Melbourne, 10th November 2015 – Football Federation Australia (FFA) has announced a partnership with UBIMET, an internationally recognised leader in severe weather warning technology, to help with preparations and communication around matches threatened by adverse weather.

The partnership covers all Hyundai A-League, Westfield W-League and Foxtel National Youth League matches with UBIMET providing live weather information to the FFA, which places a priority on ensuring the comfort and safety of players and spectators. UBIMET’s Weather Cockpit system, which provides site-specific weather information, will be used to deliver accurate weather forecasts for all 40 venues used across the Hyundai A-League, Westfield W-League and Foxtel National Youth League.

The system was trialled by FFA towards the end of the Hyundai A-League 2014/2015 season and will compliment the current FFA Heat Policy, which already offers better protections than the official FIFA Policy. “The Weather Cockpit allows us to measure the weather in accordance with our own weather parameters in the FFA Heat Policy, based on Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT),“ said Head of Hyundai A-League, Damien de Bohun. “Should these parameters be breached or exceeded, the Weather Cockpit will notify us. Importantly, if we need further clarification, we also have 24-hour-a-day access to a meteorologist.

“The WBGT takes into account air temperature, humidity, wind and radiation to provide a more accurate indicator of the risk of heat related injuries. FFA‘s partnership with UBIMET means we now receive the WBGT information in conjunction with all other forecast information in real-time and will be available seven days out from any matchwhich will further enhance our management of the FFA Heat Policy,“ de Bohun added. „This will ensure that our management and monitoring of heat will be world best practice”.

”Players and Officials of all Hyundai A-League, Westfield W-League and Foxtel National Youth League teams will benefit from the use of the Weather Cockpit system, with hourly, three-day, and seven-day weather forecasts provided for identified match sites. UBIMET’s proprietary Lightning Detection System and Severe Weather Warnings has been built in to allow FFA to monitor any potential lightning activity for officials to determine how far away a storm is from a stadium to make informed decisions around when to take appropriate precautions.

“FFA needed precise local information and found that weather information they’d previously received was often based on a local weather station up to 15km away, or on four-hourly forecasts which could prove to be dramatically inaccurate by kick-off,” says Paul de Boer, Business Development Manager at UBIMET.

By tailoring the Weather Cockpit to include the WBGT, FFA can make real-time decisions in administering its competitions. We are now looking at rolling this service out to other sporting organisations that also require precise weather information for the safety of competitors and spectators.”