Fort Benning, in partnership with US Ignite, has installed a network of advanced heat sensor stations across the installation, enhancing heat safety management for soldiers and their families. The deployment marks a significant step in automating and standardizing heat data collection.
The new sensor stations monitor real-time temperature, humidity, wind, and cloud coverage conditions, generating a Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) metric that offers accurate insights into heat and humidity exposure during training. Previously, heat data was collected manually through unit-level monitoring and hand-written logs. The new system feeds data into a centralized Heat Risk Management platform, creating a dashboard that visualizes trends, issues alerts, and enables proactive decision-making by safety and range officers.
"The Heat Risk Management application standardizes, centralizes, and streamlines heat monitoring to improve environmental risk mitigation strategies and help the installation decrease the number of heat-related incidents. The application has been released and tested twice by the Fort Benning safety officers and endorsed for making heat monitoring accurate, quick, and easy." Dr. Mojdeh Mahdavi, US Ignite Smart Bases program manager.