By Emma Richardson.

New forecasting tools are helping roofing contractors prepare for severe weather before it arrives.

Weather has notoriously dictated the pace of roofing work, but new forecasting technology is giving contractors a chance to move from reacting to storms to preparing for them. In a recent episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Karen Edwards sat down with Jameson Allen of Flash Weather AI to discuss how predictive weather tools are changing jobsite safety and planning.

The company first gained attention for its lightning forecasting capabilities. According to Jameson, the technology was developed under the leadership of CEO Jason Deese, a former National Weather Service research meteorologist. Rather than simply reporting lightning strikes after they occur, the platform focuses on forecasting potential activity before it reaches a jobsite. "It's one thing to say I can predict lightning. It's another thing to say we can produce up to 99.6% accuracy up to 60 minutes in advance," Jameson said.

For roofing contractors, that type of advance notice can provide valuable time to secure a jobsite, protect open roofs and move crews to safety. The difference between reacting to visible lightning and receiving an alert well before conditions become dangerous is crucial. "I've heard too many stories of guys up on roofs getting hit by lightning, or something on the roof gets hit and it messes up all the mechanical stuff or whatever's going on," he said.

That same predictive approach has now expanded into hail forecasting. Instead of broad regional forecasts, contractors can view more localized data and timelines that help identify when severe weather may reach a specific jobsite.

For an industry where safety, scheduling and productivity are tied directly to weather conditions, having earlier insight into storm activity may provide a meaningful operational advantage.

As roofing technology continues to evolve, predictive weather intelligence is becoming another tool contractors can use to protect both crews and projects.

Listen to the entire podcast or Watch the recording to learn more about predictive weather forecasting for roofing contractors.

By The Coffee Shops®. 

Recent storms in the Midwest show why outdoor safety plans must move people before dangerous weather arrives. 

A deadly week of Midwest weather offers a stark reminder for contractors and other businesses responsible for outdoor crews: severe weather plans must account for more than the moment a storm reaches the jobsite. As reported in an article by Flash Weather AI, on August 11, 2026, storms brought wind gusts topping 100 mph, flooding and widespread power outages across the region. Utility crews and emergency officials continued working through the damage in the following days.  

A separate storm in Cincinnati ended differently. A man sought shelter beneath a tree when lightning struck him on the arm. His injuries were not life-threatening, but he described himself as “unbelievably lucky.” 

The National Weather Service guidance shared by Flash Weather AI is straightforward: There is no safe place outdoors during a thunderstorm. People should seek a fully enclosed building or hardtop vehicle with the windows closed, then remain there until well after the storm has passed. Trees, open-sided shelters and dugouts do not provide protection. 

For operators managing golf courses, fields or jobsites, predictive technology can provide additional time to act. Flash Weather AI’s FirstStrike™ forecasts when and where lightning will occur up to an hour before the first strike, with 99.6% verified one-hour accuracy at 1-kilometer resolution and updates every two minutes. 

It’s important to note that the technology is one part of a safety plan, not a replacement for one. Having a designated shelter point in the event of bad weather is critical. Additionally, it is important to communicate to workers who will make the call to stop work, and to make sure the criteria for when to stop and resume are clear.  

If the decision to stop work begins with thunder or a nearby strike, the response is starting after the danger is already present. Predictive tools help make sure teams stay safe when the danger is not yet visible or audible.  

Learn more about using predictive lightning information to support earlier severe weather decisions for outdoor operations.

By Jesse Sanchez. 

Predictive weather intelligence paired with audible and visual alerts can help outdoor facilities respond to lightning risks without relying solely on phone notifications. 

For workers, athletes and visitors spread across large outdoor spaces, a phone notification may not be enough to get their attention when lightning threatens. Flash Weather AI developed its Flash Weather Shield hardware line to provide another way to communicate those warnings through sirens and visual alerts. 

Jameson Allen, who works in business development for Flash Weather AI, explained that the Shield grew out of conversations with organizations accustomed to legacy lightning detection systems with automatic sirens. He noted, “These guys aren't necessarily watching their phones. They might even have them on silent. So we need something that is going to catch their attention.” 

The system connects Flash Weather's predictive and detection technology with horns and lights installed on site. An amber light can provide an early warning when the system indicates lightning may be possible. When lightning is detected within a designated radius, the light flashes red and the sirens activate. Once conditions meet the system's all-clear criteria, a green light and three short blasts signal that people can return. 

Jameson emphasized the distinction between prediction and traditional detection-based systems, explaining, “The systems that would be considered competitors of Flash have to wait until that strike occurs in order to notify you about that strike.” He added that Flash Weather's predictive technology is designed to provide much earlier warning about when lightning will become dangerous with up to 99.6% accuracy. 

Flash Weather AI offers Standard, Mini and Micro Shield configurations for different environments. Standard units can accommodate as many as eight siren horns, while mini units can fill coverage gaps where a larger system is unnecessary. Micro units are intended for smaller areas such as swimming pools. 

Potential applications also include construction sites, golf courses, schools, beaches, municipalities and fire department training facilities, where people may not be able to see or hear phone alerts. Customers can customize power sources, horn configurations, strobe lights and mounting, with units installed on walls, roofs, poles or tripods depending on the site. 

The range of configurations and alert options supports that broader approach. Jameson noted, “Our system enhances both safety and efficiency.” 

Learn more about how Flash Weather AI combines predictive weather intelligence with audible and visual alerts to help outdoor facilities respond to lightning risks!

By The Coffee Shops®. 

A deeper look at the weather intelligence helping turf professionals make smarter decisions. 

In agronomy and turf management, weather information is only valuable if it helps professionals make better decisions. While traditional forecasts can provide broad conditions for a region, turf managers need more specific data to maintain the greenery and keep work crews safe. That is where Flash Weather AI's Turf Agronomy toolkit is designed to make a difference. In an episode of From the Ground Up™, host Karol Weyman asked Garrett Bastardi, Flash Weather AI’s chief of innovation and development, about the forecasting tools available to turf professionals and how they fit into daily operations. 

According to Garrett, the platform combines multiple weather-focused capabilities into a single system. One component focuses on lightning safety, an area that has been part of Flash Weather AI's foundation. Garrett said the company offers “deep learning AI lightning safety tools,” adding, “We detect lightning, but we can also predict lightning and send notifications ahead of time.” That advance notice can be critical for both safety and productivity.  

The agronomy side of the platform is built around helping users prepare for upcoming conditions rather than simply reviewing past weather events. According to Garrett, the platform forecasts and tracks several turf-specific variables. Garrett highlighted tools that monitor growing degree days, forecast diseases such as pythium and dollar spot, provide soil temperature forecasts and deliver exclusive frost predictions.  

Additional forecasting tools include dew forecasts, solar radiation data and evapotranspiration tracking, which helps superintendents understand water loss from turf throughout the day. 

Together, these insights support what Garrett described as “operational efficiency and agronomic efficiency.” Those outcomes can help turf managers make more informed decisions about maintenance schedules, resource allocation and field conditions before weather impacts operations. 

Listen to the full podcast or Watch the recording to learn more about turf-focused weather intelligence. 

By The Coffee Shops™. 

Stop relying on old wives’ tales and guess work when it comes to dangerous weather; proprietary AI forecast tools are here to give the time you’ve always needed to make the right weather decisions.

In an episode of From the Ground Up™, host Karol Weyman sat down with Jameson Allen of Flash Weather AI to discuss the various weather risks labor crews might face on the jobsite and how to prepare with real-world safety protocols.  

When it comes to the safety and security of your employees, it’s always a good idea to prepare for the worst with solid safety procedures and protocols. When working outdoors, laborers often come face-to-face with the worst of what Mother Nature has to offer. Hail, thunderstorms, high winds, snow and more; they’ve likely seen it all, yet it’s vital to business operations that you’re prepared in the face of each of these conditions while on a job. 

“One of the biggest weather risks outdoor laborers need to prepare for is lightning strikes. Not because it happens the most often, but because it is the most devastating when it does occur. Close behind that is heat risk, heat illness,” Jameson noted. While these conditions can be daunting and should be taken seriously, advancements in new technology have allowed for contractors and business owners to prepare in advance with thoughtful precision, predicting what might happen next with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) models.  

With lightning, for example, being so unpredictable at times, it’s an incredible asset to have a predictive platform such as Flash Weather AI to help aid in preparing a labor team for what might lie ahead for a day where lighting strikes, but things still need to keep rolling. Jameson explained how Flash Weather AI does it, and noted, “The 30-minute rule for lightning doesn’t always work or give you the adequate time to evacuate indoors. But in the case of using our exclusive technology, the predictive model would have, well in advance, given users a more detailed look at lightning risk and timelines for when everyone should be indoors by.”  

On the job, that kind of prediction can save not only lives, but time and labor costs. If users implement the software and predict accurate conditions, they can properly schedule parameters for when to go on the jobsite and when to avoid it, taking out the guess work.  

Listen to the conversation to learn more about the power of predictive tools like Flash Weather AI.

Most weather services detect hail too generally and too slowly, which leaves roofers, insurers, and outdoor operators reacting to damage that is already done. Flash's hail prediction model changes the timeline. Built on four years of convective storm data across the CONUS (2021 through 2024) using a deep learning Conv-GRU architecture, the model forecasts hail size and location up to 55 minutes before the first stone falls, at 1-km horizontal resolution, with updates every five minutes.

No more guessing whether a storm hit, no more arguing with adjusters about coverage, no more clients lost to competitors who got to the property first. 

Get ahead of the next storm and see Flash Weather AI in action today.

By The Coffee Shops™. 

Learn how leveraging predictive weather intelligence can help organizations make more informed decisions before severe weather develops. 

In many fields, whether you’re a roofer waiting for a clear day to get a job finished or a golf course manager wanting to make sure that players will be safe for Saturday’s tournament, weather can be one of the most dangerous and difficult to manage variables.  

And part of what makes weather so hard to account for is that a lot of our traditional weather tools aren’t up to snuff. These tools, like radar, tend to report what is already happening – precipitation that is already falling, lightning strikes that have hit nearby and severe weather alerts after the storm has already formed. And while any knowledge is better than none, these tools often leave decision-makers reacting rather than preparing. 

The result of reactive storm management? Professionals are often left analyzing radar loops and making guesses about what may happen next in an attempt to keep people safe and operations running smoothly. As David Downey wrote in an article for Flash Weather AI:  

The tools hand you raw data about what already happened, and a person on your team, an athletic director, a superintendent, or a project manager ends up playing meteorologist and trying to guess what happens next... A role that wasn’t ever a part of their job description. 

So, how do you make the switch from this reactive management to proactive, prepared strategies? National Weather Service Senior Meteorologist Jason Deese built Flash Weather AI to help professionals do just that!  

At the center of the company's platform is FlashPredict™, a self-learning atmospheric artificial intelligence engine designed to forecast conditions that lead to severe weather before storms form. Building on that technology, their FirstStrike™ program is designed to predict when and where lightning will occur before the first strike, providing organizations with up to an hour of advance warning. The Flash Weather AI team reports a 99.6% verified lightning prediction accuracy on a one-hour horizon with forecasts delivered at one-kilometer resolution and refreshed every two minutes. 

The platform also addresses restart decisions through Flash All Clear, which replaces a fixed 30-minute rule with a signal that updates every two minutes based on predicted lightning activity. And last but not least, Flash AI Hail provides hail forecasts, projected hail paths and arrival times for specific locations. 

Overall, Flash Weather AI’s programs give professionals the time they need to clear fields, move spectators, adjust schedules and make operational decisions in a more orderly manner as well as the information they need to reduce weather-related operational downtime and financial losses. 

Make the switch from reacting to weather to predicting it with Flash Weather AI.

Original image source: Flash Weather AI

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how Flash Weather AI forecasting tools take the guesswork out of agronomy management.  

For professionals in charge of caring for large amounts of turf or grass, like at a golf course or football stadium, it can be hard to manage everything with all the unpredictable variables, such as temperature, precipitation and lightning. But there are tools out there that can help! To learn about forecasting programs that can help in agronomy and grounds management, Karol Weyman spoke to Garrett Bastardi on a recent episode of From the Ground Up.  

About five years ago, Garrett helped found a company called Turf Threat Tracker (T3). He explained, “T3 was specifically designed to help golf course superintendents and turf grass managers work with high-resolution weather data to help them with their agronomic and operational efficiency. And it helped with over 200 golf courses across the country.”  

Then, in 2024, T3 was acquired by Flash Weather AI and Garrett moved into his current position as Flash Weather AI’s chief of innovation and development. This move was highly strategic, as Garrett explained, “T3 was really focused on maintenance and Flash Weather AI had tools more focused on management. So it really made sense to bring our software and systems together to offers a comprehensive management solution.” 

What does that comprehensive solution look like today? Garrett described it:  

We use deep learning and AI to help superintendents keep turf healthy, manage their facilities and workers and stay in budget. The big tagline is that we're site-specific and turf-centric. We're not your standard zip code forecast which you get from the National Weather Service or NOAA, we’re tailored to specific properties and give superintendents information specifically related to agronomics – like evapotranspiration (the loss of water/moisture in the ground through evaporation) data and frost forecasts (a propriety software that calculates when frost burns will occur) – stuff you won’t get from those general zip code forecasts. 

And while this might seem like a lot just for managing grass or turf, it has very real benefits for superintendents. Garrett explained, “We've seen a lot of good results and feedback from our superintendents... It has helped them optimize field conditions and maintenance, as well as better coordinate worker schedules, which all helps make things more efficient and economical.” 

Want to hear more about how Flash Weather AI supports turf-focused intelligence to agronomy and grounds management? Listen to the whole episode or Watch the recording!  

By Emma Peterson. 

For everyone from the Kansas City Chiefs to PGA golf tournaments, Flash Weather AI is providing weather reporting on the next level. 

Recently, Jameson Allen, a business development representative at Flash Weather AI, stopped by The Coffee Shops™ to talk about how their weather forecasting technology is revolutionizing the way people work outside.  

The story of Flash Weather AI goes back to 2015, when a guy named Jason Deese was at his daughter’s softball game and uncertainty around the weather forecast led to concern for player safety. Fast-forward to 2020 and Jason founded Flash Weather AI based on a lightning-predicting algorithm. Jameson explained:  

Our CEO, Jason, is the inventor of lightning prediction in this form. What is that form? Typically, you have to have some kind of ground sensor on site that you buy and pay for and upkeep for lightning detection. We've eliminated that part of the equation. We use an enormous amount of data, including historic trends and current observations, to rebuild our model every two minutes. So you can see what the lightning prediction looks like over the next hour, anywhere in the Lower 48. 

The result is a highly accurate weather tool that doesn’t predict what might happen but turns weather prediction that into a tool you can actually use. Jameson elaborated, “We use AI to make our predictions fast, accurate and helpful to somebody on the ground making a decision. Because that’s really what our goal is: To provide truly hyperlocal weather data that helps people make decisions about their outdoor operations, whether it be a golf course, a football stadium or a construction site.” 

And the best part? It’s working. All across different markets that are sensitive to weather, people are using Flash Weather AI to make their operations safer and more efficient.  

By Jenny Yu. 

Flash Weather AI combines public and patented data sources to deliver address-specific forecasting and safety alerts. 

As severe weather events continue to impact outdoor operations across the country, contractors and facility managers are increasingly turning to forecasting technology to improve safety and efficiency. In this episode of From the Ground Up™, Jameson Allen of Flash Weather AI shared how the company is using advanced weather intelligence to help organizations make faster, more informed decisions. 

Jameson explained that Flash Weather AI combines public weather inputs from sources such as the National Weather Service and NOAA with proprietary and private data feeds to deliver highly localized forecasts. “If there's a radar out there, it's feeding our system,” Jameson said. “With all this data, we're actually able to tell you specifically how each of your jobsites has a different forecast, a different timeline and different factors for safety and efficiency.” 

The platform is designed to simplify weather monitoring for users who may not have technical forecasting expertise. Jameson described the company’s browser-based Weather Command Center as a centralized dashboard that allows users to monitor multiple sites simultaneously. “We're not just going to provide the best data,” he said. “We're actually going to make it useful and understandable so that you're just making decisions instead of searching for and interpreting weather data.” 

In addition to desktop monitoring, Flash Weather AI offers a mobile app that delivers automated lightning alerts to users in the field. Contractors receive notifications warning them when dangerous weather is approaching and when conditions are safe to resume work, not reliant on a 30-minute rule. The company also offers portable and permanent siren and strobe systems tied directly into those alerts for large construction sites, sports venues, and golf courses. 

Furthermore, Flash Weather AI has developed an array of specialized forecasting tools such as an exclusive 1-hour hail swath prediction, a concrete pourability index, and a golf playability index. The company is also launching a tornado prediction model later this summer. 

“One of our favorite things to do is when someone calls up and they're like, ‘Wait a minute, so if you can do all of that, could you do this?’” Jameson said. “If the data exists, we probably have it, and we can probably build the algorithm. So, bring the ideas!” 

Read the first article in this series, Listen to the podcast or Watch the webinar to learn more about how Flash Weather AI is helping contractors and outdoor industries improve safety, planning and operational efficiency.