Understory secured a patent for sensor technology used as part of its private network to collect real-time weather data on the ground in great detail.

Alex Kubicek, CEO of the Wisconsin-based weather network and analytics company, told Carrier Management via email that the sensor tech surpasses what can be typically gathered from radar and satellite use.

He asserted that the company’s patented industrial Internet of Things sensor tech spots and delivers more than 50,000 measurements per second to deliver real- time actionable data. As well, its weather station relies on a sonde (a stainless steel ball built to transmit information) that measures forces that act on it such as hail size, angle of impact, momentum and direction. Understory uses the data to better understand the impact on property damage.

That technology, Kubicek said, can detail “the fact that two-inch hail fell at a 50-degree angle from an easterly direction, allowing carriers to know what damage happened on a house-by-house basis without ever stepping foot on a piece of property.”

Radar and satellite use, by contrast, uses hail estimation algorithms to determine hail size, a process that can lead to inaccuracies and limitations about understanding damage to property, Kubicek said.

To market the technology, Understory has been using an on-site claims analysis program that helps carriers understand the damage analytics system and improve their claims management accuracy. More than 20 P/C insurance carriers are going through this process right now in time for spring hail season, he added.

Beyond insurance, Understory said the technology is marketable to research organizations and the agriculture industry.

Understory said it has 500 stations in five major U.S. metropolitan areas, with a planned expansion that will boost its sensor network to 5,000 sensors by the end of 2019.

Source: Understory