Understory
Understory claims its weather equipment is an affordable, on-the-ground complement to radar and satellite data.
The only machine shop in downtown Madison is tucked beneath a sushi restaurant two blocks west of Capitol Square. In this unassuming locale, tech start-up Understory simulates severe hail and rainstorm events against its ground-based sensors in an effort to better understand and predict the weather.
According to its founder and CEO, Alex Kubicek, Understory is the only weather network and analytics company in the world to deploy weather-sensing technology without a six-figure price tag.
“What we created Understory to do is to build a cost-effective network that tells us what’s happening on the ground where people and businesses actually are, and allow them to make better decisions [by] having additional knowledge around the weather,” Kubicek tells Isthmus.
The company, which employs 15 people in Madison, grew out of Kubicek’s graduate work at UW-Madison on cloud microphysics — specifically how fluid dynamics interact with particles to cause thunderstorms to grow and shrink. Kubicek says his research earned accolades from the university, but that without ground data to verify his findings, it held few real-world applications.
“That’s why I created Understory to solve that data gap in the weather,” Kubicek says.
Currently, most weather forecasting relies on radar and satellites that, Kubicek notes, “do an okay job telling us if we need an umbrella or not.” He says the standard ground-based sensor is prone to failure due to cheap construction and too many moving parts. Other companies have attempted to modernize their equipment by shoving the “Internet into a 50-year-old sensor,” Kubicek says.
In July, the Madison-based company went one step closer to achieving next-generation sensors when it received its second patent. By building sensors with parts that are already being manufactured by other companies, Understory has significantly lowered its manufacturing costs without compromising on resiliency. (Sensors can last up to 10 years without maintenance).
The company’s largest weather network is currently in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, with 150 sensors. It operates by extracting hyper-localized data from each sensor while interpolating information about temperature, precipitation, and wind speeds between sensors. The technology’s up-to-the-minute forecasting makes it useful for the insurance and agriculture industries that depend on accurate weather predictions.
“Some of the things we’re looking to tackle in the U.S. is our ability to understand how badly cities are damaged after a storm comes through so that we can help insurance companies get people back on their feet faster,” Kubicek said.
Stann Rose, chief advocacy officer of California-based Bamboo Insurance, says Understory’s weather data has resolved what had previously been a guessing game in the insurance world: how to accurately price homeowner premiums. He says it’s been a boon for areas prone to hailstorms.
“Unfortunately, when these events happen there are folks that get involved that may be looking to make money in different ways, and the Understory information allows the insurance company, and the customer, to better understand what really happened to their home,” Rose says.
Understory has also partnered with Monsanto, the controversial biotechnology corporation. Currently, only farmers contracted under the agricultural seed provider can utilize Understory’s weather data to make decisions about when to irrigate and when to spray pesticides. The information comes free as part of the growers’ agreements with Monsanto.
“We haven’t ruled out selling the technology directly to farmers, because I think even small farmers could benefit immensely from our technology, and that’s something we’re looking into,” Kubicek says.
Kubicek says that the technology will become increasingly important as weather patterns become more erratic and violent because of climate change.
“In the U.S., we haven’t had as much large-climate impacts as the rest of the world has, so we’ve been lucky in that regard,” Kubicek says. Therefore, he adds, “We don’t have the appreciation or the drive to do something about it.”
Kubicek is driven to grow his six-year-old company. By the end of next year, he plans to increase the number of sensors on the ground in the U.S. from 500 to 5,000. He is also looking to expand to markets outside of the Americas. “We’re seeing a lot of interest pretty much anywhere that weather happens.”
