How Different Types of Weather Affect Your Construction Project

In my previous post I wrote about the impact of weather on construction, focusing particularly on the ‘seasonal’ and ‘unseasonal’ effects. In this post I will discuss the different types of weather that can negatively impact on a project, and outline the risks associated with each one. To keep things simple, I have split the weather into five categories: Hot and dry, cold, wet, stormy, and windy.

HOT AND DRY

Hot and dry weather can cause major damage to a building project, impacting on almost all aspects of the site. Water evaporating too quickly from concrete can cause it to harden prematurely, compromising its integrity. Likewise, the heat can cause mortar to set too fast, lessening its bond to the bricks. Furthermore certain materials will have a significant coefficient of thermal expansion and so will expand and move more in the heat. This is something that needs to be accounted for when working in a hot climate. Lastly, worker efficiency decreases in hot weather. The level of productivity goes down as the workers become fatigued and dehydrated.

COLD

Cold conditions will have the opposite effect to hot and dry weather but can be just as problematic to onsite operations. Ice crystals will slow the curing of concrete (which can affect its strength) and can cause spalling and ruin the finish. Equally if the foundations are laid above the frost line then the cycles of freezing and thawing can cause large scale movements (heaving)

STORMY

Thunderstorms are particularly dangerous to workers on a site. They can occur very suddenly and without warning. Construction sites often have cranes which tower above other structures and so attract lightning. What’s more there can be a lot of conductive materials on building sites (such as steel) as well as materials prone to shattering (such as glass and wood). For these reasons work should not be carried out if a storm is probable.

WINDY

Gale or storm force winds can have a very destructive effect on building sites. Tall flat walls and roofs (particularly shingle and single-ply) are most prone to wind damage as they receive the full force of it. Winds can also increase moisture infiltration into the building. If there is a strong but dry wind then it will facilitate the evaporation of moisture and so reduce the setting time for concrete and mortar, making them less resilient.

SOLUTION

From the above it is clear that adverse weather conditions can generate significant costs to the construction industry. Thousands of pounds can be lost in a single day due to unforeseen weather events. However, it is possible to protect your site from weather-related damage by subscribing to our site-specific forecasts. We will anticipate any weather events which could be problematic to your operation with our weather alerts system delivered to your phone via SMS. For more information on our building and construction weather-service visit: http://www.myweather2.com/business/weather-decisions/construction.aspx

As anybody in the business will know, construction is heavily affected by the weather. Strict health and safety regulations have to be met on building sites and if weather conditions reach a critical level then operations necessarily cease. “weather can affect many aspects of a construction project, from site work to worker discomfort” explains industry expert J. Crissinger. Indeed, there are many different weather events that could impact on a construction project, including hot and dry weather, cold weather, heavy downpours, high winds and thunderstorms. I will be examining the effects of each of these in more detail in the next instalment of the Weather2 blog.

However, in this article I will be discussing how weather, more broadly speaking, affects the construction industry and how you can mitigate its impact. A study published in Real Estate Economics identifies two distinct ways in which weather impacts on projects. One is the ‘seasonal effect’, with activity generally slowing down during the colder months. Contractors attempt to make allowances for this when they plan a project, although the severity and duration of the bad weather is impossible to predict. This is because long range forecasting (longer than a several days in advance) is notoriously inaccurate, a phenomenon explained by the chaos theory.

The second influence is the ‘unseasonable effect’, which is even harder to anticipate and make allowances for. Unseasonably cold weather can result in downtime during a contract period, which is bad news for contractors and developers. During this period of inactivity the project is losing money and wasting resources. Even worse, a delay to the completion of the project threatens to throw the firm’s reputation into jeopardy. According to Coulson and Richard: “…Housing starts and completions have important dynamic components in their regeneration processes. Thus any shock (like a weather shock) will have on this account, substantial, long-lasting effects.”

However, the good news is that in some circumstances a spell of unseasonable weather can have positive effects on the project. Coulson says “…warm weather (say) in cold months in cold regions, does have a significant favourable impact on housing starts.” The key, of course, is to anticipate the temperate weather early enough to fully utilize it. This is why a forecasting service specifically designed to meet the needs of the building and construction industry is such a key tool for anybody tasked with project managing and planning for periods of downtime. Here is a link for more information on this service: http://www.myweather2.com/business/weather-decisions/construction.aspx

Remember, weather cannot be controlled. However, it can be prepared for and made the most of. Crissinger concludes “Proper preparation, adjustment, and reaction to local weather will influence the success of a construction project and the completed building.”

FurtherReading:

Crissinger, Joseph L, ‘Design and Construction VS. Weather’, 2005

Coulson and Richard, the dynamic Impact of Unseasonable Weather on Construction Activity, Real estate Economics, ’96.

Most places have strong winds at some time or other and sometimes these can be exceptional causing considerable damage and threatening lives. Also, they rarely come on their own but are often accompanied by heavy rain or snow to make things worse. At sea the wind can drive mountainous waves which are awesome if observed from safety but terrifying if you are caught up in them. So what is it that drives the wind? I’ll start with the simple explanation.

The simplest way to think about this is to imagine a ball rolling down a hill. The steeper the downward slope, the quicker the ball will roll. In the case of winds the slope is not the ground but the difference between a high pressure area and a low pressure area. The bigger the difference between the high and low over a given distance, the faster the wind will flow. Of course there are additional factors to consider but that’s the basics.

From that description you might expect the wind to flow directly from the high to the low areas, but there are other complicating factors involved. The earth is spinning underneath the wind, the highs and lows themselves are moving, there is greater friction near the surface than at higher levels and air accelerates when moving out of a high into a low. These all come together to make the wind blow more or less in the direction of the valley, as opposed to from high to low – although there is a significant component towards the low and out of the high.

We would have to get a lot more technical to explain the balances of these different forces to show how they all combine to give us the wind direction, but the actual speed is proportional to the steepness of the gradient between the high and the low. In 1857 a Dutch Meteorologist confirmed a prior observation which can be expressed as follows: “In the Northern Hemisphere, if a person stands with his back to the wind, the low pressure area will be on his left” The opposite is true in the Southern Hemisphere.

Of course the next question is why are there high and low pressures to begin with? In short the answer is that temperature differences between air masses have a significant impact on just how much air is flowing into and out of an area and the density of that air, and these differences create differentials in pressure. This leads on naturally to a long succession of other questions all of which have answers far more detailed than is appropriate for a Blog.

However, as a taster, the next obvious question is: What creates the temperature differences? Well, think about the Sun and radiation hitting the Earth’s surface at different angles and intensities due to the Earth/Sun position at varying times of year and the tilt of the Axis. Also think about the fact that depending on what’s covering the Earth’s surface – Ice, Snow,Forest, water etc – the amount of energy absorbed from the sun will vary. These questions can’t stop there though as then we need to consider the orbit of Earth around the Sun and the fact that it is not circular but elliptical and also how the oceans’ currents transfer heat around the planet… However, that’s enough here though as we are digressing too far away from the original question.

Few businesses actually realise how instrumental the weather is in shaping consumer spending habits. The typically unreliable British weather is the second largest influence on the public’s spending patterns after the state of the economy, according to the British Retail Consortium. This relationship is a complex web of interlinked variables which large retailers have only recently started to analyse and exploit to their advantage.

Supermarkets such as Tesco use sophisticated software to plot sales information for individual products against past weather data for each day of the year, spanning back several years. By cross-referencing these two data sets they can identify weather-determined patterns and trends in customer spending. For example, they know with certainty that a 4°C rise over a certain temperature will trigger a 42% increase in burger sales, whilst a particularly cold Monday will bring about a greater demand for green vegetables. To be able to predict with such accuracy one’s stock requirements for the future is the holy grail of retailing. Tesco states that their use of past weather data for managing stock has saved them £6 million per year.

Whilst Tesco is one of the retail giants, the same principles will apply to businesses of all sizes. Streamlining your operation so that the supply of your goods perfectly meets the demands of the market will result in the maximisation of profits. By using Weather2’s Business Intelligence Service (which includes Hindcast and Probability data) you can data-mine this valuable reserve of information to drastically increase the turnover for your business. With weather-influenced sales constituting 4.5% of total sales in the UK* failing to understand and anticipate demand “could be the difference between returning a profit and making a loss” explains one industry insider. With even the most subtle meteorological changes having a profound effect on the collective psyche of the consumer, that age-old adage applies to your business: “failing to prepare is preparing to fail”.

*Source: Ian michaelwaite, Netweather.tv, 2011

 For more information on our range of business services: http://www.myweather2.com/business/

The North American ski season has been well underway for almost a month now and indeed it has hosted multiple World Cup ski events in Colorado and Alberta, with some of those events having been moved from Europe due to the snow drought of November. If you saw those events it was clear that Alberta has had big dumps of snow but Colorado just had enough coverage to host the events.

The recent weather has not done much to change that general situation and so right across Canada now there is excellent deep snow skiing on offer. Whistler is fully open with good skiing at all elevations and fresh snow in the forecast. In the USA the skiing in Colorado is still decent, but nothing exceptional by their high standards. Utah has good early season skiing in Snowbird and Park City. Over on the East the weather has been less extreme than the season starting conditions that dumped snow on the New England resorts a few weeks ago, and so this week they have mostly groomed packed snow, with pleasant sunshine skiing on offer.

The European ski season is well and truly under-way now and the Alps have snow cover at all elevations. It has been a dramatic turnaround following the almost complete lack of any snowfall through November. Now resorts are working hard to secure and prepare pistes and more are opening for the season every day. Within the next week, more or less all resorts across Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland will open.

Snow depths do still have some way to go to reach the averages we typically have at this time of year but the forecast suggests this will be achieved. In recent days the snowfall has affected mostly the northern Alps so some parts of Italy have not caught as much as they would like. However in these locations snow cannons are working hard and this allows pistes to open, with any fresh snow on top a bonus.

Elsewhere in Europe there is also positive news to report. Norway and Sweden are getting fresh snow and resorts are starting to open, Scotland is being blasted with storm-force winds and snow so lifts will open in the Highlands once the weather eases. In Germany and in Eastern Europe snow is falling and resorts are confident of opening on schedule, most opening by mid December. Andorra and Spain have snow but need more, though some uplift is already available.

Boom, the new ski season in North America is underway and like last winter they are once again reporting more snow than we have in Europe. Certainly the bumper snowstorm that swept the eastern seaboard at the start of the month means the first powder dump of the season award goes to the resorts of New England where Killington is now open, albeit with only a few trails offered. Summit County in Colorado is a traditional early opener and Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain and Keystone are all offering uplift already.

Elsewhere there is already adequate snow cover to ski but of course North American lift operators, ever fearful of litigation, are more cautious than European centres when it comes to allowing a trail to be declared open and so the majority of opening dates remain at least two weeks away at the largest resorts. In Canada excitement and snow depths are building but no uplift is yet on offer.

Bang, the European ski season is underway! Unfortunately it is not a very loud bang as winter has not yet turned up in the Alps. Despite that slight hitch skiers are already getting in their first turns of the new season. The ski season traditionally starts where it left off, in the highest resorts of the Alps, and currently Hintertux in Austria, Tignes in France, the Presena Glacier above Passo Tonale in Italy and Zermatt in Switzerland are offering probably the best of what is currently available.

Depending on the weather and the day of the week Austria has up to 6 glacier resorts open now for skiers, Switzerland, Italy and France have two or three each. All eyes are on the forecast then and whilst its not even mid November the resorts and lift operators will already be keen to at least see temperatures low enough to allow snowmaking to begin in critical areas. Beyond the Alps the other European resorts have yet to get going with very little or no snow to report on.

The snow reporting season for Weather2Ski pushes off at the end of October for another 6 month roller coaster ride through the European and North American winters. Last season there were contrasting conditions between the Alps, where the snowfalls were well below average, and the Rockies, where deep snow conditions were on offer all winter.

Weather2 have been producing European and North American snow reports for 10 years now. This season our report sources reach us via email, blogs, tweets, cams and the websites of all the lift operators and tourist offices. Skype and Facebook are other great reporting tools we rely on. And of course we also consider the inputs of Weather2’s very own modelled snowfall predictions versus the actuals we know. Ironically, the evolution of snow reporting (from having no easy sources – pre Web – to now having an abundance) has not made the job easier… or I should say it has not made it easier if the intention is to provide a reliable service – something we are committed to doing.

Even with a fully optimised Web based reporting system it is still just hard graft that collates and confirms sources and reports. Official measuring stations are required to establish actual snowfall but the convention of ski reporting, subject to frequency of update, is to provide a consolidated snow depth on lower and upper slopes. This figure and the location it is measured is usually randomly determined by the resort and it therefore needs to be handled with great care by our reporters, especially so if the resort’s marketing dept have in any way interfered with it!

In my previous blog post I wrote about how various weather conditions could affect one’s health. However, as many of the symptoms I listed seemed to be adverse, I have decided to follow up with a more cheerful article, about how to have fun outdoors, in any type of weather. Below is a list of 5 great reasons to brave the elements.

1. SNOW – If it’s snowing, take up a snowsport! This can include Skiing, snowboarding, sleighing, or snowmobiling. Broadly speaking the snowsport season extends from November to April (in the Northern Hemisphere) Giving you six months to make the most of the world’s best snow. Then, if you are truly snow-mad, just nip over to New Zealand or South America and do it all over again. Here is a great website detailing the best ski and snowboarding resorts in the world: http://www.thebestskiresorts.info/

2. ICE – Reputedly invented in Finland 4000 years ago, Ice-skating has since been enjoyed by the full spectrum of society, from peasants to kings – Napoleon III was allegedly proficient at it. Ice skating can take many different forms including figure skating, ice hockey, and tour skating. A thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining experience, despite the risk of incurring a bruise or two. Here is a guide to rinks and clubs in the UK area: http://www.iceskating.org.uk/rinksclubs

3. WIND – Many sports that revolve around harnessing the power of the wind in order to generate motion. There are a huge amount of wind sports to choose from, including surfing, windsurfing, sailing, hang gliding, kite jumping and sail biking. However, if adrenaline sports are not your cup of tea, then you can still enjoy a spot of kite flying!

4. RAIN – Admittedly it took me a while to think of an activity which is enhanced by rain, but I got there in the end… and it’s fishing! Apparently rain oxygenates the lake or river as well as washing grubs and insects into it, both of which contribute to an increase in the amount of fish. Read more about fishing in the rain here: http://fishkeep.net/articles/general-fishing/202-fishing-in-the-rain

5. SUN – When the sun comes out it’s time to pursue any one of a number of outdoor activities. Whether you’re competing in your favourite sport such as cricket, golf, football, or tennis, or indulging in a more relaxing pastime such as gardening, bird-watching, or sunbathing, each and every one of us loves a warm sunny day.

And there you have it! Proof that you have fun outdoors, whatever the weather.