Case Study: Carroll County Public Schools achieves district-wide severe weather protection for 25,000 students with Earth Networks

District-Wide Severe Weather Protection for Carroll County Public Schools

Carroll County Public Schools, a 41-school district serving over 25,000 students just outside Baltimore, faced serious safety challenges from frequent lightning and heat exposure for its 16 outdoor sports programs and 690 coaches. Relying on visual spotting and no standardized weather policy left athletes and staff vulnerable, so the district turned to Earth Networks for professional severe weather monitoring and lightning detection to better protect students and visitors.

Earth Networks deployed its Outdoor Alerting System, district weather stations, and hyperlocal total lightning network, providing automatic horn/strobe warnings within an 8-mile radius plus customized email, text, mobile, and desktop alerts tied to new safety policies. The solution gave administrators Heat Index and Wet Bulb Globe Temperature metrics to guide activity decisions; in 2017 Earth Networks recorded 363,544 lightning strikes (6,860 potentially dangerous near Carroll County) and 91 heat days, and the system now helps protect an average of 25,000 students annually.

Carroll County Public Schools

Dave Dolch

District AD