The U.S. experienced more than 60 extreme weather and climate events last year alone. These unprecedented events have reinforced the need to take further action for today’s changing environment. And AT&T is the only carrier in the country with a weather operations center and full-time meteorologists on staff. Its sole purpose is to forecast and analyze weather risks tailored to our overall operations, allowing us to proactively prepare for and respond to storms and other natural disasters. Now, with over 50 years of combined meteorology experience, we’ve expanded our Weather Operations Center (AWOC) team to provide focused support for FirstNet® – America’s public safety network.
Using in-house weather modeling and rich datasets, this team of meteorologists is providing custom, near real-time risk analyses to the FirstNet Response Operations Group (ROG). These reports help guide the deployment and continued posture of assets in the field. With 150+ dedicated assets, the FirstNet fleet is housed across more than 50 sites nationwide for quick access in an emergency. But evolving weather conditions – like windspeed and direction during a wildfire or an incoming storm system with a high-risk of tornado development – can make conditions unsafe for deployment. By collaborating with the AWOC, the FirstNet team can assess weather risk, help the crew on the ground know when it’s safe to travel, provide an alternate route to their destination and more.
“With data-driven decisions, we’re being more agile, improving resiliency and better serving first responders,” said John Sisak, lead meteorologist at AT&T. “This is just one more way AT&T has shifted its operations since being selected to build and operate FirstNet to truly be a public safety company.”
We've designed FirstNet to be second-to-none in any emergency. Where public safety goes, we go. Because on any given day, there could be flooding, strong winds, lightning, tornados… Somewhere, weather is creating a challenge.
FirstNet ROG – led by former first responders – is dedicated to working around the clock, 24x7x365, to support public safety’s emergency communications needs. Their intimate understanding of the public safety mission is setting FirstNet apart. The public safety community stressed the importance of access to their own dedicated fleet of deployable assets when calling for the creation of their network. And no other provider has deployable network assets dedicated solely and exclusively to public safety. It’s just one more way FirstNet is bringing public safety the reliability, capability and accountability they trust to carry out their mission
Additional Resources:
- Agencies on FirstNet can request additional support by calling 1-800-574-7000 or submitting a request online via FirstNet Central.
- Learn more about how AT&T has been working with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory to develop projections of how climate change will drive increased natural disasters over the next 30 years.
- Check out our latest blog post to learn more about how FirstNet is helping public safety prepare for the 2022 hurricane season: https://about.att.com/innovationblog/2022/firstnet-hurricane-season.html.
