Vernon Getting 'Real-Time' Weather Pictures

It's October. 

Paranoid about a hurricane? 

A earthquake?

A tornado?

A snowstorm? 

Or are we going to get another reprieve this year? 

Well, if anything comes Vernon's way, the town's Office of Emergency Management will have a much better - and quicker - picture of what the weather system looks like. 

What it really looks like. 

For a month now, the OEM has been watching the weather via the StreamerRT, generally regarded in emergency circles as a comprehensive and user-friendly tool that allows first-responders "to visualize live and forecast weather conditions at local, regional, national and international levels for critical decision-making."

In other words, it paints a pretty complete picture. 

And fast. 

"Seconds count. At the end of the day, it gives us an extra few seconds in terms of warnings and that translates into valuable minutes in terms of response time," said Emergency Management Director Michael Purcaro. 

The system features more than 100 layers of data OEM officials can pull from, fed by three satellites - one on Long Island; one near Albany, NY; and one near Binghampton, NY. It costs about $1,500 a year from the emergency management budget to connect to them, Purcaro said. 

The system can be customized to detect certain weather situations, and when those situations are detected, a detailed alert is sent to OEM officials, Purcaro said. 

For example, it can be set for alerts when wind speeds exceed 40 mph, which Purcaro said is the limit for safe ambulance operation. 

It can be set for lightning strikes and even higher winds to prepare for trees possibility falling, he said. 

"We have all heard about tornadoes recently and we can set it to detect microbursts," he said. 

It can be set to detect impending heavy snow, Purcaro said. 

Once an approaching weather system has been detected an alert is sent out to authorities. "Accurate" and "real-time" alerts can then be sent out to the public, Purcaro said.

A real-time alert system was targeted in the 2014 Disaster Mitigation Plan, formulated as a compilation of conclusions drawn in after-action reports from the last several major storms, Purcaro said. 

He said it performed well during the recent wind storm that hit the town. 

He said the system will be used to better prepare for winter storms when school is in session. 

"Vernon is one of a handful of towns in Connecticut to have this system," Purcaro said. "We are leading the pack in disaster mitigation and preparation, not following."