when to start preparing for this sport. Nonetheless, cold weather also causes dehydration. Consequently, you can prepare for this weather by taking enough water, stretching, and jogging. This will keep your blood flowing and avoid dehydration.
3. Mining
You get precious minerals, metals, and gems through mining. Further, mining also contributes to the economic development of many countries, such as the United States. However, as much as mining is beneficial to the economy, it involves some risks that may harm the environment and miners at the site. Some of these risks are caused by weather conditions such as lightning, thunderstorms, heavy rains, extreme temperatures, and wind.
Luckily, through monitoring and accurate weather forecasting, you can avoid weather-related risks. Weather monitoring helps in the following ways:
- It prevents machinery and vehicles from being damaged by landslides and lightning.
- Reduces the possibility of getting hurt by not allowing people to work during unfavorable weather conditions
- Reduces false alarms hence ensuring the operations continue
Furthermore, mining involves Blasting Acoustic Model (BAM), whereby high explosives are used to clear away soil and rocks. Weather monitoring allows you to learn about weather conditions such as air density, wind, and temperature, hence knowing the right time to use BAM. As a result, you’ll prevent damaging the surrounding property.
4. Construction
Companies in the construction industry, whether big or small, need to be well informed about the weather and changing conditions. This is because weather affects the construction industry in various ways. Thus, weather forecasting will allow you to prepare in advance. For instance:
- You can avoid using cranes on days that are windy to prevent loads from being swayed needlessly.
- You can plan the right time to excavate and pour concrete. It’s challenging to unearth when the ground temperature is low. Therefore, you can plan to do so before the onset of a cold season like winter.
- You can have longer working shifts in certain weather. Cold weather requires warm dressing, which can interfere with your movement.
- High temperatures are also disadvantageous. This is because they can lead to machinery overheating. In addition, high temperature causes dehydration and sunstroke. You can use weather monitoring to plan when to operate machinery and the duration of your shifts.
- Weather monitoring informs you when to expect fog and therefore plan your schedules. This is because it’s not safe to work with fog due to reduced visibility.
5. Retail
Weather influences the merchandise you purchase and the like. Cold weather makes people dress warmly. On the other hand, swimsuits and sun dresses are bought chiefly on hot weather days. Changes in the weather conditions allow your marketing to be more effective. For example fast food chains often have two different adverts that they switch depending in the weather – one for hot weather, like ice creams, and one for cold days, like hot meals or coffees.
With the help of weather forecasting, you can know which outfits to bring when there’s an unexpected weather change. For instance, you can order light clothes when there’s a forecast for a hot season and warm clothes when a cold season is approaching. Doing so will increase your sales and meet your customers’ needs.
Weather monitoring helps decide when to close your business or suspend operations if you’re an entrepreneur. For example, you can make such a decision when there’s a significant snowstorm forecast. This will promote your safety as well as that of your staff members.
Wrapping Up on the Benefits of Weather Forecasting for Industry
Industries depend on various factors for their success, and weather monitoring is crucial in multiple industries, such as agriculture, sports, mining, construction, and retail. Today, we have covered how weather monitoring helps these industries operate optimally and the negative impacts that can be avoided through accurate weather forecasting.
About the Author
Dr. Mary McNiel is an expert in Meteorology. She has professional experience of more than fifteen years in which she has offered consultations on weather information application on practical challenges. Her research work focuses on ways that weather monitoring can be used in various industries.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Can You Monitor Weather?
The most used method of weather monitoring is weather forecasting which involves science and application of technology to predict weather conditions of a place at a given time. Also, you can use historical weather data to predict weather conditions. Read the full guide to learn more about how weather monitoring works.
What are the Consequences if Not Monitoring the Weather?
Weather monitoring provides important information that allows us to plan in advance and be prepared for different weather conditions. Failing to monitor the weather may result in poor harvests in agriculture, delayed project completion in construction, reduced sales in retails, and many more negative impacts. Read the full guide to learn more about how a lack of weather monitoring impacts different industries.
Which Weather Conditions Should You Monitor?
The weather conditions that influence your industry are the ones you should monitor. Yet there are conditions that affect many industries. They include rain, temperature, fog, and winds. Henceforth, consider focusing on these common weather conditions on top of those that specifically affect your industry. Read the full guide to learn more about the right weather conditions to monitor.
References
Go Weather: Key Importance of Weather Forecasting
McKinsey – Sustainability: Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture in Africa
ScienceDirect: Weather Monitoring
Wikipedia: Weather Forecasting