We usually associate meteorologists with the weather forecast on the local news. But there are six AT&T meteorologists on staff to help prepare for and keep the network running smoothly during weather events.
“Our charter is to leverage all available weather data and tools, along with our expertise, to generate the most state-of-the-art weather intelligence available,” said John Sisak, AT&T chief meteorologist, in written answers to questions about his work at AT&T.
“This positions AT&T ‘ahead of the storm,’ anticipating potential impact to the network, its people and operations and mitigating those impacts wherever possible. This ensures the network and experience that our customers have come to expect is there for them rain or shine.”
The AT&T Weather Operations Center (AWOC) has developed in-house proprietary modeling of hurricanes, wind, flooding and other weather-related events with the goal of more accurately gauging the expected impact to the company’s network and operations. Machine learning helps to strenghen these models, Sisak said.
Because AT&T has a global network, there is something to study almost every day.
The AWOC works closely with a range of AT&T business units, including Network Resiliency, Network & Field Operations, retail, business continuity and others. During large-scale major weather events such as hurricanes, AWOC’s focus is on Network Operations, Network Disaster Recovery and the FirstNet Response Operations Group.
Some of AWOC’s efforts look ahead two months or more. The group issues longer-term outlooks in advance of hurricane season and El Nino/La Nina. These forecasts impact long-term resource planning and staffing.
As AT&T gets set for a solar eclipse-watching event at its Dallas headquarters on April 8, Sisak said the view from that part of the country should be among the best.
“I’d give the nudge to Texas and Arkansas over Missouri, the Midwest and the Northeast due to the spring weather patterns that typically affect those areas,” he said. “It really boils down to areas that will be dry and as cloud-free as possible.
“If there were to be some clouds present, high clouds would probably be the most desirable if you had to choose since at least some of the eclipse could probably be viewed through them.”
