Mobile Command Center's Pulsar Weather Station

A Pulsar™ 800 Weather Station is seen mounted on the roof of the Cedar Park Mobile Command Center as it responds to an incident (Photo courtesy of John Cummins / City of Cedar Park)

Tornadoes, hailstorms, straight-line winds, thunderstorms, and flash floods can occur unexpectedly in Central Texas' subtropical, subhumid climate. This makes keeping a close eye on weather conditions a top concern for public safety officials.

The City of Cedar Park, TX is prepared for emergencies with their Mobile Command Center, a joint-use resource for the Fire and Police Departments as well as the Central Texas Regional SWAT Team. A Pulsar 800™ Weather Station mounted on the vehicle allows decision makers to view current data quickly and easily.


“The Mobile Command Center, as the name suggests, serves as a mobile incident command post for large-scale emergencies with prolonged operational periods,” their website states. The vehicle “is equipped with meeting rooms, workstations, display monitors, radios, phones, cellular and satellite internet, and cameras in order to provide the Incident Command team with the tools and resources needed to effectively manage a large-scale incident. This mobile unit enables rapid communication, coordination and decision-making on the frontlines.”


Emergency Management Coordinator John Cummins provided additional insight: “During large events, it is important for us to monitor the weather for anything severe that could require us to evacuate the event. We use the Pulsar system to monitor current weather conditions at the event including lightning event counts (we have the Pulsar 800).

“For more critical incidents, the use of the system becomes even more important. During hazardous materials and fire events, wind direction and speed, humidity, and dew points are very important. During some of our operations where we are using our unmanned aircraft, we rely on cloud base, wind speeds, and wind gusts.”


As for monitoring? “We use the WeatherMaster software and find it very easy to use,” said John. “The information is reported quickly and in an easy-to-use dashboard.”


John also noted that they plan to expand their weather monitoring coverage to a future Emergency Operations Center and “are also planning to co-locate these units with some of our emergency weather sirens around the city for a better picture of live weather as it moves across the city.”


Photos courtesy of John Cummins / City of Cedar Park

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