TRACY HARRIS-Staff Writer
Marshall County just got its second camera system/weather station. It was added at the Office of Emergency Management in Lewisburg. The first one is located at the water tower on Depot Street in Chapel Hill. The third will be located in the southern end of the county at the South Marshall Fire Department and it will be able to view all the way to The Tennessean.
All the stations and their live data are accessible to the public through Radar Omega. Radar Omega is a weather radar app that provides users with high-resolution radar imagery, storm tracking, and other weather data.
Deputy Director of OEM, Kevin Calahan said, “Not only can you receive your weather, your warnings and all that on Radar Omega, but you can actually access these cameras. You can’t control them or turn them; we do all that in our office. But as far away as areas down in Mississippi, we can start watching the weather. You can actually watch the radar and watch the actual sky.”
The app is available on iPhones and Androids for a one-time charge of $8.99. It is also available on computers. For computers though, there are different subscription tiers: Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. Alpha subscription is $5 a month, Beta is $10 a month, and the Gamma is $12 a month.
Calahan said the cameras offer precise data for rural locations unlike watching news from places that are an hour away from us. The system provides users with live: temperature, wind speed, humidity, and wind direction.
All the cameras face WSW because according to Calahan, “that’s where all of our weather comes from.” He said, “We have control of them so if by chance a strange storm comes in from the east, it’s not a big deal. I can just log in and change all the camera angles to where we can see that way.”
