West Virginia Department of Emergency Management (WVDEM)
Rainfall.net, discontinued as of 3/15/2019
Project Description
Project Overview
Orion designed, developed, and hosted Rainfall.net, a comprehensive real-time environmental monitoring platform supporting the West Virginia Department of Emergency Management's situational awareness and emergency response operations.
The system collected, processed, and displayed data from more than 360 field-deployed monitoring stations across West Virginia, providing continuous measurements of precipitation, wind speed, air temperature, river stage, and relative humidity. The platform delivered timely environmental intelligence to emergency managers, public safety officials, and other stakeholders responsible for monitoring weather conditions and responding to flood and severe weather events.
A key component of the system was its integration with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Charleston, West Virginia (RLX), where upstream observational data supported forecast model validation and ground-truthing, improving forecasters' ability to assess developing weather conditions.
Project Details
Client:
West Virginia Department of Emergency ManagementDate:
2014-03-01Category:
Web designOrion’s Contributions
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Designed and developed the Rainfall.net web platform from the ground up.
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Engineered a scalable infrastructure for collecting, processing, storing, and presenting real-time environmental sensor data.
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Developed responsive web applications optimized for both desktop and mobile users.
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Designed and implemented a comprehensive web-based Configuration Management System (CMS) for managing monitoring stations, users, and system configuration.
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Designed and administered the underlying database architecture supporting high-volume environmental observations.
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Managed real-time data ingestion, quality control, processing, and visualization.
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Supported deployment, maintenance, and lifecycle management of field-installed environmental monitoring equipment such as dataloggers, radio transmitters and sensors.
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Implemented website analytics and system monitoring to support operational performance and continuous improvement.
Project Impact
Rainfall.net provided emergency managers with a reliable, real-time operational picture of hydrologic and meteorological conditions across West Virginia. By combining a statewide sensor network with robust web technologies and automated data processing, Orion delivered a resilient decision-support platform that enhanced emergency preparedness, flood monitoring, and severe weather response.
The platform also served as an important source of observational data for the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Charleston, contributing valuable ground-based measurements that supported forecast verification and hydrologic model calibration.
