hailthat

Hailthat is a fictional open-source software project described here to illustrate a typical wiki entry about weather forecasting tools. It is designed to forecast hail events and deliver alerts to users such as farmers, insurers, and municipal agencies.

Origin and purpose: Conceived to demonstrate how hail forecasting software might operate, hailthat combines observational data with predictive models to estimate hail probability and potential size.

Features: Data integration from Doppler radar, satellite imagery, surface observations, and numerical weather prediction outputs; an ensemble-based probabilistic forecasting model for hail probability and maximum hail size; alerting via API, web dashboard, and mobile notifications; extensible through a plugin architecture.

Architecture and workflow: Data ingestion, preprocessing, feature extraction, model scoring, alert generation, and delivery. Licenses and repository: released under an open-source license on a platform like GitHub, with community governance by volunteers and a typical release cadence.

Impact and limitations: Used in simulations and educational contexts; in real-world deployment, forecast skill depends on data quality and model validation. The system emphasizes responsible alerting to minimize false positives and alert fatigue.

See also: Weather forecasting, hail, meteorology, risk management, disaster preparedness.